rob brydon steve coogan the trip

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The Trip Must End

In the final installment of their fictional travel series, steve coogan and rob brydon let us live vicariously one last time..

Though I’ve long been a fan of the Trip films, I was not prepared to get emotional over the announcement of a new one. Learning of the impending May release of The Trip to Greece — the fourth and final entry in the series that follows British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing fictional versions of themselves, as they travel lovely roads, eat lovely meals, and do lovely impressions, all the while hilariously sniping at each other over personal and professional matters — led to some complicated feelings. Here was a movie about all the things we can’t do right now, not that most of us could ever really do them: Go for a long car ride in another country with a friend-colleague-rival (at least, that’s how Coogan and Brydon present themselves in these efforts), stay in a hotel, eat in a nice restaurant, and then move on to the next location.

The films, directed and conceived by Michael Winterbottom and partly improvised by Coogan and Brydon, aren’t indulgent wallows in food and privilege, however: Through the heightened, fictionalized portraits of Coogan and Brydon’s petty professional jealousies, they also interrogate the cocoon of celebrity culture. We always get the sense that reality is slowly catching up to these gents. Never has this been truer than in 2020’s The Trip to Greece , which alongside the impressions and the bickering and the delicious meals, finds Coogan and Brydon confronting the agony of the refugee crisis, as well as personal loss in their own lives. (The films all start off airing in longer series form in Britain, and Greece premiered on TV in the U.K. in February.) But for all the darkness, it still manages to be quite charming.

Coogan and Brydon have always been upfront about the fact that the two men presented onscreen are not really their true selves. (They’ve been outfitted with different families, for starters.) But when I get them together for a Zoom one dreary March morning, they slip right into (gently, collegially, lovingly) taking the piss out of each other. Brydon is at home in London. Coogan is at home in Essex, behind him a monitor displaying footage from a series of security cameras, a fact that Brydon does not leave unmentioned.  Brydon is late to our chat; Coogan has noticed …

Hi, Rob. Rob Brydon: Hi, so sorry. I totally forgot.

Steve Coogan: Well, that doesn’t entirely surprise me.

RB: It’s very hard to remember things, I find, at the moment.

SC: Because you’re rushed off your feet, are you? [ Laughs. ]

RB: There’s an interesting thing here. I’ve got an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old, and I think the experience at the moment of people who have young children is very different from the experience of the people who don’t. The people who don’t are watching films, reading books, it’s rather lovely.

SC: I don’t envy you. I’m being facetious. But can you go out?

RB: We go out once a day. One day we do a walk, the other day we do a bike ride. But we don’t come into contact with anyone. We’ve got a big garden, so we can be in that.

SC: You can’t cycle around your garden, can you?

RB: No, no, we cycle the streets. You can cycle the streets as long as you don’t come into contact.

SC: Isn’t that a bit hazardous?

RB: No, because the roads are so quiet.

How are you guys holding up? What the hell is life like for you? RB: Are you alright, Steve? Are you okay?

SC: I am okay. I’m here with my daughter and her boyfriend. Just the three of us. They’re obviously quite happy with each other, and I just kind of hang out with them saying, “What are you guys doing?,” which is slightly awkward. I think they’d be fine without me here, but I’m not sure I’d be fine without them here. So, I’ve been doing that and, you know, going for runs, and Skype writing because that’s what I was doing anyway. I’m carrying on with that, and trying to imagine somehow that the things I write might still somehow be relevant in a post-corona world. I think anyone who’s pitching anything or making anything after this will claim that it’s somehow relevant to coronavirus, whatever it is. But I’m very fortunate. I did some shopping for some people, locally, and the woman asked, “Do you want some money?” And I said, “No, that’s fine. Just make some contribution to some charity.” And my writing partner said, “What you really said was, ‘Just make sure you tell people about it.’” [ Laughs. ] Which I’m doing now.

RB: You know what I would love now is if that as we’re doing this we see behind you, Steve, people breaking into your house and stealing your stuff on the screen, while you’re talking, unaware of what’s going on.

SC: [ Glances behind him. ] Security cameras! And I’m claiming that I care about the local community.

RB: [ Laughs. ] Like a little old woman … [ inaudible ].

You broke up a little bit there, Rob. RB: It doesn’t bear repeating.

SC: Oh, come on, I like it when you’re forced to repeat a punchline after the moment’s gone.

I know a lot of people thought they’d have more time to read, and do other things, but what they’re discovering is they can’t focus on anything, due to the anxiety and stress. SC: I think people are still in a state of shock. Because it all happened rather quickly. But when people adjust to the new reality that’s going to be here for at least a few months …

RB: I’ve actually been reading Alan Bennett’s diaries again. I find those incredibly calming and relaxing, this really lovely ordered world.

SC: I watched Brief Encounter the other day, which was really, really wonderful.

RB: I bet it moves nice and slowly. We showed the boys The Great Escape and really enjoyed it.

SC: It’s great when you can enjoy things vicariously a second time around through your children. Having said that, I just got through the second season of El Chapo and I’m looking forward to the third.

Before watching Trip to Greece this weekend, I rewatched all three previous Trip movies. I started with The Trip to Spain , and there’s that moment early on, where you’re at a restaurant, sitting outside, and it starts to rain and everybody crowds inside. It’s the kind of annoying little thing that everyone has probably experienced at some point in their lives. And yet, I started tearing up watching it, because here was this incredibly common human moment that I can’t have right now. And who knows when I’ll ever get to have it. I was surprised at how it struck me. SC: Wow. When people come out of prison they often talk about the visceral pleasure of feeling rain.

RB: I’ve been seeing lots of things like that at the moment. I see something on television or a film, and I see people meeting somewhere, and think, Wow, that’ll be nice to be able to do that again.

I found The Trip to Greece to be quite poignant. It does seem like the saddest entry in the series. We get this sense that reality is catching up to you guys. SC: What Michael [Winterbottom] does with Rob and I is that whatever peccadillos or idiosyncrasies we have, we just sort of build on them. Because he’s middle-aged like we’re middle-aged, so he just addresses those things. What’s the word? It takes the curse off these things. When we talk about these things, or laugh at these things, they suddenly become diminished. These big questions — the anxiety of life — become somehow just put in a box. And if you make art out of it … What’s that Nora Ephron line? “Everything is copy.”

RB: Oh, you’re speaking of Nora Ephron. You know in The Trip to Greece where I say, “I did a Skype audition,” that was for Nancy Meyers.

SC: Oh, yes, Nancy. I auditioned for her.

RB: Yeah, me too. I didn’t get it.

SC: I didn’t get it either. I auditioned for The Holiday , and she said I wasn’t sexy enough.

RB: I didn’t audition for that. No, this was a little thing. But it was very funny because she was very flattering, and of course I’m very good with flattery. I respond very well to it. And then I did my bit, and of course didn’t get it.

SC: So, basically, you peaked at the small talk.

RB: Yeah! I think I’m good at that. I very rarely get a part that I audition for.

SC: I’m the same. I remember once this director said, “Can you stop saying the name of the character when you talk about it and just say ‘I’?” Right? So when I’m writing Alan Partridge, I say, “Alan does this, and Alan does that.” I don’t say “ I do this,” you know. I just say, “Alan.” And I was talking about a part with this director, saying “he,” referring to the character. “ He does this and then I think he does this,” and [the director] says, “Can you stop saying ‘he’ and say ‘I’, I think it will help you.” And I found myself saying, “Fuck off.” That’s why auditioning doesn’t go well for Rob or, I’d say, me.

Do you ever hear from chefs who felt they or their food were portrayed unfairly on the show? SC: I was at L’Enclume only two months ago. L’Enclume is in the first Trip , in the Lake District, not far from me. I went there for dinner, and the chef, Simon Rogan, who’s very much a respected Michelin star chef, came up and went, “Hey, how are you?” And it was all very friendly, but he still mentioned Ray Winstone’s snot. I don’t know if that’s in the film version [or only in the BBC series version], but there’s this one particular dish that had a green liquid in it that looked a bit like — and I don’t know how we arrived at this, I can’t remember — but I do remember that I compared it to Ray Winstone as a gangster forcing someone to eat his mucus. And for Simon Rogan, the chef … I mean this was ten years ago and whenever I see him he still brings it up in conversation. You know, we were very, very nice, and very complimentary, but it’s funny that that’s the thing that sticks in his mind about the show.

RB: We just praise the food because it’s always very nice, although I’m often not paying that much attention to it. People often say to me, “Which is the best food?” I’m just thinking, What am I going to say next? I’m trying to be inventive and creative. What I do remember are the meals we would eat in the evenings when we weren’t filming.

SC: Yeah. Do you remember, Rob, I think one of the most pleasurable meals we had was in King’s Landing. I think it was the Angel Pub in Yorkshire, and it was fried breakfast, after we had been to Bolton Abbey …

RB: It was simple ingredients.

SC: Yeah, but not the normal simple ingredients. There weren’t fresh, clean ingredients. It was a fried breakfast. It was egg, bacon, sausage, tomato, beans.

RB: But done beautifully.

SC: I remember sitting outside that pub by the road and thinking that was lovely, just … yeah. I’d go back there, you know. I’d go back there.

RB: Well, I went back to Holbeck Ghyll, which is in the Lake District, with my wife and my two younger children …

SC: Did they sit you by the window?

RB: I think, yes, we sat in the same seat, and I felt like the returning hero, and I thought, Surely we’re not going to be charged for this meal . But we were.

SC: You know what, Rob, you say that, but I have to say I have been back there several times, and my brother-in-law and my sister who both are very normal people who work in the public sector helping people with special needs, I told the proprietor and they stayed there for three nights, having Michelin-star dinners every night, and the whole thing was free.

RB: And yet one-half of the original team who made that thing has to pay. Where’s the fairness? [ Laughs. ]

SC: I think that it’s basically socialism in action. Those who can afford it pay. Those who can’t are subsidized. That’s fair. That’s my political worldview in action. So, it was right that you were charged.

RB: I’m struggling with it. A discount would have been something.

How often do you hear back from the subjects of your impressions? RB: We did a thing with Michael Caine at the Albert Hall, and he was very nice. You can see it . Anthony Hopkins I met in Los Angeles and he said, [ does an Anthony Hopkins voice ] “I loved The Trip. Loved The Trip .” This was after we’d done the first one and the Italian one hadn’t come out. And I said, “Well, in this new one, the Italian one, we’re on a yacht and we do you in The Bounty .” And he started doing it! He started going, “Turn your back away, Mr. Fryer!” And then I was doing it back to him. We were in a car and I got rather giddy. Hopkins! Hopkins occupies a sort of Brando-like position in the business. I think he is the equal of any actor, if you look at what he has put onscreen and onstage. And there he was, and he was doing it, you know, right next to me. And I’m doing it back at him! It was all I could do not to cry. It was quite overwhelming.

SC: Gosh, yeah … I’m quite envious of that.

Has anybody you’ve done impressions of reacted negatively? RB: I don’t think so. I think most people are flattered by it.

SC: Oh, me! That’s me. When you do me. I react slightly negatively.

RB: I do Steve Coogan and he’s a prickly customer. He doesn’t like it.

SC: [ Laughs. ] Probably the most negative reaction is me when he does me. That’s the truth, yeah. I do find it a little bit uncomfortable when he does it. You know how some people don’t like it when you take photographs of them, because they think you’re taking their soul? I feel like somehow it’s distilling some DNA, like a little bit of witchcraft. There’s something discombobulating about it. I don’t think it’s quite me, but there’s a certain familiarity about it. It’s reductive, that’s what it is. Because I think what I do is quite interesting, and if you do it, it’s almost like you can sort of bottle it and sell it in Boots, and that worries me, you know.

RB: And he’s telling the truth when he says that.

SC: Yes, yes. Yes. [ Laughs. ]

Rob, I hear that you declined to meet Al Pacino once. RB: Yeah, that is true. I was doing The Huntsman: Winter’s War . A big hit. It exploded at the box office. It bombed. And I played a dwarf. Great fun. And Jessica Chastain was on it, and one weekend she said, “Al is in town. We’re going to meet up for drinks. Do you want to come?” Now, I had a school event on, so I had to go to some parents’ thing. I could have got out of it, but I chose not to because I thought, Well, what’s going to happen? I’ve ended up meeting a lot of my acting and musical heroes, but there are some then who I think … Well, I’ve already got a great relationship with Al Pacino in my head, you know? So let’s just leave it at that.

Both of you have done work over the years that blurs the line between reality and fiction, but with the first Trip , was there any kind of adjustment, in that you really were playing these versions of yourselves? Was there a question of how much reality to put in? SC: I remember having a chat with Rob and saying, “Let’s risk offending each other and not take it personally, to try and find funny things.” I don’t know that we actually shook hands. And that pretty much worked, I think, 95 percent of the time. I got tetchy sometimes, but by and large that held, that sort of gentleman’s ribbing.

RB: The difference with the first one, from my perspective, was that it was very new, and we were going into it thinking, Well, what is this? You know, because Michael [Winterbottom]’s pitch was as a series initially, although he was saying he was going to make a film. It was six half-hours. And I remember thinking, How on Earth can we improvise enough good stuff for six half-hours? I was convinced we wouldn’t. The thing that surprised me about the first one when I watched it was the melancholy. We were traveling home every weekend, because it was done in Britain, and I’d come home and say to my wife, “Oh yeah, Steve was very funny, we did some very funny stuff.” But of course I wasn’t aware of the way Michael was shooting it, and the music he was going to put on it, and the long, slow shots. And that’s part of its success: You’ve got us two who, broadly speaking, follow traditional comic instincts and timings, and then you’ve got Michael who is a very un-manipulative filmmaker. He just wants to tell the story. Just, blomp , there it is, there’s the story. There are often times where I think, “Well, why didn’t you cut here, or cut a bit sooner on the joke?” But it was better that he didn’t, because it made it very individual.

SC: I agree with Rob there. And in fact I think Rob and I were sort of trying to get involved with Michael in the process in the first Trip , and then after that we just didn’t bother anymore.

RB: Futile, futile.

SC: Pointless! Pointless! And a waste of energy because Michael’s very good at what he does. These films are Michael Winterbottom films, and we’re just in them doing stuff.

Rob, I remember a story you told about how in The Trip to Italy , after you had the affair with the deckhand, your wife was hearing from people the next day saying, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry this happened.” RB: Yeah, she was taking the boys to school, and a teacher came up, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “This must be a very difficult time for you.”

SC: That is very worrying that your kids were going to a school where a teacher can’t make that distinction.

RB: A state school. It’s more of a commune, really.

SC: What’s funny is if you say things that are self-critical or portray yourself in that negative light, as we do in The Trip , it sort of it nixes those who ought to say things like “In reality,” because you think, what can they say? Not only have I criticized myself, I’ve turned it into something creative and helped pay the rent with it.

RB: I always find it very funny that some people watch it and take it simply as a reality show, as if literally he’s just following us around and these things are really happening.

SC: I mean, while we’re having dinner, you think that might be real. But when I sleep with the receptionist at the hotel, how they think I allowed a film crew into the bedroom to —

RB: How she allowed you into the bedroom, I think would be the …

SC: Well, that’s more believable.

I think part of it is that reality TV has trained people to accept these things as real. Because that sort of thing would happen on, you know, The Real World . SC: That’s very true. This is such a weird hybrid.

RB: I can’t speak for Steve here, but I don’t really watch those programs because I’m a bit of a snob.

SC: Yeah. But I do.

It’s a bit of a reality series, but it’s also something of a movie franchise. For people like me, you know, The Trip is almost our version of a superhero franchise. There’s something familiar about it, there’s the template, but then the variations are what make it fun. And you guys are ending it right around the time The Avengers and Star Wars are sort of ending as well. RB: It’s our Endgame , yeah.

SC: We’re superheroes for middle-aged, middle-class, white professionals.

Part Two of this interview will run next month. The Trip to Greece will be available in the U.S. on May 22, 2020. The previous Trip films are currently streaming on IFC Films Unlimited.

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A British comedy that has the finest Michael Caine-impression showdown in cinematic history.

Read an “ Interrogation ” with Steve Coogan. 

Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip (IFC Films), a peripatetic comedy about two comedians on a jaunt around the north of England, alternately amuses, bores, and annoys, just like its two hilariously intolerable protagonists. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, both fortysomething British comics with a long list of TV series and films to their credit, play semi-fictionalized versions of themselves. Coogan, known for his hugely successful BBC sitcom I’m Alan Partridge , is a career-obsessed serial womanizer who frets that he’ll never be taken seriously as an actor. Brydon, a married man with a new baby, is less visibly consumed by insecurity, but his compulsion to do vocal impressions at every moment of the day borders on the pathological (a symptom Coogan is ever keen to point out).

On a vaguely defined assignment for a newspaper, Coogan has been sent to the picturesque Lake District to review six high-end restaurants. When his girlfriend backs out at the last minute, Coogan invites Brydon instead, making it clear that he tried and failed to get several other friends to come along first. And so the two men, who inhabit a limbo somewhere between friends, colleagues, and rivals, set out in Coogan’s Range Rover to explore the land of Romantic poets and the Brontë sisters. By day, Coogan, an aspiring outdoorsman—as he enjoys mentioning to attractive hotel employees, he’s brought along some crampons—drags Brydon on ill-planned hikes or visits to literary sites like Bolton Abbey, where Brydon declaims Wordsworth’s poem of the same name in the stentorian tones of Ian McKellen. By night, they alight at various swank country inns, where they dine on elaborate but singularly unappetizing-looking dishes, such as a greenish vegetable cocktail whose taste Brydon praises even as he compares its consistency to snot.

During the dull stretches of The Trip , which are not infrequent, I passed the time musing about what Winterbottom was doing making a movie like this. This shape-shifting director seems to make a film nearly every year, from playful literary adaptations like the delightful Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (which also starred Coogan and Brydon) to dramas inspired by contemporary global events ( In This World , A Mighty Heart) to period noir thrillers ( The Killer Inside Me ). For my taste, Winterbottom is a bit too prolific. His 9 Songs , a freewheeling, sexually explicit account of a couple’s affair over the course of a year, felt like a fitfully inspired sketch rather than a finished movie, and the same could be said of The Trip , which floats ideas for character arcs (Coogan’s compulsion to seduce women, Brydon’s inability to speak in his own voice) that never get developed.

But during the film’s funny stretches, as when Brydon and Coogan get into a loud public row about who does the better Michael Caine , I was laughing too hard to care about unexplored character arcs. (Brydon’s demonstration of the way Caine’s voice has retreated into the back of his throat as he ages is a particularly stunning feat of vocal mimicry.) These are two naturally hilarious men, and when they get rolling—especially when they’re literally rolling, trapped in the confines of Coogan’s car—they can spin comic gold out of nothing at all: a few lines of Coleridge read from a guidebook, an imagined scene from a Braveheart -style costume drama: “Gentlemen, to bed, for we ride at dawn! … Or nine-thirty-ish.”

The Trip was originally conceived as a series for British television, a context in which its rambling episodic structure—another day, another country inn—makes more sense. If the notion of being trapped in a car for two hours with two brilliant, self-centered comedians sounds like a bit much, The Trip is also available on IFC on demand. There you can enjoy Brydon and Coogan’s improvisations the way they sip that dubiously textured vegetable cocktail, just a little at a time.

• Sky One / BBC Two / Sky Atlantic
• 2010 - 2020
• 24 episodes (4 series)

Improvised comedy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on a series of road trips. Also features Rebecca Johnson , Claire Keelan , Margo Stilley , Marta Barrio and Timothy Leach

Rob Brydon & Steve Coogan interview

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan talk about taking another trip together... plus impersonating Barry Gibb , thoughts on the US president and Andalusian architecture.

How easy a decision was it to make Series 3?

Rob: Very easy. No arms needed to be twisted. I like the fact that there's a decent length of time in between each series so that we look older and perhaps a little more battered. I think that on its own is interesting.

Steve: Rob and I already have a modus operandi. We've done it twice before, we all enjoyed doing it and we knew how to do it so it was a very easy decision.

How impressed are you with the way Michael Winterbottom makes the series look?

Rob: I am very impressed. We come in and do our thing but it's very much his baby. He's the one who decides where we're going, which restaurants we go to and the broad themes that we're going to talk about. But then we invent the majority of the dialogue, with the exception of the plot, which is needed to move the story on. But the bulk of the dialogue we improvise.

Steve: It's always more than the sum of its parts. Michael manages to make some sense out of our mad ramblings. It's always hugely impressive because he makes it seem to have more scope and gives it a depth that goes beyond just the funny voices, barbs and exchanges. It has a more universal, expansive feel to it that makes it look wonderful, with a sense of the geography and where we are that plays a huge part in the series and stops it just being talking heads.

Do you prepare a few impressions before filming the series?

Rob: Every time we've done The Trip I've thought ahead a bit, done some research and learned a few new voices. I thought it would be quite funny to do Andy Murray talking about the meal he's just eaten in the same way he talks about the match he's just played. "It wasn't easy but I had the starter and I did really well with it because I finished it..." The same way these solo sports people speak as if they are their own biggest fan. I think they have to be for the psychology.

Steve: In between takes we might discuss doing a new impersonation or throw in a new one, but I don't stand in front of the mirror practising impressions. Rob does a good Barry Gibb which made me laugh a lot between takes so I said to him that he should do that on camera. We were doing Tom Courtenay impressions for some reason which made us laugh. So we'll do those and coach each other in between takes to try to perfect them. In terms of preparation, we might learn quotes from books that we're supposed to be referencing, like Laurie Lee, that we can throw into conversation the next day. So occasionally we'll do a bit of prep.

Rob: I did stumble upon Barry Gibb and that made Steve laugh a lot, so I did a lot of him. I've been listening recently to Donald Trump 's voice and thinking to myself how it's an impressionist's dream because there are so many quirks in it. It's full of identifiable traits that are easy to copy. But I loathe the man so I can't bring myself to do him. Most of my impressions are of people I admire or have affection for. Barry Gibb is somebody I have massive reservoirs of affection for and have had for a hell of a long time, and I think he has a fascinating voice.

Rob, do you get a lot of satisfaction from making Steve laugh?

It's nice when it happens. Generally speaking people always ask me what the food was like but to be honest that is the last thing on my mind during a scene. I'm thinking about what I'm going to say and asking myself if I am going to be funny. If I am going to come up with anything. Because very often we start a scene and have no idea how we are going to fill it. But usually stuff comes along. It's always nice if you make someone laugh, especially someone like Steve who I have so much respect for.

Steve, how easy is it to make Rob laugh?

Rob probably makes me laugh more than I make him laugh but I don't start out by thinking, 'I want to make Rob laugh'. I do sometimes but he's probably more naturally funny than I am. I think it's more like we try to get under each other's skin a bit. To cause friction - and the friction can lead to comedy. But we didn't want it all to be like that. We wanted to be able to agree with each other and have moments of cordiality and balance.

So it wasn't just bickering as it were. We play it more like a married couple. We have moments where we agree about things and moments where we're a bit tetchy, so we just try to give it some colour with light and shade, and sometimes I make Rob laugh. But I'm the more cantankerous one and he's more flippant - although we exaggerate these things quite a lot.

Do you enjoy being given a licence to improvise in this way, compared to having to stick to a precise script?

Steve: It's very enjoyable. You have way more scope than you'd have in a normal scripted film where you really have to stick to what you're doing. Rob and I really trust each other and if he goes off on a tangent, I will follow him, or he will follow me, so it's a lot of fun. But I wouldn't like to work like that all the time. It suits that project, whereas when I'm doing a film where there's a script, or something I've written, then I like to stick very closely to that. It's just a different way of doing things. It's a nice change.

Is it easy to switch from your character back to your normal self?

Steve: When the cameras aren't rolling we just have proper conversations that are actually quite dull. Sometimes we eat with each other in the evening and we end up having much more civilised conversations. When the cameras are rolling it's almost like we're sparring. You put your gloves on and your gum shield in and we have a little round of sparring. It's quite frenetic, the pace of the whole thing, but it's also very enjoyable and we got to see a lot of Spain, so what's not to like?

Is the series as enjoyable to make as it looks?

Steve: Yes it is. I mean, you have to apply yourself. One part of you is shooting the breeze and thinking of things to say, but the other is planning things all the time. You have to be on your toes and realise what will be a fruitful area, because you're improvising within the structure. So Rob and I will sometimes talk between takes about what we should speak about and also plan ways to react. Rob will sometimes suggest lines for me to say and I will sometimes suggest lines for him to say and ways to create funny barbed exchanges.

So it's a very organic process. It isn't just me and Rob eating food and talking. All three of us - Michael, Rob and me - put our heads together and talk about what's most fruitful. Michael always makes sure we stick to a kind of approximate narrative but we have a lot of free rein. We're much more cooperative behind the scenes than it seems on camera.

Rob: It's probably harder work than it looks. I imagine that it looks like a jolly and on many levels, of course, it is, but equally there is pressure. You're not just learning lines. Normally, in most acting jobs, even if you're the lead in something, there are scenes in which you are not the main thing. But in this it's basically us all the time. So there's no sitting in your trailer for a whole day waiting, which in some ways is lovely, but in other ways, now and again, it'd be nice to have a break from it.

You're constantly in a state of trying to invent some fiction. Or a half truth, or find a truth and bend it a little bit to make it interesting. It was quite full-on. Physically we covered more distance than we did on either of the other two Trips . The Lake District was a very small area and Series 2 branched out to Italy, but with this one we literally went from Santander all the way down to Málaga.

Were there any locations on this Spanish trip that stood out?

Rob: We visited a city called Cuenca, which is built up on a ridge. It was quite stunning. The thing about Spain that struck me was the topography. I'm looking forward to seeing how it comes across on the screen.

Steve: Andalusia was pretty spectacular. We went to lots of medieval towns that had their history in Moorish Spain. We visited lots of historic places and areas that I wasn't overly familiar with. It was a revelation to be in such spectacular scenery. You had to remind yourself that you were in Europe. It seemed far more exotic, like parts of Africa.

What does the series say about aging and being middle-aged?

Rob: I think that's what it's all about - "the dying of the light", as Dylan Thomas said, because it is two men who are now in their early 50s. In Series 1, we were in our mid-40s and I would say that is perhaps when the decline begins. Somebody of 70 may scoff at this but I think Steve and I both feel that. We both feel the passing of the years and that is something we talk about. And even when we're not talking about it I think it's in the background.

I think you'll see it in subconscious ways. I wonder whether when we sit down there's more of a sigh, or more of an appreciation of the chair. But there are lots of little things. That's one of the main things that I've always loved about it - it's that we've been doing this series at the ages that we are and the fact that time has passed in between doing them. Because if you look at the first series, we now look older and there's not much you can do about that.

Steve: There are a lot of universal issues [in the show]. If it were just about Rob and me it wouldn't be as strong. It has to mean something to other people, so yes it's about middle age and getting older, life and family life, love and unrequited love. For me, my character is a bit more settled and trying to rekindle an old relationship and bring it back to life. I'm more lost in this series. Rob is more settled, so we make sure there's a little emotional journey and an arc throughout the series.

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Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon: 'We’re not a double act'

Over the past 20 years, the recipients of the 2017 GQ Comedians Of The Year award have become a fixture at our annual ceremony. Between them they've received awards and presented awards, even hosted the show, but this is the first time they've won together, for the success of the third - and funniest - series of The Trip . It is an honour they are happy to share, but whatever you do, don't call them a double act.

"You can't call us a double act because we aren't a double act," Coogan says with deadpan sincerity. "But I think we work very well together." They are also very easy in each other's company. Sitting together in a South London "caff", the pair are in tune to each other's comedic frequency and yet comfortable enough to not necessarily be "on" for the small GQ audience.

"It's funny because when we are filming The Trip we do go out in the evening sometimes and socialise," Coogan explains. "And we are just a lot nicer to each other than we are in the show."

"By that he means we are probably quite dull, because we just talk about really dull middle-class things," continues Brydon .

With a little prompting you can coax out a couple of their many impersonations - "Steve's Pierce Brosnan is my favourite," says Brydon. "And your Barry Gibb is sensational," replies Coogan - but most of the time they are very serious. About their comedy craft, about growing older (Coogan's 51 and Brydon 52), even their relationship.

Rob Brydon: I'm not going to be afraid to wear my heart on my sleeve and say, 'I love this man'

"We are friends," Coogan says, "but we became closer as a result of The Trip . The last series we were the least antagonistic towards each other. There was once a more difficult time, when I was an abuser." Brydon laughs affectionately, "He's a much nicer person now he's not abusing himself."

"I used to take too many drugs and drink too much," Coogan admits. "And I've cut right back. As a result I'm more magnanimous and open-hearted."

Brydon takes a deep breath and looks his co-Comedian Of The Year in the eyes. "I'm not going to be afraid to wear my heart on my sleeve and say, 'I love this man,'" he declares.

"And I love you, Rob," Coogan replies.

Maybe they aren't joking after all.

Styling by: Tanja Martin. Grooming by: Joe Mills using KM and Dermalogica. Grooming assistant: Daisy Holubwicz. Video: Creative Director: Paul Solomons. Interviewer: Paul Henderson. Camera and editing: Luca Lamaro. Editor, GQ.co.uk: Conrad Quilty-Harper.

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Trip to Italy

Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri. Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri. Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri.

• Michael Winterbottom
• Steve Coogan
• Rosie Fellner
• 92 User reviews
• 104 Critic reviews
• 75 Metascore
• 1 nomination

Top cast 15

• (as Timothy Leach)

• La Suvera Receptionist
• Villa Cimbrone Receptionist
• Villa Cimbrone Porter

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Like the previous film, The Trip (2010) , Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan improvised their scenes together.
• Goofs Toward the end of the movie (33 minute to the end), they are showing and commenting about a fruit they call "kumquat" which is in fact a "Physalis" also called "Cape Gooseberry", a fruit originally from Chile and Peru. A Kumquat is like a miniature orange, which can be eaten whole, or used in making marmalade. It has a very sharp flavour. A physalis has a paper-like husk like a tomatillo and is very sweet when ripe.

Steve : [In reference to Alanis Morissette] You know I can see the appeal in a woman like this. Volatile women are always sexy when you first meet them but two years down the line you're sorta saying things like, 'can you just put the lids back on eh... on these jars please.'

• Connections Edited from The Trip (2010)
• Soundtracks All I Really Want Written by Glen Ballard and Alanis Morissette Published by Bucks Music Group Limited on behalf of Penny Farthing Music; Universal/MCA Music Limited Performed by Alanis Morissette Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd.

User reviews 92

• Sep 12, 2015
• How long is The Trip to Italy? Powered by Alexa
• April 25, 2014 (United Kingdom)
• United Kingdom
• IFC Films (United States)
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• Villa Cimbrone, Ravello, Italy (Terrazzo dell'lnfinito)
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Revolution Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Aug 17, 2014

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• Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes

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The Trip: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Make Great Impressions

I n the long history of man’s need to battle with and dominate his fellow men, is there any competition so intense as two funny guys trying to impress each other? Beyond arm wrestling, beyond sumo wrestling, comic oneupsmanship demands killer instinct as much as ready wit. The can-you-top-this? exchanges spark pleasure and challenge in the jesting jousters, until one combatant may signal defeat with a gentlemanly “Well done, sir,” or by slinking into silence or out of the room.

In Michael Winterbottom’s semi-improv, semi-real comedy The Trip , Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play out this atavistic animosity through the dead-serious game of celebrity impressions. As Brydon, a voice actor and host of the BBC TV comedy quiz show Would I Lie to You? , launches into a medley of Welsh-actor imitations, Coogan, the English TV star who has also appeared as a supporting actor in Ben Stiller movies ( Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder ), sourly observes that “Anyone over 14 who amuse themselves by doing impressions needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.” Yet the two are instantly doing dueling Michael Caines: Coogan emphasizing Caine’s nasality, Brydon the lower, slower diction that comes from decades of “all the cigars and brandy.” Round one to Rob.

(Submarine: From Teen Angst to Pure Delight)

They are having lunch at a posh Midlands restaurant — the film’s slim premise is that Coogan has been assigned by The Observer to spend a week sampling upscale eateries up North — and the almost-star is not in the best mood. His girlfriend, whom he’d planned to take on the trip, has abruptly left for the States; Brydon is her last-minute replacement. Coogan is also agitated about his stalled movie career. On the phone, his agent assures him, “You’ve got a huge amount of momentum,” and Coogan mopes, “Yeah, you get momentum when you go downhill.” The Hollywood break he hoped for might come when he played the director in Tropic Thunder , except that the character was blown up 10 minutes into the movie. (Here, Stiller has a cameo guest shot in one of Coogan’s dark dreams.) We see that the easy-going, happily married Brydon is performing his vocal capers at least in part to perk up his glummish pal — an attempt that depresses Coogan even further.

Coogan made his name playing a TV personality named Alan Partridge, first on the Radio 4 news parody On the Hour and its TV spinoff The Day Today , then on his own fake chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge . Oily, bluff, bullying, insecure, misogynistic and, as he described himself, “homoskeptic,” Partridge was a living satire of small-screen smugness and desperation. Brydon has his own unreality comedy series, Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive , playing an exaggerated version of himself as a quiz-show host. The two actors also played variations on their public personas in Winterbottom’s 2005 film Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story , which devolved into a backstage farce that put embarrassing elements of Coogan’s own tabloid life to cuttingly comic use.

The question about The Trip , especially for Americans ignorant of the stars’ TV work, is how much of their self-named characters is true and how much fake? I’d say the movie is faux-fake, a fiction sprung from reality — for, whatever or whoever Coogan may be, he creates a character making jokes on the brink of despair, ever on prowling for sexual conquests to slake his loneliness, and looking at Brydon with a seething blankness that looks as if he’s straining to both stifle his rage and stay awake. The British Academy must have thought so too: Coogan won this year’s BAFTA award for Best Male TV Comedy Performance. They realized he was brilliantly playing a sad, frustrated guy named Steve Coogan.

(Summer Entertainment Preview 2011)

The project was conceived as a six-part BBC series, which aired last fall. For the theatrical version, Winterbottom has edited the show’s just-under-three hours down to just under two hours. Both the show and the film offer nothing much more than two men talking — in the car, at the restaurant-inns or while visiting local landmarks. That’s easy to take as a half-hour interlude seen weekly, and a treat to watch in snippets on YouTube (where many of the impression bits can be found). It may run the risk of wearying its viewers when they consume it in one gulp. But I think Winterbottom wants the audience to share a bit of Coogan’s restlessness and exasperation at Brydon’s nonstop mimicry, and his envy at his friend’s ability to enthrall two young women with his impressions. “You can’t treat your entire life like a Radio 4 panel show,” Coogan warns Brydon, who immediately sounds a “Bzzt!” — the noise of a game-show buzzer indicating a wrong answer — and says, “Yes, you can,” with a triumphant smile.

And yes, the film lets him. Brydon reads a Times restaurant review in the voice of Anthony Hopkins; declaims Wordsworth’s “Bolton Abbey” in the reedy timbre of Ian McKellen; does Woody Allen as he might sound if channeled through the voice of the late English comedian Les Dawson. He summons up Tom Jones, Hugh Grant, Billy Connolly, Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man . Coogan and Brydon both have a go at Al Pacino in Heat and those matching James Bonds, Sean Connery and Roger Moore. When Coogan goes frozen-faced as a 007 villain ( “Come, come, Mr. Bond, you get just as much pleasure from killing as I do”), Brydon observes, “You look like you’re recovering from a stroke and getting mobility again.” And if a marathon of two Brit Rich Littles doesn’t appeal, attend to the pair’s inspired improvs of a medieval hero leading his troops to battle, or of their exegesis of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” Says Coogan to Brydon: “I would have thought you’d have preferred Olivia Newton John’s version of Xanadu .”

At the beginning of their week’s sojourn, Brydon suggests they stop to dine at an ordinary place serving food eaten by real people. When Coogan demurs that that’s been done before, Brydon says, “It’s 2010. Everything’s been done before. All you can do is do something that someone’s done before but do it better or different.” The Trip may have familiar elements — it’s pretty much My Dinner With Andre pinned to the plot of Alexander Payne’s Sideways — but the badinage provides an immediate and lasting kick, as well as the spectacle of two champion combatants at the top of their game.

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Rent The Trip on Apple TV, or buy it on Apple TV.

What to Know

Amiable, funny and sometimes insightful, The Trip works as both a showcase for the enduring chemistry between stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon and an unexpected perusal of men entering mid-life crises.

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Product Description

When Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People, Tropic Thunder) is asked by the Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon (A Cock and Bull Story). As the brilliant comic duo, free styling with flair, drive each other mad with constant competition and showdowns of competing impressions of famous celebrities, the ultimate odd couple realize in the end a rich amount about not only good food, but the nature of fame, relationships and their own lives.

Product details

• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.6 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches; 0.8 ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 22035699
• Director ‏ : ‎ Michael Winterbottom
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 52 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ October 11, 2011
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Steve Coogan, Robert Brydon, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan, Margo Stilley
• Producers ‏ : ‎ Melissa Parmenter, Andrew Eaton
• Studio ‏ : ‎ IFC Independent Film
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005E7SEM0
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #12,600 in Comedy (Movies & TV)

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Customers say

Customers find the movie funny, intelligent, and worth watching. They appreciate the beautiful scenery, actor quality, and pacing. However, some customers feel the plot is a waste of time.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the humor in the movie funny, touching, and amusing at first. They also describe the characters as witty, charming, and agile of thought. Readers mention the tone is wistful and the poetry readings are enjoyable.

"...There's a definite tone of wistfulness , of middle-aged ennui, which makes the movie work as much more than a sum of comedy bits and impressions...." Read more

"...slapstick or situation comedies, it also tends to make one introspective on a deeper level than other American shows do... I mean, do you ever find..." Read more

" Great English humor " Read more

"...Both characters are witty , charming, agile of thought, and certainly broadly educated. Very familiar with both classic and pop cultures...." Read more

Customers find the movie intelligent, brilliant, and thought-provoking. They also say it's a neat video to experience.

"...I found this documentary style film to be a neat video to experience ... as usual with British Shows, it tends to be a bit more cerebral than..." Read more

"...Both characters are witty, charming, agile of thought , and certainly broadly educated. Very familiar with both classic and pop cultures...." Read more

"...The movie is still sublime as ever , and there are quite a few deleted scenes or early takes on the special features, but it strategically resists..." Read more

"...They are quite clever and quick-witted and their journey through the back roads of the UK on a restaurant review tour is a unique setting for their..." Read more

Customers find the scenery beautiful. They also appreciate the lovely shots of kitchens and three-star meals.

"...a distraction between conversations, although there's some lovely shots of the kitchens ...." Read more

"...I guess with only 3 reviews, thats what you get. The scenery was nice , but the story was...........rediculous?..." Read more

"...The Trip made everything look lovely , which, since it was shot in winter, is quite amazing. Made us want to go back...." Read more

" Beautiful English countryside . Meandering roads through rolling hills dotted with sheep.And Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon prattling on...." Read more

Customers find the acting quality of the movie good. They mention the skills displayed by the actors are marvelous. They also appreciate the quirky characters and chemistry between the actors.

"The chemistry between the actors is very good and the humor between the two is in the movie from beginning to end...." Read more

"...the back roads of the UK on a restaurant review tour is a unique setting for their talents ...." Read more

"...time than they've actually ever been on film so the lack of current characters is a strain and, frankly, beyond the stellar Michael Caine take-off,..." Read more

"...The principal actors are entertaining company for the duration of this journey, throwing down a good dose of impersonations and eating a lot of..." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the movie brilliant. They also say the poetry is brilliant.

"...I love the celeb impressions of course, which were brilliant and spot-on , but I also enjoyed the poetry readings, so after I write this review I’m..." Read more

"... They are brilliant together !" Read more

"The movie was slow and when you couple it with British humor (which I do like and appreciate) you get a picture that is hard to sit through...." Read more

"...The actors are phenomenal.....funny, incisive, brilliant . Can't wait for the third installment!" Read more

Customers say the movie is worth the wait and the watch. They also appreciate the excellent seller.

"...It's the opposite of pointless, and well worth anyone's time ...." Read more

"...I still think this is worth seeing , but be warned that it can get tedious." Read more

"... Well worth renting , although not so wonderful that I'd want to buy it." Read more

"...Definitely was worth the watch ." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the ease of use of the movie. Some mention it's uncomplicated and almost prosaic, while others say it'll be tedious and repetitive.

"...I still think this is worth seeing, but be warned that it can get tedious ." Read more

"...] no matter what), but the movie actually does a decent job of setting things up ...." Read more

"...The impersonations were very good but neverending and became tedious .Steve Coogan doesnt have to work very hard to 'get some'...." Read more

"I enjoyed this film for the first hour. After that it was tedious ." Read more

Customers find the plot of the movie to be plotless, boring, and thin. They say the movie is awful and there's no point in renting it.

"Fun but less engaging than I expected from Mr. Coogan. It was Anthony Bourdain without the stuffy and uncomfortable train rides through India...." Read more

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‘The Trip to Greece’ Is the Last ‘Trip’ Film. But It Shouldn’t Be (Column)

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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• ‘Elton John: Never Too Late’ Review: The Original King of Pop Gets the Satisfying Documentary He Deserves 3 days ago

I’m an unabashed fan of “The Trip” and its three sequels. They’re the British talk-verité road comedies in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon , playing heightened versions of their quicksilver acid-tongued middle-aged selves, drive around some lovely European country (England, Italy, Spain, Greece), stopping for lavish lunches at Michelin-star restaurants as they slice and dice each other’s egos with the quippiest of thoughts — a one-upmanship game between frenemies that periodically bursts out into their dueling impersonations of some legendary movie star. (The most hilarious was Michael Caine. They’ve also done indelible takeoffs on Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Connery, Woody Allen and Hugh Grant.)

It’s hard to pinpoint what it is that gives the “Trip” movies their special tang, but the whole rapid-fire competitive banter of Coogan and Brydon, most of which they make up on the spot, reminds me of the razzing prankishness of “A Hard Day’s Night” with a touch of the conversational enchantment of “My Dinner with Andre.” These are comedies to take seriously (though not too seriously). They’re also dramas to take lightly.

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And now, it seems, they’re going to be missed.

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With the release, on May 22, of “The Trip to Greece,” Coogan, Brydon and their director, Michael Winterbottom , have announced that they’re packing it in. There will be no more “Trip” movies — at least, for a good long time. Each of the four films, going back to “The Trip” in 2010, was carved out of a six-episode BBC series (each series, in total, is about one-and-a-half times longer than the film it was whittled down to). To do another movie, they would need, theoretically, to do another series, and that’s not in the cards.

Yet I think that letting go of the films now is a mistake. Sure, you could make a case (as I have) that the “Trip” films are kind of running out of tricks, that we’ve seen Coogan and Brydon do even their mightiest impersonations once too often, and that the wistful grace notes of all-the-world’s-a-stage melancholy that give the series its soul were there from the beginning, so there’s no real point in trying to “deepen” the material. It’s already about as deep as it’s going to get.

“The Trip to Greece,” however, falls way too short of being the grand finale this series deserves. You could say that they’re going out humbly, without fanfare (and without any risk of jumping the shark), and that that’s a good thing. It’s also trés British. But here’s why Coogan and Brydon should consider one more go-round, and here’s a suggestion of what, exactly, I think it should be.

“The Trip to Greece” wasn’t an ending, it was just a stop.

The new movie takes pains to have a dark undercurrent or two, especially after Coogan learns that his father has been taken ill. Yet even this sets up what is less a closing note than a kind of spiritual cliffhanger: What’s Coogan going to do when his vanity comes up against mortality? A great question, but it’s never answered.

For a series that is this fixated on American movie stardom, it needs to get out of its Euro comfort zone.

The “Trip” films are epicurean buddy-movie travelogues that might have been bankrolled by the European tourism industry. Each one, among other things, is a tossed-off advertisement for the glories of landscape, cuisine, history. The documentary shots of food being prepared in restaurant kitchens — we tend to see a dish tossed in a smoking pan just before it’s served to our heroes — are like privileged glimpses of ancient trade secrets. It’s all very luscious and Continental. So where would they go next — to France? Sweden? Germany? Ireland? No way. That formula really is spent. As a result, I think it’s finally time that Coogan and Brydon journeyed to the belly of the beast. The fifth and final “Trip” film should be….

“The Trip to California.” The two would start in the Pacific Northwest, drive down through San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway, and end up — of course — in Los Angeles, where they can finally confront the place that’s been the source of so many of their dreams.

They need to try out some radical new impressions.

In every “Trip” sequel, there are golden oldies — a touch of Pacino, a mumbled snippet of Tom Hardy — and at least one great new one, like the Dustin Hoffman-and-Laurence-Olivier-in-“Marathon-Man” set piece that’s the funniest sequence in “The Trip to Greece.” Yet as much as I adore these flashbacks to the ’70s, there’s a whole new world out there waiting to be mimicked into oblivion, and these are the guys to do it, even if Coogan now claims he couldn’t care less about being an impressionist. (Maybe so, but he’s so great at it that that’s just his version of every comedian wanting to play Hamlet.) The two could do Brad Pitt, John Travolta, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Quentin Tarantino…the sky of empathetic ridicule is the limit. “The Trip to California” should be the Coogan-and-Brydon celebrity roast to end all celebrity roasts.

They need face-to-face encounters with one or two of their prime targets.

This may sound like it edges into shark-jumping terrain, but how perfect would it be if, in the final “Trip” film, they actually ran into Michael Caine — and wound up conducting a three-way Caine dialogue with him? Or if they did the same thing with Pacino? The last “Trip” film should arrive at a delirious funhouse-mirror satirical high, leaving us with a sensation of deliverance. A scene like that would do that trick.

The film should be a light-handed meditation on comedy and acting.

We’ve heard enough, in bits and pieces, about Coogan and Brydon’s personal lives to kind of know who they are. But what is it that drives them, in their hidden hearts, as actor-comedians who emerged from a culture — England’s — where acting is part of the spiritual-behavioral lifeblood? In “The Trip to California,” their six-day trip should culminate in a joint appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that’s as rivetingly funny and drop-dead revealing, in its way, as the talk-show climax of “Joker.” (They could meet Michael Caine there!) All of which is to say…

“The Trip to California” should be a heady celebration of showbiz.

Where, in Hollywood, does fantasy end and reality begin? And where is that line in these two men’s souls, as they play themselves in a series of movies where every moment is “real” and every moment is a performance? “The Trip to California” should end the series by going out with a big bang of meta hilarity. We, along with Coogan and Brydon, deserve nothing less.

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