Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure, BBC2 - TV review

The two Irishmen are physically well matched and, having known each other for a long time, are well-practised in their banter.

Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure

In the relative comfort of middle age, where most TV commissioners presumably preside, Dara O Briain and Ed Byrne were packed off on their travels. Dara and Ed's Great Big Adventure is the latest in the growing and presumably cheap genre of blokey travelogue, this one following in the tyre-tracks of a trio of 1940s adventurers dubbed by the American press of the time "three damn fools" as they attempted to drive from North to South America in an era before the Pan-American Highway made the journey a relative doddle.

The two Irishmen are physically well matched –the latter short and skinny, the former tall and XL – and, having known each other for a long time, are well-practised in their banter. The first part of their journey took them through Mexico, by way of cliff-divers, transsexuals and masked wrestlers, and if they keep going they might even link up with Simon Reeve as he continues his trip through the Caribbean.

Reeve of course is the genuine article – a real travel journalist – and if he's feeling aggrieved by the all the comedians on his turf, maybe he should try his luck at an open-mic night.