The Trip (2010 TV series)


The Trip is a 2010 British television sitcom series directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves on a restaurant tour of northern England. The series was edited into a feature film and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010. The full series was first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom in November 2010. Both the TV series and film received very positive reviews.
Three further series followed. The Trip to Italy was broadcast on BBC Two in 2014, The Trip to Spain was filmed in 2016 and broadcast on Sky Atlantic in 2017, and The Trip to Greece was filmed in 2019 and aired on Sky One in 2020. Like the first series, the second, third and fourth were all edited into feature films. Winterbottom, Coogan and Brydon have stated that The Trip to Greece will be the final series for the show.

Origins

Coogan and Brydon's roles as fictionalised versions of themselves are a continuation of their improvised performances in the film A Cock and Bull Story, also directed by Michael Winterbottom. In an interview with The Guardian, Coogan said he and Brydon exaggerated "the aspects of ourselves that help the comedy... I like playing with the fact that it might be me, to give it a bit more edge. So some of the conversations with Rob are funny, but some of them are very uncomfortable. They're sort of genuine arguments. It's a sort of an exaggeration of real life."

Cast

In an effort to impress his gourmet girlfriend, Mischa, actor Steve Coogan accepts a commission from The Observer to go on a restaurant tour of the north of England. When Mischa insists they take a break from their relationship, Steve invites colleague and friend-of-sorts Rob Brydon. On the trip, Coogan has a number of one-night stands, but is miserable professionally and personally, despite being the bigger star; Brydon, with his young family, is more content and laid-back. The two argue and attempt to outdo and humiliate each other with their impersonations of famous figures including Michael Caine and Sean Connery.
In the second series, Rob and Steve are commissioned to do another restaurant tour, this time in Italy from Piedmont to Capri, following in the footsteps of the great Romantic poets in the early 19th century on the Grand Tour.. While on the tour, Rob wins a part in an American Michael Mann film.
In the third series, Rob and Steve are commissioned to do another restaurant tour, this time in Spain.
The fourth series is set in Greece where Rob and Steve conduct a restaurant tour that follows the path of The Odyssey.

Episodes

Overview

Series 1: ''The Trip'' (2010)

Series 2: ''The Trip to Italy'' (2014)

Series 3: ''The Trip to Spain'' (2017)

Series 4: ''The Trip to Greece'' (2020)

Other

The concept was revived for The Big Night In, a 20 April 2020 telethon held during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a skit which had the pair conducting a video call from their homes to discuss making a segment for the telethon.

Reception

The Trip received positive reviews. Andrea Mullaney of The Scotsman said that "on paper, The Trip sounds bloody awful: a cosy, luvvie giant in-joke for Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon", but went on to describe it as "completely brilliant" and "hilarious". Brian Viner of The Independent said: "The Trip never fails to oblige. I love it for its originality and its daring." John Crace of The Guardian described the show as "one of the funniest things on TV." Director Richard Curtis described the series as one of the greatest television programmes of all time at the 2013 British Comedy Awards. It was nominated, in 2011, for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Situation Comedy, and Steve Coogan won the award for Best Male Comedy Performance. It won the Best New Programme award at the 2012 Broadcast Awards in London. In 2018, Rob Brydon was nominated for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance, but lost out to Toby Jones for Detectorists.
The Trip film received positive reviews from American critics. The film holds an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 104 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Amiable, funny and sometimes insightful, The Trip works as both a showcase for the enduring chemistry between stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and an unexpected perusal of men entering mid-life crises." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York five, and Ben Kenigsberg of Time Out Chicago four. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film 90/100. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal gave the film 80/100. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the film a B rating, saying that "there was no reason the film couldn't have been even funnier." John Anderson of Variety said "viewers will barely stop laughing." Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a B+., the film had grossed $1,926,866, of which $77,904 was on its opening weekend in the US.
The second series, The Trip to Italy, also received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of 54 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice wrote that The Trip to Italy "is basically more of the same Trip... Now we know just what to expect from Coogan and Brydon, although as long as you're willing to settle in for the ride, that's not necessarily a bad thing." Scott Foundas of Variety found the series a "warmly enjoyable continuation of their improvised cultural and culinary adventures." William Goss of Film.com wrote: "Plenty enjoyable for fans of the first one, but by the end, it also has the consistency of reheated comfort food." Amber Wilkinson of The Daily Telegraph gave the film version of The Trip to Italy a grade B score, writing that Coogan and Brydon's "improvisation has been honed to the point where the jokes land solidly without losing naturalism and the pair of them are clearly enjoying la dolce vita."
A review article of the series was published in the online quarterly film journal Senses of Cinema in 2015, which reflects upon its relationships to poetry, the work of Walter Benjamin, allegory, tragedy, mourning, Italian neorealism, Romanticism, and The Gravediggers scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet. In 2019, The Trip was ranked 95th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century.

International broadcast

In Australia, the programme was first screened Wednesday nights at 10:00pm on ABC1 starting on 14 December 2011, six months after the feature film edit of The Trip was released.

DVD releases

The first series of The Trip was released on 13 December 2010. The second series was released on 12 May 2014, as well as a boxset featuring all 12 TV episodes, and a boxset of the film versions.