Mary Beard voted top travel companion
41% of RadioTimes.com readers would rather go on holiday with the Cambridge classicist than any other TV traveller
Only two years after she was named pin-up of the year, Mary Beard has scooped another august award: top travel companion.
As we suspected, RadioTimes.com readers are an erudite lot. 41% of you would rather go on holiday with the Cambridge classics professors than any other TV traveller. At one point Mary Beard and Jeremy Clarkson were neck-and-neck, but the classicist's fans rallied, leaving the former Top Gear globetrotter languishing in fifth place.
Despite taking an early lead, Michael Palin was runner-up but trailed way behind with just 15% of the votes. Sue Perkins pipped Joanna Lumley to third place with 10%.
The most surprising result was Bear Grylls' measly 6%. Then again, it's hard to imagine Grylls ordering a pina colada and letting his hair down after a hard day of surviving (whereas we imagine Beard would have plenty of raucous anecdotes about the Greek goddess Caligula up her sleeve).
Politician-turned-trainspotter Michael Portillo brought up the rear. Perhaps you were worried that his penchant for wearing clashing colours would induce a permanent headache?
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The bad news: Mary Beard is far too busy to be a tour guide. The good news is that she'll be back on the BBC later this month with a programme about Pompeii.
The full list of winners:
Mary Beard 41%
Michael Palin 15%
Sue Perkins 10%
Joanna Lumley 8%
Jeremy Clarkson 7%
Bear Grylls 6%
Karl Pilkington 4%
Levison Wood 4%
Simon Reeve 3%
Michael Portillo 2%
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