Return trip

TWO blokes, one car, several restaurants, lots of impressions.

That’s the beauty of The Trip to Italy – you could write the pitch on the back of a napkin.

Not that you’d necessarily get a green light from Hollywood, but director Michael Winterbottom has never been the sort of bloke to make predictable films or films carved up into TV shows.

A few years ago he teamed up again with regular collaborator Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon to recapture the witty banter from the start of their film A Cock and Bull Story. The hook: Coogan was reviewing assorted British eateries for a broadsheet, and Brydon was a lastminute replacement when Coogan’s girlfriend dropped out.

It was just them either in a car, in assorted restaurants or pottering around British landmarks, talking about life, winding each other up and doing impressions.

This was shown here as a BBC2 series and released as a movie in the States. But could a second series be as good as the first? Judging by the laugh-out-loud funny opener (those Michael Caine in Batman impressions never outstay their welcome), many fans’ hopes were soon rewarded.

This second episode, partly set at sea, is a welcome break from the road trip format.

When the travelling mates aren’t on a yacht, they’re sampling more fine Italian cuisine while reflecting on middle age, ranting about drugs companies or doing Frank Spencer impressions. Brydon tries to seduce his attractive young shipmate by channeling Hugh Grant.

Brydon had a great time at the six different restaurants featured in this series.

“They were amazing places. The further south we went the more the sun was shining. We start in the north, work our way down, Rome, Tuscany and the Amalfi coast. It’s just the two of us talking, visiting places, and I hope people like it,” he says.

In tonight’s second episode, the mates deliver more poignant Michael Caine and Roger Moore impressions, which should touch a chord with anyone over 40. “There’s only one word for that, magic darts,” they repeat with Caine-inflected brio, while sending up game show Bullseye.

Weekend Escapes with Warwick Davis (ITV, 8pm)

AS Wicket, the chief Ewok, in Return of the Jedi, Warwick Davis took his first steps into showbusiness.

That was in 1982, and within a few years he had carved a career for himself as the UK’s leading diminutive actor, with jobs taking him around the world.

Roles in Willow, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Ray and Harry Potter eventually paved the way for his own sitcom, Life’s Too Short. Following his journeys with Karl Pilkington for An Idiot Abroad, Warwick’s back on the box with a new travel strand.

This time he’s joined by his family, wife Sam, kids Annabelle and Harrison and dog Sherlock, to explore exotic holidays in the UK.

First stop is Cornwall. “Cornwall isn’t all about cream teas and scrumpy, it’s a county brimming with magic, mystery and plenty of strange surprises if you scratch beneath the surface,” explains Davis.

Team Davis also visit Readymoney Cove, and discover how smuggling and piracy made the area world-famous; Penzance, where Warwick meets a group of women known as the Yarn Bombers or the Graffiti Grannies, and Newquay, where he takes part in a boat race with a difference.

Britpop at the BBC (BBC4, 10pm)

INDIE kids, prepare to feel very old as Britpop is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It seems the BBC is dating the start of the genre back to 1994, which is as good as point as any – after all, that was the year that Blur released Parklife, and Oasis unleashed their debut album Definitely Maybe.

But while they are arguably Britpop’s defining bands, plenty of other acts followed in their wake, and this programme – showing as part of the BBC’s celebration of all things Cool Britannia – raids the archive for clips of them in action.