Coach Trip
Contents |
Host
Andy Love (voiceover)
Co-host
Tour Guide: Brendan Sheerin
Broadcast
12 Yard for Channel 4, 7 March 2005-6, 2009
Synopsis
Seven couples are taken on a coach trip around Europe, doing all the usual tourist-type things, but at the end of each day, and for no very good reason, they are forced to turn against each other and vote for the couple they want thrown off the tour. Lose this vote twice and they're gone, whereupon a new couple is flown over to take their place.
The irony is that it's mostly the gameshow element that spoils it. Effectively giving contestants their prize first is almost an interesting twist, but without any proper set tasks along the way, the voting element is just vindictive for the sake of creating conflict where it's not needed. In fact, there was really no need to turn this into a game show at all - just put a load of people on a bus and film it. But 12 Yard wouldn't do that, would they? There are some entertaining moments during the travelogue sequences, but add in the daily dose of wanton bitchiness and it all goes a bit pear-shaped. Despite this, I know two separate and distinct people who have admitted to setting the video so they don't miss it. For crying out loud, it's not Countdown!
Oh, and having shown us all this unpleasant backbiting, they have a viewers' phone-in competition, and guess what the prize is? Yes, it's a coach trip! I'll pass, thanks. (Perhaps many potential entrants felt the same, as in the second series the phone-in competition was for a weekend break instead.)
