The case for...TV travelogues

Making a case for TV travelogues feels a little like making the case for smart watches or QR codes; runaway technologies that have embedded themselves so fully in our culture that there’s little point in sticking up for them. But, like those examples, TV travelogues also get a lot of stick from people who resent their ubiquity. Sure, it seems hard to justify the surplus of British telly in which chefs or light entertainment figures traipse around exotic locales, extolling places I’m sure I’ve seen before. Just taking Italy alone, for instance, the last decade has given us more than a dozen travelogues hosted by 23 separate celebs, including Alan Carr and Amanda Holden, James May, Jack Dee and Richard Ayoade, and Rob Rinder and Rylan Clark.

It’s just that the dirty secret of why there’s so many of these shows is that they’re exquisitely watchable. Fluff, yes, but delightful fluff. Do I want television that probes at my soul and tears at my heart? Tightly scripted dramas and pitch-perfect comedies? Yes. But do I also want to watch Gok Wan asking polite questions while he tours the Chinese factory where all the world’s jeans are made? Michael Portillo pointing at an aqueduct? Dame Kiri Te Kanawa disclaiming on the whiskies of the Aran Islands? Yes, yes and yes. For those of us who love the idea of travel (sights, sounds, local colour), but hate the reality of it (money, airports, getting off the couch), travelogues are a bright spot in a cruel and horrible world, and thus an unassailable public good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the eighth most popular member of the Gogglebox cast has just come on screen, and I think she’s about to get into a gondola.