Ten Favorite Moments from The Trip (2010 -2017)

I recently wrapped up a rewatch of the Trip trilogy and wanted to commemorate the occasion with a few words. What a great show. If you've never seen it, the premise is simple: Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, playing themselves, are sent by the Observer magazine on a restaurant tour in the north of England (The Trip, 2010), Italy (The Trip to Italy, 2014), and Spain (The Trip to Spain, 2017.) I say playing themselves, but highly stylized versions of themselves, molded to great purpose in what has the surface appearance of an improvisational narrative but is in actuality a wonderful meditation on - broad strokes alert - modern times, with all the angst, longing, and pop culture effluvium that come with it.


Here are 10 favorite moments. 

10.
Michael Caine 

aka "You Were Only Supposed to Blow the Bloody Doors Off!"

 

Chances are you've seen this link somewhere in your internet travels. It's probably the most famous scene from any of the series. And deservedly so. I only include it so low, here, because I OD'd on it back in 2010. It was/is so perfect. I love Rob's exasperation (in Older Michael Caine's voice) about being interrupted and Steve's broken-voice part. The Trip is loaded with great impersonations from its leads, and the genius of most of them is even if you don't know what the originals sound like (which was the case for Chicago-based me, unfamiliar with some BBC personalities) you can still recognize the quality of them based on the other's reaction.

9.

Steve Meets the ISIS Invasion

Originally this ending of s3 (with Steve's car breaking down, his dream and subsequent seeing the potential ISIS fighters on the horizon) wasn't on my list. But it really stuck with me after I finished watching. Excellent use of "Windmills of Your Mind" and a wonderfully appropriate and thoughtful end to both The Trip to Spain and the trilogy in general.

8.

"We Didn't Get On." 

aka Small Man in a Box at Vesuvius

Rob Brydon's Small Man in a Box routine annoys Steve, for reasons we'll get into momentarily. In the visit to Pompeii in The Trip to Italy, Steve is taken by one of the preserved corpses, and Rob punctures the moment by breaking into the routine. 

"The thing is he was real. This is a real man who died. I wonder if anyone cried for him. I wonder if anyone who escaped loved him and cried about him."

"We didn't get on."

(Steve, exasperated, wanders off, and Rob continues the bit with the two-thousand-year-old Pompeiian, supplying both voices.)

'It seems like he's a little oversensitive to me.'
" I agree."

'Are you knocking about with him?' 

"Yeah, we're just traveling round Italy."
'Oh, my God, it must be a nightmare for you.'
"It really is. In many ways, I envy you. You're inside the box. I mean, at least for you, it's muffled.

'Yeah, I'm just picking up the odd word, to be honest with you, but, you know, in all honestly, I'm kind of glad I died when I did and I never got the chance to meet the guy.'
"I know, I know. If I could climb in there with you, I would." "

At this point, Steve re-enters the scene to find him still doing it.

Anyway, it's been really good to talk."
'Yeah, you too, fella.'

I love that "you too, fella" bit. Anyway, the whole exchange and staging characterize Rob and Steve quite well. Immediately after this scene there's a surprisingly effective montage of scenes from Pompeii accompanied by the theme from s2, which is this lovely theme from Strauss's Four Last Songs. It's a wonderful, moody sequence, all the moreso because of the Small Man in a Box bit that preceded it.

7.

"I'm a small man in a box."

There's a wonderful scene of Steve trying to do the routine at the end of an episode in season 1. He can't quite get it, and he knows it. The vulnerability of the scene could be considered over the top or too on-the-nose, but the music - the same theme that ends each episode in s1 -  adds the vitally sad dimension to the scene. Again, these aren't the performers themselves opening their raincoats to the world (so to speak); these are actors lending their image to and bringing to life a very well-considered meditation on celebrity and all the aforementioned.

That theme is so great.

6. 

"Michael Buble."

Nothing much to this one, just the whole "Michael Boo-blay" exchange between them is wonderful. I don't know the talk show host they're referring to, but I trust it's as awesome as all the other impressions.

 5.

"Gentlemen, to bed..."

 

I guess I'll keep up with the links, though I hate making posts too link-heavy. The fickle future of You Tube availability always gives me pause. Here's the sequence, currently available here. I love it. I always crack up loudly when Rob says "Leave my sister out of it" and miss the next few lines. 

While we're here, I kept trying to screencap Coogan's watch to figure out what it was. The internet was way ahead of me here, and here's the link. A Blancpain Aqualung Grande Date. Great work, internet. 

4. 
Romantic Entanglements and Hugh Grant

The romantic travails of the two are an ongoing subplot of the series, occasionally taking over the A-plots. For each of the series, the Observer hires this Spanish photographer (Marta Barrio) to cover things, and each time she and Steve have a fling (and she leaves before he wakes up in the morning). He doesn't remember her the first time, although they met and had a fling years before. Ah, celebrity life.

The trilogy is bookended by Steve's chasing after Mischa, his American girlfriend (Margo Stilley.)

Rob, on the other hand, is seen as a doting husband and family man in series one, only to undermine that by putting the moves on Steve's assistant. 

Played by Claire Keelan.

At the end of the episodes, he phones his wife and lapses into his Hugh Grant persona, each time prompting his wife to say it doesn't do much for him. The viewer quickly learns this his prelude-to-romance voice. When it actually works in s2, he ends up marrying her (as we learn at the end of s3 when he returns home. (EDIT: See comments for mea culpa.) Actually, other viewers might have picked up on that before me. Either way, it's the intersection of these characters' professional talents with the indulgences of being famous and recognizable with their inner worlds and insecurities that informs all the above.   

3.

"You should have paid more attention to your chef..."

Like the dueling Michael Caines, Steve's superior Roger Moore impersonation brings out Rob's competitive instinct, particularly when there are ladies present. This culminates quite naturally - and somewhat uncomfortably - in the last dinner scene, where Rob simply can't let it go. As Steve prattles on about the history of Spain and the Moors - his own defense mechanism - Rob undermines him with a fictional history of Roger "Moore's" Spain. It's all very entertaining, but - like Steve's imagined meeting with the new Moor invasion at episode/series' end - it's a fitting end to their relationship for the viewer.


The best of them probably occurs in this scene from s3. 

2.

"Can I ask you a question?" 

"Yes, of course, absolutely."
"Is it true, what I read about you?" 

"And what do you read about me?" 

"That you're a bit of a cunt."
"Well, where did you read that?" 

"Well, it's in today's newspaper. Here, look."

"Well, whoever said that doesn't know me very well."
"Are you sure?"

...

And finally:

1.

"You turn your back on me, man, goddamn your eyes!"

Not a mix from all the series (there's also this one from s1, which is great, particularly Steve's early-morning cringing), but this one on the boat - where they're both a bit liquored up after their beachside lunch - is my favorite. 

One of my favorite moments in all television history, really - I just find this absolutely delightful. The kinetic energy of Rob's Hopkins impression in general is the one that possibly bests Steve, and as a result, bothers Steve immensely.

~

And there we have it. What a great show. Here are some leftover screencaps.