While the Euro-hopping reality competition Destination X might not have been the Traitors-rivalling summer smash the BBC were hoping for, it did give host Rob Brydon a lovely glow-up. The convoluted coach trip clearly wanted to give off a jet-setting vibe, so its master of ceremonies was outfitted in deluxe tailoring: boldly coloured three-piece suits, silky cravats and yacht-ready blazers. All of a sudden, Brydon had the debonair look to match his vintage Roger Moore impression.
His latest three-part series, Rob Brydon’s Honky Tonk Road Trip, also features some Mr Benn-style thematic wardrobe. The genial Welshman goes full Yellowstone cowpoke in a parade of flannel shirts, rugged jackets and the occasional Stetson hat. It’s all part of a premise that sees him piloting an imposing Ford Ranger pickup truck on a 2,000-mile circuit of the southern US for a crash course in country music.
Brydon has been tasked with marking the centenary of the genre – or at least the 100th anniversary of the Nashville radio show that evolved into the Grand Ole Opry, cornerstone and kingmaker of country music for generations – via the time-honoured celebrity travelogue tradition of driving around, gabbing to locals and immersing himself in the culture. That the centenary has coincided with country becoming, he claims, “the fastest-growing genre in the UK” – thanks to Taylor Swift and recent countrified albums from Beyoncé, Post Malone and others – offers another angle to explore.
We know Brydon is up for a road trip and a chinwag thanks to the various incarnations of The Trip with Steve Coogan. But at first he seems unsure if he is truly qualified to be our guide. Watching him confide to a dashboard-mounted camera certainly brings back beta male memories of Keith, the sad-sack cabby from Brydon’s TV breakthrough, Marion & Geoff. En route to Nashville, he phones his Gavin & Stacey co-star Ruth Jones for a pep talk. She reminds him that he has some genuine country bona fides: their 2009 Comic Relief cover of Islands in the Stream was a UK No 1. (“Dolly and Kenny only made it to No 7!” she points out.)
If the “full sensory overload” of a night out in Nashville is a little too much for Brydon – a line-dancing attempt with the UK actor turned country singer Twinnie sees him tap out during the opening Shania Twain song – the 60-year-old is far less wobbly legged in the interview segments. His respectful lines of questioning seem to gel well with southern manners, efficiently extracting Johnny Cash stories and general musings on the spirit of country music from silvery-haired veterans like the Grand Ole Opry fixture Bill Anderson and 92-year-old tailor-to-the-stars Manuel Cuevas. His gentle manner also works with younger guns, like the scraggly-bearded hitmaker Luke Combs and the bluegrass banjo maestro Tray Wellington.
While some of the anecdotes feel well worn, the opening episode does contain at least one genuine curveball. What on earth is Gary Barlow doing hanging out in a homely east Nashville studio? Apparently he has been coming to Tennessee to hone his songwriting since the 1990s, and points to Glen Campbell as an influence on Take That’s bulletproof ballad Back for Good. Here, at last, is an interviewee Brydon can needle, mock and wind up without fear of causing a diplomatic incident. (Barlow, bless him, is very game.)
With an entire century of country to contextualise and celebrate, it is understandable that this southern-fried tour through Tennessee and Kentucky (with pit stops in Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi to come) wants to focus on music and not necessarily engage with the current political moment. But it cannot help but seep in a little. While guesting on the glossy morning show of the Nashville radio station WSM – proud founder of the Grand Ole Opry – Brydon jokingly wonders if the US and Canada are still friends, which throws his slick hosts off their stride. We do not get to see the presumably icy aftermath.
But for all his apparent self-doubt, Brydon is clearly a good fit for this sort of breezy, bite-size format: amiable, interested, self-effacing and always ready to dress the part, even if he struggles to find a fancy cowboy shirt that comes in a medium. Should Coogan be concerned that his wingman can do the whole travelogue thing without him? Definitely.
• Rob Brydon’s Honky Tonk Road Trip aired on BBC Two and is on iPlayer. It continues on Sundays at 9pm.
