Craig and Bruno’s Great British Road Trips, review: a swansong for Strictly’s departing judge

Watching an Italian doing a victory lap around England was the kind of light relief many viewers could have done without this week. But for those who had put their Euro 2020 hangover in the rear-view mirror, Bruno Tonioli made for agreeable company as the recently departed Strictly judge saddled up with now former colleague Craig Revel Horwood for Craig and Bruno’s Great British Road Trips (ITV).

Road trip telly has a tradition of throwing together wildly contrasting personalities and waiting for sparks to fly. However, Tonioli and Revel Horwood showed a clean pair of heels to the rule-book while circumnavigating Cornwall in a strawberry-hued Mini. They were mirror-image arch-luvvies who relished the spotlight and, much like five-year-olds who’ve had too much sugar, didn’t understand the concept of an “indoor voice”.

Tonioli has expressed his “frustration” at exiting Strictly after 17 years. Covid restrictions have made it impossible for him commute from the US, where he is a judge on Dancing with the Stars, meaning he was absent for most of last season, joining only by video link. For Strictly 2021 he is officially replaced by fan favourite dancer Anton du Beke.

He probably wouldn’t have wanted a Wednesday night ITV travel series to be his swansong. Nonetheless, Strictly devotees will have enjoyed watching these choreographic chums swap banter. And even if you couldn’t tell a cha-cha-cha from a zig-a-zig-ah, the boisterous bonhomie went down easily. It was utterly inconsequential television – and yet the journey was laid-back and zippy

That was just as well as the episode ticked off the usual travel television clichés. It began with the duo departing Padstow and taking in the stunning Atlantic scenery. Having traversed the Tin Coast, as made internationally famous by Poldark, an excursion in a fishing boat lay in store at Newquay.

“This is definitely not the Med or the Caribbean,” said Tonioli. He compared their sojourn amongst the gentle waves to “Mad Max on the sea”. What he’d make of a fortnight on an oil rig can only be left to the imagination.

Next was St Ives, where Revel Horwood sampled Cornish rosé. “You should have had one glass rather than one bottle,” joked his companion the following morning as they set off for Levant Mine, a grim ruin marked by tragedy.

Surveying the site, where 31 men died in an accident in 1919, Revel Horwood recalled his family’s involvement in the mining industry in Australia. “Loads of people in Australia were killed through the gold rush, similarly to here. It’s so dangerous.”

Things had taken a turn for the bleak. Happily, the Strictly soirée was soon back on track. The pals danced with a sea shanty troupe and then, proceeding to Penzance, went for a plunge in the UK’s largest sea water lido.

Along the way were jokes about Bruno’s “crown jewels” shrivelling in the cold and references to Revel Horwood’s granny driving. Their road trip didn’t change the world but it very pleasantly passed the time. And Cornwall looked lovely bathed in spectacular sunshine.