Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the feeling that Channel 5 is hell-bent on skirting as closely as possible to Alan Partridge’s TV pitches with their output. It’s not quite Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank, but Britain By Bike with Larry and George Lamb seems cut from the same cloth.
The title is not misleading. The programme involves Eastenders and Gavin and Stacey actor Larry Lamb cycling round Britain’s national parks with his son, the TV and radio presenter George Lamb.
It’s broadcast on Fridays at 8pm and there have been three episodes so far. If you’re interested and it had so far passed you by, have no fear, you can still watch it all via Channel 5’s on-demand service.
Larry told The Express: “When George was a boy, I had a little seat for him that was fixed to the crossbar of my bicycle. He would sit there with his little feet up in between my arms. Then, as he got older, he had a seat on the back and we’d literally cycle all over London.”
They’re on separate bikes now. Larry’s got an e-bike and George is on a road bike.
Speaking about the series, Larry said: “We travelled around four beautiful National Parks – Loch Lomond & the Trossachs, the Yorkshire Dales, the New Forest and Pembrokeshire. I had actually been to all of them before, but not so extensively, so it was lovely to see new areas and trails. We were away for about five days filming in each park, so we really got around.”
They seem to have enjoyed themselves. Larry describes cycling about with his son as “a gift of a job.”
Here at road.cc, we’ve only seen a few minutes of the first episode. A Guardian review was fairly ambivalent about it, but it seems like genial family fare.
It’s an hour-long programme, minus the ads, so it’s obviously not wholly about cycling. That first episode sees them train a sheepdog, make pork pies, go fly-fishing and experience an evening of ferret racing, while the cycling bit involves self-confessed beginner George riding up Buttertubs Pass.