Whine and cheese

The main attraction of Michael Winter-bottom’s six-part food trip series, The Trip, is not the food. Sure, the food looks good enough to eat, but the two protagonists of this series — Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon — are not foodies. They’re actors. In fact, they’re playing exaggerated versions of themselves in this pseudo-reality series for BBC that has a laugh at the expense of all the Mario Batali/Gwyneth Paltrow/Anthony Bourdain/Jamie Oliver food trip shows that have come out of the gate in recent years.

Food tripping makes for either very good or very dull TV. The people involved often end up getting into squabbles over this and that; some crisis or another is inflated to add “drama” to the show. But here, it’s really about these two actors sitting face to face over a series of dinner tables, dining spots that Coogan is ostensibly checking out to write a piece for the UK Observer. He drags along the easygoing Brydon (the two starred together in Winterbottom’s A Cock and Bull Story) and they get to know each other over the course of six half-hour episodes.

There is food served on the show, naturally. But it’s only the appetizer; the real entrée comes with the repartee, and a series of devastatingly funny impressions that the two actors uncork over meals — whether it’s Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins or Dueling Michael Caines. In the first episode the two face off over lunch, each trying to trump the other’s version of “how Michael Caine actually talks.” What follows is five minutes of pure improv that will leave fans of British humor pissing in their pants from laughter.

Coogan, perhaps a little jealous of Brydon’s secure family life, or moping because his girlfriend Misha has not come along on the trip, tells Brydon at one point, “I think anyone over 40 who does impressions to amuse himself needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.”

Brydon dryly defends himself: “Broadsheet journalists have described my impressions as ‘stunningly accurate.’”

Road worriers: The two food trippers reflect on fame, success, happiness and friendship.

Yes, British actors are very touchy about their technique, and it’s actually an acting class in itself to watch these two just have a lark over scallops and sea bass. At first, they’re deadly serious about it — a real pissing contest between two actors — but the impressions begin to devolve into raucous over-emoting until you’re sure they’ll get thrown out of the restaurant or locked up.

Brydon (who vaguely resembles a craggier version of Hugh Grant), does an amusing Al Pacino, and the two have a great time over glasses of wine in a later episode, lobbing versions of the line “I’d like a dry martini… shaken, not stirred” back and forth. Will the real Sean Connery please stand up?

One thing the Brits do very well is parody. With Sky TV’s recent An Idiot Abroad, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant unleashed a hapless homebody, Carl Pilkington, upon the world’s seven wonders. What resulted was almost a parody of the Michael Palin-style travelogue, with our anti-hero out of step every step of the way. Here, in The Trip, Coogan and Brydon play fictional versions of themselves. Many viewers will have first encountered Coogan in the Winterbottom movie, 24-Hour Party People. There he played music impresario Tony Wilson who discovers Joy Division and Happy Mondays and generally breaks the fourth wall to talk to the camera and remind us that we’re watching a movie. Winterbottom keeps up the postmodern hijinks here, having Coogan and Brydon tell us what they’re doing as they’re doing it (such as the scene where they travel through rural Whitewell to have lunch at an inn; Brydon asks, “Why are you playing this?” as Joy Division’s Atmosphere chugs over the stereo. “I’ve chosen it as the soundtrack for this landscape because it’s not expected; normally it would be heard in an urban, industrial landscape.” Cut to them driving through a rural countryside, with Joy Division’s Atmosphere playing.)

There’s a story arc involving Coogan’s midlife career crisis (maybe it was a mistake to do that Around the World in 80 Days Hollywood bomb?) with Brydon’s stable family life shown in contrast. Coogan keeps having dreams that touch on his fame and insecurities (one has Ben Stiller walking him through an LA mansion, telling the Brit “The Coens, the Wachowskis, Ridley and Tony Scott, all the brothers, they want a piece of The Cooge…” Of course, it’s only a dream). And there are some memorable meals, beautifully photographed, from rustic inn fare to molecular gastronomy. But what these two sparring actors are all about is gobbling up pop cultural references, not foie gras. Few entertainment figures — whether in Britain or the US — escape comment or the ad hoc impression. The dinner conversation runs the gamut from facelifts to riffs on Stephen Hawking. They even imitate each other. There’s a professional rivalry here, or at least a meta version of one, that sustains our interest all the way through to dessert.

What develops is a bromance of sorts, as with any road trip movie, but one sprinkled with subtle reflections on fame, success, happiness and friendship. Does the show ever go beyond Hollywood impressions into deeper philosophical waters? I’ve only seen episodes one and two so far, but I can’t wait to find out what they’ll talk about next.

If you’re expecting a Jamie Oliver food experience, The Trip is not the show for you. Come to think of it, though, Coogan and Brydon probably do a very good Jamie Oliver…