“As I travel, one extraordinary place at a time” “Seeking stories in every corner of the British Isles” “I discover how traditions are kept alive in the bustling, modern landscape” “Finding the unsung heroes and hidden treasures” “Each place has its own story to tell” Following which: • The presenter will knock on someone’s door and be greeted like an old friend, with the camera crew already be inside the house. • The presenter will reflect on their life choices by staring into a lake • They’ll get “lost” in a local market or trail, only to bump into someone who helps them out • Said local will be conveniently an expert in every topic being discussed, but the presenter will ask lots of questions that imply they already knew the answer • The presenter will ‘stumble across’ a local cultural event, which they will then be invited to play the central role in • They will meet a local artisan who invites them to have a go at crafting something, which will be surprisingly good • They will go on about how things have been “unchanged for centuries” • the presenter will come across an injured animal that needs saving • The presenter will finish by talking about the unbreakable bonds they’ve formed with those they met • They will also leave holding a priceless souvenir
@@boiledelephant James May? Script leads to him randomly bumping into this guy called Jeremy. I just can't imagine clarkson fitting the role of the charming, authentic rustic. "Jeremy is a rather opinionated old soul, who knows a lot about transport machinery. Jeremy invited me to watch him punch a runner for failing to sort out a decent meal, as is tradition. He lost his job for this, and immediately got a better paid one on another channel, as is tradition in these parts."
Our industrial estates are the best. I've seen many a discarded faded skips packet get caught in an updraft in my lifetime, a source of national pride.
That's my favorite show after _The Crazy Old Lady Detective Whose Appearance at Any Village or Great House Inevitably Means Someone Is About to Be Murdered, Yet No One Ever Avoids Her or Asks Her to Leave._
@@cisium1184 You inspire me Cisium. But I am not sure if inspire is the correct word. LOL or smiley face? I thought your titled spelled something, but it is just good. Your show title is Too Long to fit in the TV Guide
Definitely agree with you there. Its uncanny. I knew it was a parody, but I could still feel myself relaxing. It's like morphine. After 20 minutes nobody remembers what the programme is really about. Nobody cares. It's all the chopped editing cutting it into small bite size drizzles of loveliness. Not enough to really get your teeth into and concentrate on and not so superficial you switch over the channels.
This personifies so well how people see Americans and Brits differently. American shows are loud, over the top, have severe ADHD and are cringy. British shows are gentle, well spoken, soothing and are also cringy.
The funny thing is sixty or seventy years ago these are the kind of short films which would have been made by the COI for showing (mostly) abroad, presenting a rosy view of Blighty. The difference between then and now is that then the older film would have had a disembodied voice-over, whereas now you have to put up with a celeb and often the show is as much about the presenter as it is the subject; sometimes more so.
As a TV composer of several hours of factual entertainment, I can confirm the accuracy. I’m incredibly impressed you did this without notes from the execs, commissioner, finance department and two dogs that were shitting outside the offices during the viewing though
Yes they missed the necessary salt-of-the-earth type interaction where he converses with a cab driver or farmer, that’s where they usually get the human laugh in so that we know he’s not like other posh/middle class tophs…bonus if they do some kind of building and they show him doing exactly 30 seconds of it. He turns to the camera and goes “This is harder than it looks!” Dripping in sweat down his period piece tunic.
I liked this comment to be the 75th person to like it. I don't like odds and even numbers, they make my brain itch. I implore anyone else to not add a like to make it 76. I couldn't bear it. Please be kind 😢
@@TedEhioghae Yeah, exactly. Thats obviously the scene where the presenter is having dinner with the wonderful local people he's instantly best friends with and who showed me the real [insert place].
As a Brit, I'd be offended by this generalisation. But I can't be, because it's so bloody accurate. Scarily accurate. In fact, I'm half expecting it to be a genuine series by September...
The Baby Boomer generation, you mean? Yes, they *are* affectionately known as 'the worst generation'. They'll all be gone soon enough, then humankind can be free!
1:03 "this is...stunning" as he ambles across what looks like a scabby Sunday league footie pitch-cum-local-park (a bit of crap field, really) somewhere in the North-East
The celebrity travelogue thing really was kicked off by Michael Palin going round the world in 80 days, and it's amazing how different that was. It was actually about him travelling, as in the actual travel part, and who he happened to meet, and the things that happened while he was doing it. Now they go to other countries, driven from one pre-arranged set-piece to another, no doubt staying in top hotels, with virtually everything scripted.
@@Fernweh1965 It's not. Many places in the world are not more dangerous, and often less dangerous, than they were back then. Nobody going to film in Japan or Korea, for example, needs to be protected. It's because the people who make these shows want guaranteed 'segments' of things they think the viewers will find interesting, which typically involve reinforcing stereotypes or doing something bizarre. They have no interest in showing the country as it is. They just want to show them what they think the viewers expect to see.
@@RevStickleback I can see you've given this some thought but travel with a known person with extremely expensive equipment makes you a target. Certainly the middle east, Africa, South America and the USA are not places you can go without substantial risk. It's a lot different to going there solo or as a couple.
@@Fernweh1965 That is true, but the same, completely contrived set-up, clearly just being bussed in from hotel to location and back, applies anywhere in the world, regardless of the danger in each country. Zero spontaneity, and zero insight, as they just reduce each country to a picturesque cliché.
Very true ,and what’s more the finished program is usually all about THEM , and the amazing places and people they have travelled so far to film are just kept in the background
We watch it because it's comforting. Like a hot pie and chips, it doesn't matter if we've had it a million times, it always makes you feel like the world is good.
The fact that the "Cheers!" and laughter comes right after him saying, "And I've also been abroad doing all sorts of expensive things you could never afford to do" is brilliant, like he's really rubbing it in everyone's face.
Always "Cheers!" said to camera after sipping any alcohlic drink, and some childish reference to not getting drunk. When discussing a whiskey business, they always say tongue-in-cheek "I drew the short straw to investigate this terrible story which necessitated me tasting whiskey". The joke has worn thin.
And remember to show the tedious sequence of the meeting with the local expert - the approach walk and handshake. "Who Do You Think You Are" classic for this waste of time. Most of the show is footage of hand-shaking with local experts.
As a puertorican who went to Britain one sunny afternoon, it was really exciting to see the gritty dickensian suburbs by train and perfectly manicured country clubs ive seen a million times in media. Also, London is just undeniably gorgeous.
He still hasn't "escaped" the BBC yet as is evidenced by his ethnic self-derision at the end. Organizations such as the BBC smile with satisfaction at a job well done when they see that.
This is so true. You get a 2 minute intro telling you what the series is going to cover followed by another 2 minutes telling you what this episode is going to cover. And then about 5 minutes in the show starts. All too often you're not actually seeing Britain or whatever but the presenter doing various acts or stunts like milking a cow, making pottery or flying a zip wire. Its not about the scenery, its all about how great the presenter is.
Within the first few seconds I was thrust back into my mother’s living room, having dinner after school waiting for this show to end so I could watch Top Gear this is so damn accurate
@@awrightmate5818the joke tends to die if you let it linger for long, the jokes actually made me chuckle. I was expecting to see a DrWho commercial coming up next.
Always that emotional moment 2/3 of the way in, “so my great grandfather helped lay a part of this track?! Omg I’m going to need a moment to take this all in”
"Yes... and if we look here on this page....Can you make out the writing? It's very faint. We see that he actually fulfilled his dream of becoming a machinist. It's in german but I will translate: " Johan K. Raut drove trains from west-to-eastern Europe between 1941 and 1945....oh...."
information is useful and people like it being presented in the a familiar predictable way. for Americans this is an overly excited man with a deep voice who repeatedly teases what’s to come in the episode, for Brits this is this. I wouldn’t say it’s the same show, just the same package for new information
If you want to watch quality, non-pretentious British docs check out any series with Fred Dibnah from the BBC. Mainly focused on industrial heritage/steam age but great mid 00s nostalgia and well worth a watch.
Lolllll I am screaming. I’m Nigerian but born in America, so we grew up seeing so many of these wildlife reality shows narrated by British people this is so accurate 😂
You should ask the BBC to commission a series in which you dig up a bit of broken pottery from your garden and over eight one-hour episodes, you build an entire backstory for civilisation from it based purely on conjecture and hearsay.
I used to watch a lot of those, I really like them! And because I've watched a lot of them, I am now an expert in... Pretty much anything that ends in "ology" (there's an old BT joke there for anyone as old as me!).
As an American with admittedly limited exposure to British Television, I can confirm that every Brit docuseries that makes its way over here follows this blueprint for an opening. From the music to the voiceover to the driving to the food-tasting and finally to the tucked-in shirts. Nailed it!
Let me guess, you saw it on a PBS station during pledge drive, and they offered a tote bag with the show's logo on it, or an artistically rendered drawing of the host
I am confused about the tucked-in shirt bit. I always wear shirt stays attached to my shirt and socks when tucking in a shirt and they're brilliant. Oh well.. have to look your best.
Same. I think I've ground my teeth down behind the camera from all the forced cringe I've had to film because the executive insists on limiting the rest of us to their paltry imagination.
You know what would be great. If producers/executive etc listened to the ones behind the cameras. You know the ones that went to college/uni etc to learn the art.. instead of some office dweller. Haha. It's the same in any media company. It's always the higher ups that ruin the art. @@_ayoung
I got a lot of respect for this man because there's no way i could say the line "this might be the best thing I've ever eaten, I'm not joking!" without immediately wanting to punch myself in the face
Travel Man is literally a parody of these kinds of shows, it's supposed to be everything that these shows aren't. Why bring that up rather than anything else?
@@TheKitMurkit What? What's nativeness got to do with it? The emphasis on it being a white middle-aged man is because it's only white middle-aged men that can make a show about nothing just because they want to make a show. It's not really any deeper than that. It's not even about being white, since a show made by a 21 year old white woman is never about travelling Britain under some vague conceit. In short, it's because it emphasises that these shows are cookie-cutter and all the same. And also, they put as much emphasis on being white as they did being middle aged or a man. I don't know why you honed in on race.
As an American who is a little too fond of British things, this is perfect, and also I would probably still watch it. Which is also why Philomena Cunk is so brilliant, because she parodies this exact format so perfectly, "It's hard to believe I'm walking through the oldest city in the world. Because I'm not - that's in Iraq, which is fucking dangerous."
I was a bit narked at the long list of random "celebs" suddenly going off on free, cushy holidays around the country around the same period of time. I'm surprised they didn't bump into each other.
@@rachelcookie321 I think all those series starring Philomena Cunk in various settings are quite the parody of shows like these, only with a twist: instead of someone knowledgeable, they put an utter moron as host
and they always "bump" into a Tarquinn or a Camilla, who just happen to have a sealion sanctuary, or a natural sauna in their back garden, because of an abnormally bulging tectonic plate.
This was the same format for any given intro or prelude on cable television in the US for at least the 2010 decade, including especially most any documentary associated with travel or some news assignment on CNN.
"So, as we covered previously, David, who you don't know, has bought a house and is now living in it, which I think we can all agree is basically a good thing."
That and it's evil twins: 'looking around 3 houses and deciding not to buy any of them' and 'getting 2 designers to do a virtual reality mock up of how they would like to decorate your living room and then taking a few cues from both their ideas and adding a few of your own'.
As an American, I can confirm that my old parents would definitely stumble across this show at random while channel surfing, be instantly enamored and set up the DVR for the rest of the season.
Hahaha this is spot on. It's so generic, the same key phrases and background music every time. The "mhm I'm not joking!!" could be from a genuine British programme for all I know!
Don't forget to start each programme showing us where you are going, go in to the break showing us where you went and what is to follow, come out of the break reminding us what we have seen, and finish the programme showing it all again....(repeated on Wednesday....).
That drives me mad. Before the ads, they tell us what's going to happen after the ads, then when we're back from the ads, they spend 10 minutes showing us what they did before the ads. Do they think we have goldfish memories?
Not only British TV but almost every other travelogue show there is. Don't forget the food crawl segment where the host chats with the "local expert" or where the host goes to the local market and taught how to haggle in their native tongue by the locals.
Only Bourdain or Ramsay’s shows ever manage to make those in ways not cringey. Not over the top, feels real, and you’re in the middle of the journey to learn as they do, without the benefit of the Google alternative. Every other show up on Food Network in the 2010s felt off, sometimes the host felt as if they hated the job.
"i'm at the rich. diverse and vibrant market in where rich, diverse and vibrant locals have been doing market stuff for generations. Ooh look, there's a camel"
As an American, I always thought this was just our own stereotype of the British shows that managed to become famous over here. I didn't know many of them really were like this!
@@scooterdooter haha yeah probably. Though also love a good foreign adventure too. Used to watch a lot of BBC’s Simon Reeve who does this exact style but around the world.
Most of the time all you do is watch a middle-aged man or woman potter around while narrating their superficial understanding ponderously. They're mostly only worth watching for the pretty locales and stunning natural landscapes.
I started to feel that the foreign locals were actually milking the producers for every penny and wilfully lying to get it. I don't blame them -- these shows are very 'white saviour' and it's comforting to think about what's actually going through their heads.
Thank you for summing up this, why we gotta watch boring ass people who have been so entrenched in the industry we have to watch their holiday flicks. Vernon Kay was on tv recently and I have no idea why, we need fresh talent soon its so tragic
Dear god. My dad watches a lot of these travel/cuisine/architecture/whatever documentaries from BBC. This video really catches the essence. I was squirming while watching this.
Yours too, eh??? Lemme guess, he has a sixty inch telly which makes the BBC2 logo induce seizures in the entire village? Because you just know this is BBC2 in a nutshell.
They'll be gone soon enough... the BBC that is. I used to say that we'd be worse off without them, now it's become painfully obvious that we'd all be better off when they're gone... surprised BoJo got rid of them, they are mostly his press-office, seems like a bit of an own goal...
As a Canadian kid, this was pretty much how every wildlife show started. It kinda gave me goosebumps. My brain hasn’t heard this before, but it’s HEARD it before 😮
Except we don't just do this for wildlife documentaries in the UK, it covers so many different genres for no discernible reason! Some of them I wouldn't even call documentaries, they're just minor celebs doing "stuff". It even covers renovation or home improvement programmes or even people looking for a house or people buying / selling other things. So many different programmes I can't even put into a category.
"Ive driven for eight hours, traveling from the southernmost cities of England, to the northernmost cities of england. My journey is almost at its end"
Brilliant ! Not just white men -think of Susan Calman and Joanna Lumley. Also they always visit a really tedious local museum , go painting with a local artist and marvel at some painting they've produced then join a troop of Morris dancers and chuckle at what fun it is in the local pub afterwards!
