The Trip

- Season 1

(2010)

Steve has been asked to write reviews of six restaurants for a Sunday supplement and plans to use it as a holiday with his girl-friend Mischa. However she dumps him and returns to America so he asks his friend Rob to come with him instead. It becomes clear that Mischa is the real food expert and Steve needs Rob's expert advise. However,at the Inn at Whitewell,they spend their dinner-time trying to outdo each other with film star impressions,though at least a last minute cancellation means they do not have to share a double bed as Steve had feared.

Steve wakes from his dream that he is in Hollywood with Ben Stiller to find he is in bed with the Polish receptionist before he and Rob move on to L'Enclume at Cartmel,singing Kate Bush's song 'Wuthering Heights'. On arrival they sample the starter menu,read of Warren Beatty's sexual exploits in the paper and have another duel of impressions,ranging from Ray Winstone to Liam Neeson,over dinner. Afterwards Rob phones his wife for a loving chat whilst Steve rings Mischa in Las Vegas,where she is writing about prostitutes,and has a gloomy conversation with his American ...

Arriving in the lake District Rob and Steve visit Greta Hall,formerly occupied by Coleridge - with whom Steve identifies - and the Wordsworths' home,Dove Cottage. Steve is annoyed as it's about to close and they only get in as the lady on the door is a fan of Rob's. Over dinner at the Holbeck Ghyll hotel there is the inevitable round of impressions - from Alan Bennett to Ken Bruce. No wonder Rob astutely notes that they "have the same conversation in every restaurant."

After Steve has had another nightmare he and Rob move on to Hipping Hall,self-indulgence as ever ruling on the impersonation-filled drive . At their destination they meet two young women and Steve is convinced he has met one of them,Yolanda, before. He takes her for a drive where nothing happens but he does get a call to say he has won a part in American show 'Pathological',involving a seven year contract.

The duo visit the Malham limestone pavement,where Rob quotes 'Tintern Abbey' and Steve ends up rock climbing with a boring geologist.At the Yorke Arms in the Nidderdale Valley they discuss Abba's 'The Winner Takes It All',Welsh actors and film roles they took which ended up in the cutting room. When Steve admits to writer's block on his reviews Rob suggests he take the women they have met on the trip as his inspiration,after which Steve rings his son.

Following a visit to Bolton abbey - an excuse for Rob to quote Wordsworth =- and an outdoor breakfast at the Angel at Hetton,the guys drop in on Steve's parents,who seem to be far bigger fans of Rob than of their son. After an operatic contest in the car they return home - Rob to his welcoming family,Steve to his lonely flat. He does,however,phone his agent to turn down the American offer.