Joe & Katherine’s Bargain Holidays
A few years ago, Norway popularised the fashion for so-called Slow TV where nothing much happens: dreary train journeys, interminable boat trips, and even an evening devoted to fires and firewood.
Joe & Katherine’s Bargain Holidays wasn’t quite as slow as that, but if it were a car, it wouldn’t have picked up any speeding fines in Wales. Comedians Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan went on holiday to Norfolk for four days and didn’t really do very much.
The idea is that Joe loves a bargain, while Katherine has to be prised from the lap of luxury with an industrial-strength crowbar. As Joe puts it: ‘She loves the shinier things in life.’
For Katherine, a good trip involves luxury accommodation, fine dining, and perhaps a spa day. Joe, by contrast, wants to come home ‘with cash still on the hip — enough to buy a sit-on lawnmower’.
Comedians Joe Wilkinson (right) and Katherine Ryan (left) went on holiday to Norfolk for four days for their new show. Pictured here with musician Peter Turrell on the Southern Comfort, Norfolk Broads
The idea is that Joe loves a bargain, while Katherine has to be prised from the lap of luxury with an industrial-strength crowbar. As Joe puts it: ‘She loves the shinier things in life’
(A top-of-the-range mower can cost around £10,000, by the way, although I did find something for £130 on eBay).
Presumably, the idea was that Katherine would fly into a rage every time Joe suggested some low-budget scheme, with hilarious consequences. This is a woman, after all, whose husband once took her to Paris for the evening for dinner.
Yet she not only enjoyed a £10 pizza, but didn’t even moan about the idea of a sauna in a pub carpark.
Anyway, here are some other things that Joe and Katherine did on their holiday. First, they had a £5 tour of a lavender field. Unfortunately, most of the lavender had been harvested the previous day.
A small patch had been left for the filming. You know how lavender plants are purplish and sway a bit in the breeze? Well, it was like that.
Apart from being a pleasant four days away for Joe and Katherine, the programme also offered consumer advice. Before you visit somewhere, Joe explained, you should check online for special offers
Joe and Katherine took a selfie, noted that there are 7.6m Instagram posts about lavender, and called it a day.
They spent the night in a church, where they ate a takeaway and convulsed with laughter. Lucky them. Later, they went paddleboarding, and Joe held some owls.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip — because it was rather unusual — was a visit to a rage room, where for £30 you can smash things with a baseball bat. It was like something from Taskmaster, even down to the quirky background music.
Katherine had first go. She started by tidying up, and then struggled to smash a glass vase. Joe put in a bit more effort. He managed to shatter a television screen and some crockery.
Apart from being a pleasant four days away for Joe and Katherine, the programme also offered consumer advice. Before you visit somewhere, Joe explained, you should check online for special offers. No kidding!
Alternatively, you could forge a successful career on the comedy circuit, and let Channel 4 pay the bills.
