ROUGHING IT
Comedians Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan have teamed up for some holidays at the cheaper end of the scale
Bulgarian banana boats? Opera in Latvian? A baked bean museum in Port Talbot? Clearly, the budgets were tight for Channel 4’s new travel show — but that’s the whole idea, insist its comedian hosts…
How did you get roped into doing a show on cheap holidays? How come Joanna Lumley gets all the fun, glamorous stuff and you have to slum it?
KATHERINE RYAN Joanna Lumley is perhaps not the down-to-earth woman of the people that TV’s Katherine Ryan is. I’m not blind to the fact that we’re in a nancial crisis as I’ve had to start ying some of my three children in economy with the nannies. We’re all trying to grab a bargain where we can, so I was delighted when Joe invited me on this adventure because I want tips on how to save money.
JOE WILKINSON I’ve known Katherine for years, and she spends money like it’s going out of fashion. She and her husband once went to Paris for one meal, then came home. And I’m the opposite. I’m sitting here in my Dryrobe and a hat rather than put my fan heater on. [He actually is.] So we thought it was time to rein Katherine in a bit.
How were you with being “reined in a bit”, Katherine? Any diva moments?
KR Compared with Joe Wilkinson, a street fox is a diva. Either he changed into identical clean clothes in every new place… or he wore the same clothes the entire time. And after going on these holidays with Joe, I realised I’d been stitched up and I’d absolutely love to swap with Joanna Lumley. The experience was torture, and I actually lost money on sound baths to recover from the stress afterwards.
JW She snuck o to a fancy hotel for a few days during lming!
KR I don’t remember sneaking away, but that’s probably because I was in the middle of a breakdown. It does sound like something I’d do. I also took a helicopter to meet Joe before we set o somewhere because I was short on time, but I lied about it and said I’d taken a taxi.
Did you two fight? Or fall in love?
JW I de nitely felt myself falling for Katherine, but that might just have been Norwich. We went there because we were told it’s the most romantic town in the UK – but it’s Norwich itself that says that, so it’s a bit like me saying I’m the most romantic person in Britain. Either way, I love Katherine, but not as much as I loved meeting 13 owls. We went to an owl sanctuary there and we chucked the ladies a couple of extra quid so I got to touch their owls. That’s not a euphemism, by the way, and it’s possibly bordering on illegal, but for £25 they gave me every single one of their owls. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life.
KR I loved Norfolk overall, but the owl sanctuary stood out for me as a real low point. I absolutely hate being hot, and we visited a garden centre on a really sunny day. I felt truly let down and enraged by the heat, so it was difficult to stand in the direct sunlight, tolerating so many damn owls.
You must have hated your beach break in Bulgaria then?
JW Katherine was pregnant at the time, and she wielded that pregnancy. She was like, “Oh, that looks a bit hard work. Maybe Joe could do it?” So I had to ride the banana boat and do the rock climbing and all.
KR I would have much preferred parasailing for ten minutes to sacri
cing three years of sleep, thank you, Joe. I’ve been solidly pregnant for what feels like an eternity, and Joe should be thankful for that because it’s the entire reason I agreed to start saving cash. I’ve got so many dependants and that’s why I had to go to Bulgaria with him on a budget airline – the worst thing. A single, child-free woman could have walked away.
Which destination would you most like to revisit?
KR I absolutely loved Latvia and I’m excited to go again. The accommodation was stunning, the people were nice, the opera was wonderful, even though I couldn’t understand Latvian – and they drink a sort of alcoholic version of cough syrup all the time. JW I’d revisit south Wales. There was a lovely man on a housing estate in Port Talbot, and he’s turned his house into a museum of baked beans. He’s thrown everything into it. He dresses up, he’s covered in baked bean tattoos, there are baked bean stains on the carpet (although I don’t know if they were deliberate). But going to Wales and Norfolk and Northern Ireland for this series, I realised what beautiful places we’ve got on our doorstep. I’d go back to any of them – though I’m not sure we’ll return to the baked bean museum…
‘I was stitched up. I want to swap with Joanna Lumley’
KATHERINE R YAN