Two Men on a Bike, review: inoffensive viewing for the Lycra-clad centrist dad
Why are there so many TV shows in which middle-aged men chunter away about life, death and aching joints, but none with women? Perhaps it's because women are too busy holding the fort at home and don't have time for all this self-indulgent waffle? Just kidding! Women are all recording podcasts about the menopause and giving midlife make-up tips on Instagram.
Two Men On a Bike (More4) follows in the footsteps of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, The Trip and Rob and Romesh vs (listed in descending order of brilliance), by featuring two male comedians being droll while engaging in an activity. The comedians in this case are Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel, whose 40-year friendship dates back to the Cambridge Footlights, and the activity is cycling across the South of France.
It's affably inoffensive viewing for the Lycra-clad centrist dad, a view which I formed by myself but had confirmed when my husband caught a moment of it after cycling home from work and said: 'This sounds good, what is it?' The dynamic is that Dennis is a seasoned cyclist, while Baddiel has turned up on an electric bike and says that the padded insert in his cycling shorts makes him feel like he's wearing a nappy. The furthest that Baddiel has ever cycled is from his home in north London to Wembley Stadium, while Dennis has done 210km in a day.
Temperamentally, they're different too. Baddiel anxiously contemplates his own mortality and says he's very much with Dylan Thomas on the raging against the dying of the light thing. 'I don't think I've ever raged against anything,' says Dennis, equably.
It's unlikely that anyone watching has ever said to themselves, 'I wish I could go on a cycling holiday with Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel,' including the partners of Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel, but the hour passes pleasantly. We see the sights, including a food market in Bordeaux and a ride along the canal to Pont des Sables. It looks to be a delightful part of the world, and our enjoyment of the scenery is somehow not dented by these two discussing which of them is better at growing a beard.
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