Be Excellent To Each Other

Anybody else remember watching this? I recall being oddly interested in Alan Whicker when I was a kid because he looked exactly like my uncle, the bombastic theme tune and opening credits were exciting and I thought going round the world looking at things with your eyes and then going 'here's my thoughts on these things what I have seen with my eyes' was an inherently neat thing.

We also had the Whicker's World board game which was like Trivial Pursuit on a map of the world, only instead of general knowledge type stuff Alan Whicker would pose impossible questions based on local exchange rates and outdated geo-political knowledge, or obscure local trivia such as the best bar to buy a Mint Julip in and what the winning horse was of the Kentucky Derby 1968 (or something.) Every game attempted was abandoned after approximately twenty minutes.

Anyway, with fond memories I bought my dad a bunch of Whicker's World DVDs for Christmas. The very first episode is one of international consequence - should Yorkshire have a better and more fit-for-purpose airport than then one at Yeadon? Whicker interviews people both for and against, but it's evident that Whicker is dead eager for a glamorous international airport allowing international business and the opportunity for him to fly abroad internationally for more of his panama-suited Graham Greene-esque international exploits revealing fundemental truths of international relations in todays international world. Hilariously, the episode closes with him opining that the wasteground he's in would be much better turned into a big airport due to its prime location. The camera zooms out to reveal some lovely bit of local commons with dog-walkers out and about. Bless you Alan Whicker.

Later in the series however he gets pretty ballsy and starts grilling the Haitian dictator 'Papa Doc' in his own palace, before wandering around the capital talking about those who were disappeared into probable graves beneath the stadium. His thoughts on the quality of Haiti's airport restaurant (Yorkshire just had ham and cheese rolls) goes sadly unrecorded.

Sounds interesting Pete.

Whicker's one of those famous people who I hear a lot about, and gets referenced in things of its time (especially the Whicker's Island sketch which I think someone once did a remake of as Clarkson's Island - just south apparently), but whose output remains a mystery for me.

These days, the joy of watching old travel docs is the capturing of a time gone by.

The board game is unreviewed and ungraded on Boardgamegeek, alas.

My mum and dad were more into Wish You Were Here with Judith Chalmers.

I used to have conflicted emotions about watching people that I assumed were already quite wealthy showing off their glitzy overseas jaunts while I was stuck in rainy suburnia, and yet it was quite relaxing telly to veg out in front of.