The Trip

Words cannot describe how wonderful this comedy is. Steve Coogan has moved up to genius with his wonderful portrayal of 'himself?'. Sad and bitter he feels the world still doesn't appreciate him for the genius he is. The self depreciation is wonderful as is his partner in these adventures Rob whose everlasting cheerfulness and wish to truly help Steve stop worrying about things and just enjoy the comedy he can give to people. I will never tire of 'Whaddyagot' Pacino and 'Mr Chrissssstian' Hopkins from Rob and Steve's bored look as he delivers these lines week in week out.

Finest comedy moment - almost to a Chaplin level of pathos - Steve Coogan's vain attempts to recreate in a hotel room mirror Robs 'Man in a Box'. True genius. 30 minutes each week of unbelievable terrific comedy snuck away on BBC2 at 10pm. I have rewatched each episode several times on iplayer and will get the DVD when released. This is one to mention up there with the best and please please watch as many episodes whilst you can. Genius - nothing more or less. Congratulations to all concerned.

Utterly horrible, unfunny, uninteresting. To rich egomaniacs eating disgusting food, almost no one can afford and nobody needs. While doing that they are nagging each other being mean and nasty while doing dad jokes and bad impressions. Coogan whines the whole time about how bad his life is or he speaks on the phone with his 20 years younger girlfriend who seems fed up with him - I wonder why? How's that supposed to be funny? They made how many of those? I usually love British shows, many made by the BBC. This is just not watchable, a waste of time. I just finished watching W1A and loved the understated, subtle humour. A great parody of British mannerisms and modern times. The Trip shows a lot of what is wrong with people today without being funny and seemingly unintentionally.

Since my major interests are conversation, food and scenery (And it helps that I was brought up in Yorkshire) then this hit every nail on the head.

I got hold of the DVD with all the extras, and after loving watching the series with its perfect execution of the relationship between the two main characters, then the extras provided a great insight into the amount of improvisation that was going on throughout.

It won't appeal to everyone, particularly those who have some sort of grudge against Coogan and the BBC as a whole (although how you can lump the two together is a mystery to me), but I thought that the willingness of Coogan and Brydon to caricature themselves as perceived by the media and seriously take the mick out of each other was not only brave, but quite touching.

The "To bed Gentleman, for we rise at daybreak!" scene was a highlight, as was the "Michael Caine-off" competition, for want of a better description.

But there is also pathos, as the Coogan and Brydon characters are at very different points in their respective relationships, and that's what holds the whole thing together.

Well, basically, it's brilliant.

Cheers, Will

What we've really got is two series. One is the comedy of "Steve Coogan" and "Rob Brydon" exchanging barbs and doing impressions and making witty observations. These parts generally occur over the six meals they share, and I really enjoyed them. Some of their banter is hilarious... I had already seen the Michael Caine routine several times on YouTube and yet I still laughed at it. The other film involves the contrast between these people/characters: Steve, trying to bolster his acting career and struggling with a relationship that's starting to crack, and Rob the less successful but content family man. And I really enjoyed this part as well. Rob's calls home to his wife are amusing but also quite touching. Steve's existential midlife crisis is engaging and insightful as well. The two halves of the film do bleed into each other a bit, but I genuinely appreciated the separation between them. Winterbottom knows that it's okay to just let these two guys play off each other with their natural comedic chemistry and not worry about whether or not it's pushing the "plot" forward. The photography is mostly functional, concentrating on the personalities, but quite lovely when capturing all that gorgeous English countryside. While the film isn't as post-modern as the previous collaborations (24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE and TRISTRAM SHANDY, both of which seem to get minor callbacks in the first episode, though it may be merely coincidence) it still maintains an unconventionality.

This show makes me cry whenever i revisit it, i also find it incredibly funny, good show.