As Stephen Fry embarks on an American road trip for his new series, Weekend maps out some of the reasons why the broadcaster is such a national treasure on home turf

AS dream travel companions go, Stephen Fry takes some knocking. Curious, clever and kind, many of us have a huge soft spot for this broadcaster who, among other things, has been hailed "the nation's most wanted celebrity best friend", a dream train companion and "the famous person we most want to go to a pub with".

So it feels fitting that the ideal holiday companion, with his wit and warmth, should be seen hotfooting it around on foreign soil again, for his latest TV offering.

Called Stephen Fry In Central America, the series will see the actor, writer, comedian and presenter set off to discover more about some of the oldest civilisations on the planet.

As well as journeying through Mexico and the Central American Isthmus to the Pan-American border with South America, the expedition will see him take a white-knuckle ride on a zip wire, attend a donkey pageant and meet inmates at a women's prison in Tegucigalpa, Honduras' largest city.

"Obviously, I looked the areas up and got some books, but the one thing you can't get from books and the internet is a sense of the people," explains 57-year-old Fry of preparing for the journey.

"In the end, that's always going to be what's fun and interesting and different to all the other characters you meet. And the culture.

"I always say there are some things that tell you more about a country than anything else, and they are the music, the food and the humour," adds the London-born star, who studied English literature at Cambridge, where he got involved with the famous Cambridge Footlights drama club, along with long-time collaborator Hugh Laurie. "And Central America is pretty rich in all of those things."

Stephen Fry In Central America, ITV, Thursday, 9pm