BBC Two
We spent last week’s The Trip to Italy visiting the home and stamping ground of Percy Bysshe Shelley and now we visit the beach in Viareggio in Tuscany where his stinking two-week old corpse was washed ashore. Ah Tuscany, with your stunning piazzas, Roman ruins and Renaissance frescoes. Might we try some of your overpriced barely edible fascist seafood? Look! There’s Tony Blair and Wendi Dung stalking the upscale cafes for another billionaire to fleece. Those guys.
In a development that may make you think that this is not strictly on the level Rob Brydon wakes up having fucked hot Lucy from the boat. Being less of a seasoned adulterer than Coogan he is wracked with guilt and throws himself into culture to forget the sordid night of sex with a beautiful woman he’ll totally regret on his deathbed. He swings by Byron’s gaffe in Pisa before heading to restaurant Trattoria Albana for more fine cuisine and collaborationist wine. The ravioli and wild boar goes down well with extracts from a Byron biography.
In an attempt to cleanse the memory of knocking Lucy’s back out Rob impersonates Roger Moore singing Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know which I think we always knew was coming at some stage. Every so often the pair look at each other as if to say “Not a bad gig this is it? How do we keep doing this forever?” Don’t expect them to go out without a fight.
The verdict: Lucy, in her piiiiiiie with Bry-don.
Marks out of 10: 7
