The Mekong River With Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins guides us on her trip along the Mekong with relish
Ben-Felsenberg-176Captain Cook; Clive of India; James Wolfe, the hero of Quebec: once, Britain sent forth its adventurers across the oceans to forge an empire. Now instead we despatch comedians to the four corners of the earth. The latest example is The Mekong River With Sue Perkins (BBC Two, 8pm, Sunday). ‘God knows why they asked me, I guess Michael Palin was busy,’ Sue Perkins proffers with pre-emptive frankness in an attempt to blunt the barbs barely moments after her journey up the mighty Mekong River has begun.

Then she calls herself ‘the idiot Englishwoman abroad’, just in case the echoes of Karl Pilkington’s comedy travelogue on Sky weren’t obvious enough. All of which is quite unnecessary, for the cheery supporting star of The Great British Bake Off is no Palin but certainly no idiot; Perkins is a bright and engaging travelling companion. Admittedly she might have been done a disservice with the amount of mugging she’s been encouraged to do for the cameras, especially when we’d rather prefer to be looking at the colour and spectacle along the route.

Planning to travel more than 3,000 miles, with her eventual destination the river’s source in a Himalayan glacier, she begins in Vietnam and Cambodia, nosing around in the manner of an energetically curious member of some exotically cutting-edge holiday tour. She takes with relish to the task of assisting an admirably entrepreneurial noodle saleswoman on the waters of the Mekong Delta, is suitably awed and respectful for a boat-borne Buddhist festival, and altogether you won’t regret joining Perkins for the full four weeks.

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