There has been a bit of a trend for sending comedians off to do things in pairs recently. There have been all those scariest-car-journey-in-the-world docs and the other week Simon Day and John Thomson did a gaucho thing. And, of course, Coogan and Brydon put their own twist on buddy banter in The Trip.
This time it is Jon Richardson and Matt Forde squeezing into a camper van and hitting the highway so that Richardson can do a searching-for-happiness thing and work out the best way to lead the rest of his life. Or something like that. The premise is that the serial singleton is now in a serious relationship (comedy fans will recognise Lucy Beaumount in Richardson's holiday snaps*) and is wondering how others deal with something so grown up that is so new to him.
But that just seems to be a very loose starting point. In the first of three programmes (the other two explore parenting and money) the duo head around the country looking at different ways people make their relationships work. After the briefest of interviews with a couple in Bournemouth who have been married for over half a century it’s off to meet a couple who don’t live together and another who are tying the knot and are lucky to have Richardson make a speech at their wedding. If that doesn't make their marriage last nothing will.
Inevitably the most memorable encounter is Richardson's visit to a posh swinger’s party. Nothing original there, but Richardson’s thousand-yard-stare when he makes his excuses and leaves just as the action kicks off is priceless. You'd have thought he had just come back from a tour of duty in the Middle East, not spent a few hours in one of the biggest houses in Hertfordshire.
The result is not particularly original, but the format works because of the dynamic between Richardson and Forde, who are a classic mismatched couple. Richardson is fussy, Forde is just a cuddly barrel of laughs, who nearly steals the show when he goes on two dates arranged by a professional matchmaker. Not only do both the women warm to him, but the woman who runs the agency is rather taken by him too.
Richardson, meanwhile, ends the film a little wiser and a bit less cynical about the future, but as bleakly funny as ever. Which is fortunate, because he is now engaged to Lucy. Though he and Matt Forde clearly get on so well it would not have been a surprise if the closing credits had announced that they had eloped together.
Jon Richardson Grows Up is on C4 on Mondays at 10pm. Last night's episode is on 4oD here.
*I didn't want to say this in the review but it's hit the front pages now – it was announced at the end of last night's doc that Richardson and Beaumont are now engaged.
