By Ben Felsenburg
So who would valiant be, to be a pilgrim? Would you believe Debbie McGee and that one-time Man Behaving Badly, Neil Morrissey? They are among the seven stars taking part in Pilgrimage: The Road To Santiago (Friday, BBC2, 9pm), making their way hundreds of miles on foot along the route traversed for centuries by pilgrims to the shrine of St James the Apostle in northern Spain. They’re a motley crew – no doubt carefully crafted by some whizz- kid BBC producer to reflect a suitably diverse range of spiritual leanings for the three-part series – but along with delightful Debbie the star must surely be the Reverend Kate Bottley. Already familiar as the Gogglebox vicar, as well as from appearances on Songs of Praise, this uncommon churchwoman is firmly forthright, honest about her own struggles with faith and even proves that being of the cloth doesn’t mean you can’t swear.
The reflective nature of the journey also offers up emotive moments in which McGee talks about coming to terms with widowhood after the death of her husband Paul Daniels, while for Morrissey the struggle is as much physical as spiritual – is he in good enough shape to last the journey? With superstar soul singer Heather Small and comedian and avowed atheist Ed Byrne, too, this proves to be a celebrity reality show that’s a cut above, providing a genuinely successful format in which to reach viewers on the subject of religion without sending them to sleep.
