The Trip to Spain

Due to the success of the first two trips to Northern England and Italy, the Guardian, this time in conjunction with the New York Times, asks Steve Coogan to write restaurant reviews from another week long trip, this time through Spain. Rob Brydon, Steve's companion on the other two trips, is already aware of the trip, and agrees to go in favoring it over the alternative. Beyond Steve's planned itinerary which will take them south through the center of the country to mirror a trip he did when he was eighteen, they will necessarily embark on some Don Quixote/ Sancho Panza escapades due in part to the current Terry Gilliam movie project on the pair. Like the other two trips, Steve and Rob are accompanied by a plethora of celebrities, from Mick Jagger to Michael Caine to Hugh Grant to a pair of Bonds in the form of their impersonations, but unlike those other two trips, both seem centered and grounded in all aspects of their lives. Rob is settled in his life as loving husband to Sally and father to Chloe and Charlie, while Steve is riding a high with a pair of recent Oscar nominations, being in a committed albeit long distance relationship with New York based Mischa, and having a renewed relationship with his now twenty year old son Jonathan, who will join him at the end of the trip in southern Spain. As the trip progresses, Steve ends up quietly having to deal with crisis after crisis in both his professional and personal life. —Huggo