“And then sometimes I come across people where I don’t know why they’re funny, or they’re making me laugh for some reason I can’t quite work out.” Those are the people he wants to work with. Before they began shooting, Coogan tells me that he diligently read Homer’s epic poem, while Brydon, despite his best intentions, somehow did not.“Steve’s northern, working-class chippiness works in his favour here, I think,” Brydon suggests. “I mean, not all the time, but when you see it on screen. But they’re far from the only British comics riffing on the brevity of our existenceAs the pair retrace Odysseus’s mythical voyage to Ithaca in The Trip to Greece – the journey’s grandeur showing up our heroes’ pasty knees and strained map-reading – their conversation covers all the usual bases: music, movies, petty showbiz hang-ups. “All that internal discussion within Greek philosophy, it feels so weirdly and strangely undated,” he says. “But I collect them.
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have gone all existential in The Trip to Greece.
Whereas I’m sort of… I never get around to it.” Beside him, Coogan shrugs. But they’re far from the only British comics riffing on the brevity of our existence Beyond that, I don’t really care.”The choices the pair have made over the lifetime of The Trip underscore the divergence in their careers. “There’s a natural professional competitiveness in this industry,” he admits, “but when I see people who are really good at something I actually feel the reverse. “And I go, ‘Ah well, I had no idea.’ Because I don’t quite know where to find it.”‘This couldn’t be more idyllic, could it?’: Brydon (left) and Coogan in the new series.Coogan (left) and Brydon in The Trip To Italy in 2014.ack in Hydra, Coogan and Brydon sit on a restaurant terrace overlooking the turquoise sea. “I see people who I think, ‘Well, I know how they do that’ and they might be technically funny, and they’re very good, but it leaves me cold,” he says. “No, I’m being disingenuous – I think people who love The Trip will love it as much as they love the others.” Brydon agrees. It is a conversation that could quite happily run for ever. The Trip is heading to Greece for its fourth – and possibly final – leg. What has 10 years of sparring done to its stars? I have opportunities in America, but I can’t be out there.” He shrugs, contentedly.
Look beyond Britain and you will see that this sort of angsty philosophising has become something of a TV trend. That’s not how we would have a meal,” Brydon says. These are themes, Coogan argues, that are strikingly contemporary.
It’s not that the antics of David Brent and However, it is increasingly fashionable. Why not enjoy it?” It’s as good a reason as any to give up another three hours to his company. If Brydon and Coogan (or their screen personas) are indeed taking the frontline in a generation’s last stand, perhaps it is fitting that they are doing it while zooming along the coast in a jeep, gorging on high-end food and lightly badgering the twentysomething waitresses who serve it to them. “But weirdly, there is a part of me that thinks, once I’ve got all this stuff done, then I can pick and choose a bit more.”It’s possible that the death of Coogan’s father, in 2018, might have contributed to his desire to get things done. He ignores tabloid speculation about his relationships, and has no social media presence. “And I think this will feel just like The Trip.”• This article was amended on 17 February and 13 March 2020 to clarify that the pair enact the death of Socrates, not Sophocles as stated in an earlier version; and that the ancient site at Epidaurus is a theatre (with seats more or less in a semicircle) rather than an amphitheatre (with seats going all the way round).If you would like your comment on this piece to be considered for Weekend magazine’s letters page, please email The Trip is heading to Greece for its fourth – and possibly final – leg. “And that took so much. For me, having had a struggle with religion [There is a sense of an ending to this series. The Trip to Greece is the fourth instalment of the series directed by Series four carries them from Turkey to Ithaca, via Lesbos, Pilos, Athens and Hydra, a loose recreation of Odysseus’s journey home following the fall of Troy. “I would say that I think series four is probably the weakest,” he says. “As you get older and you know you’re going to die, I think the feeling that these struggles and questions are all perennial, that they happened before you were born and they’ll go on after you die, and it’s part of a cycle – it’s nice, actually.”‘All that internal discussion within Greek philosophy feels weirdly undated’: Coogan (right) and Brydon.‘I like grey skies’: Coogan in The Trip to northern England in 2011.hroughout his career, Coogan has been deeply protective of his private life. But either way, it is a canny way of staving off extinction. “I don’t have that. Soon he will embark on a national tour, combining music and comedy. I use public transport a lot,” he adds.