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Long Way Down

Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor
  • Posted at 2:35pm
  • 15 November 2007
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 1 comment

There have been many, many times during Long Way Down, the filmed record of Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor's fundraising journey by motorbike from John o'Groats to Cape Town, when I've wanted to pat Boorman on the head and put him in a basket by the fire.

Boorman is adorable, a bit like a rather sweet but untrained puppy. I love his (and McGregor's) stock response to some of the mightiest feats of some of the world’s ancient and glorious civilisations (the pyramids at Giza, for example) – "Wow! Amazing!" But I also love The Thoughts of Charley on Important Stuff and That.

Such as war. Admittedly Boorman had just witnessed the appalling aftermath of tribal conflict in the Sudan and he was struggling with the complexities of such long-established and bloody feuds. Many great minds have trodden that same path, and Charley was up to the challenge. His reaction to people fighting? "How thick is that, I mean, how thick is that?" Bless him, he was surely only a breath away from adding: "Why can't we all just get along?"

But this is why I like Long Way Down. I love its lack of pretence. Now, I'm as surprised as anyone that I should take to my heart a series about two men on motorbikes. If anything sounds deadly, it’s a series about two men on motorbikes. How wearisome, how tiresome. They get dirty, they swear, they "whoop" a lot, they light their farts. They are men so they love this kind of thing.

Yet, if an entirely unscientific straw poll I took recently is any indicator, Long Way Down is enjoyed much more by women viewers than it is by men. "What, you like those two hugging fools?" was the astounded response of one of my male friends to my admittedly rather sheepish admission that I quite looked forward to the show.

Maybe we ladies like it because really Long Way Down is about a friendship. It's not a tedious Top Gear type paean to the joys of camshafts and rollbars, or whatever. I enjoy watching their little spats and their cheery interaction with the grinning kids they meet along the way.

I like the group camaraderie too. Boorman and McGregor's small support team is an integral part of the series, and frequently contribute on-camera comments. This is great – at least there's no pretence that those establishing shots of the two men zooming round dusty African roads just happen to have been taken by a camera that just happened to be by the roadside. There’s a man behind that camera, and we've been introduced.

Long Way Down continues on Sundays at 9:00pm on BBC2.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times.

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  • Posted on 03 December 2007
  • at 1:24pm
  • by regorco

I thought the series was very dissapointing it did no justice to the countries scenery or people in its brief snaps of Africa and concentration on the "Boys" I know there is a demand for celebraty based entertainment but to see unlimited coverage of the stars and crew while africa slipped by was a shame and sorry but who is Mr Boorman

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