“Unlikely Lads” Rylan and Rob Rinder team up for their own distinctive take on the Grand Tour — from Florence to Rome
This doesn’t sound like a typical BBC2 Arts programme…
RYLAN It’s “The Unlikely Lads do the Grand Tour!”
ROB Yes, this year marks 200 years since the death of Lord Byron, who was one of the great exponents of the Grand Tour [a sort of proto-gap year in which aristocratic young Britons would complete their education by visiting the great cultural capitals of Europe]. There have been series about that previously by the likes of Brian Sewell and Alan Whicker – but we wanted to see everything with fresh eyes. I’ve been to all these places before, but seeing Rylan’s reaction to them was really profound for me: to go with somebody who’s experiencing it for the first time makes it so authentic, and it empowers the viewer to react honestly to what they’re seeing. It’s cultural democracy – which I know Radio Times has done a lot of work on – and that, surely, is what BBC Arts is for.
RYLAN I learned so much on this programme, but it’s not forced learning. I mean, if someone said to me, “There’s this show on and it’s about Baroque art and stuff,” I’d be like “I’m gonna watch reruns of Keeping Up Appearances.” But what this show does for the likes of me, who maybe thought art wasn’t that accessible, is that I can now have a conversation about the Caravaggio and Tintoretto paintings we saw in Venice and Florence. And you as a viewer will be able to sit there and talk about it, too.
The Grand Tour wasn’t just art, though, it was also about “life experiences”
ROB We really tried to immerse ourselves in it all, rather than just see it. So, I love Vivaldi, but instead of going to a Vivaldi concert, I conducted one. Which was terrifying, because normally I’d prepare for six months for something like that, but I only had one evening. So I just stayed up all night trying to learn the score.
RYLAN Rob experiences everything from reading about it, instead of doing it. So while I learned lots intellectually on this trip, Rob learned how to actually live life.
Just how far out of your comfort zones did you both go?
ROB I was interested in how Byron was escaping the strictures of Georgian England and experimenting with different identities and sexualities, and the culture of masks in Venice is part of that. I never would have done this in a million years if it weren’t for this lunatic [indicates Rylan], but we got into drag, and crossing St Mark’s Square I felt confident. Although I did look like Pauline Fowler in a wig.
RYLAN He did, actually. But my most uncomfortable moment was the castrati singers in Rome. They weren’t real castrati, obviously, but I just felt really wrong. I don’t like to throw these words around, but I felt a little bit of PTSD from my X Factor days, about not being prepared, not being ready, having a camera in my face and being told to sing. I actually walked out. I didn’t black out exactly, but I don’t remember leaving the room. But then I found myself alone in a coffee shop.
It sounds as though things got intense. Did you get on, or rub each other up the wrong way?
RYLAN We’re like a married couple: we row all the time and we don’t have sex. There were some nights when I wanted to smother him in his sleep, but actually we fitted together perfectly, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. We’d both been through a recent divorce, we were both fleeing our real lives – like Byron – and we both needed to push our boundaries a bit. So now I can sit at a dinner table and discuss the Renaissance, and Rob’s not frightened to go up to someone in a bar and be dancing by the end of the night. This show isn’t just a couple of gays abroad: because we’ve truly thrown ourselves into it, it’s real and funny and authentic and quite emotional at times.
ROBI’m not embarrassed to say that I was moved to tears watching Rylan see the Venus de’ Medici [in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery]. There’s a beauty there that truly takes your breath away.
“Unlikely Lads” Rylan and Rob Rinder team up for their own distinctive take on the Grand Tour — from Florence to Rome
This doesn’t sound like a typical BBC2 Arts programme…
RYLAN It’s “The Unlikely Lads do the Grand Tour!”
ROB Yes, this year marks 200 years since the death of Lord Byron, who was one of the great exponents of the Grand Tour [a sort of proto-gap year in which aristocratic young Britons would complete their education by visiting the great cultural capitals of Europe]. There have been series about that previously by the likes of Brian Sewell and Alan Whicker – but we wanted to see everything with fresh eyes. I’ve been to all these places before, but seeing Rylan’s reaction to them was really profound for me: to go with somebody who’s experiencing it for the first time makes it so authentic, and it empowers the viewer to react honestly to what they’re seeing. It’s cultural democracy – which I know Radio Times has done a lot of work on – and that, surely, is what BBC Arts is for.
RYLAN I learned so much on this programme, but it’s not forced learning. I mean, if someone said to me, “There’s this show on and it’s about Baroque art and stuff,” I’d be like “I’m gonna watch reruns of Keeping Up Appearances.” But what this show does for the likes of me, who maybe thought art wasn’t that accessible, is that I can now have a conversation about the Caravaggio and Tintoretto paintings we saw in Venice and Florence. And you as a viewer will be able to sit there and talk about it, too.
The Grand Tour wasn’t just art, though, it was also about “life experiences”
ROB We really tried to immerse ourselves in it all, rather than just see it. So, I love Vivaldi, but instead of going to a Vivaldi concert, I conducted one. Which was terrifying, because normally I’d prepare for six months for something like that, but I only had one evening. So I just stayed up all night trying to learn the score.
RYLAN Rob experiences everything from reading about it, instead of doing it. So while I learned lots intellectually on this trip, Rob learned how to actually live life.
Just how far out of your comfort zones did you both go?
ROB I was interested in how Byron was escaping the strictures of Georgian England and experimenting with different identities and sexualities, and the culture of masks in Venice is part of that. I never would have done this in a million years if it weren’t for this lunatic [indicates Rylan], but we got into drag, and crossing St Mark’s Square I felt confident. Although I did look like Pauline Fowler in a wig.
RYLAN He did, actually. But my most uncomfortable moment was the castrati singers in Rome. They weren’t real castrati, obviously, but I just felt really wrong. I don’t like to throw these words around, but I felt a little bit of PTSD from my X Factor days, about not being prepared, not being ready, having a camera in my face and being told to sing. I actually walked out. I didn’t black out exactly, but I don’t remember leaving the room. But then I found myself alone in a coffee shop.
It sounds as though things got intense. Did you get on, or rub each other up the wrong way?
RYLAN We’re like a married couple: we row all the time and we don’t have sex. There were some nights when I wanted to smother him in his sleep, but actually we fitted together perfectly, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. We’d both been through a recent divorce, we were both fleeing our real lives – like Byron – and we both needed to push our boundaries a bit. So now I can sit at a dinner table and discuss the Renaissance, and Rob’s not frightened to go up to someone in a bar and be dancing by the end of the night. This show isn’t just a couple of gays abroad: because we’ve truly thrown ourselves into it, it’s real and funny and authentic and quite emotional at times.
ROB I’m not embarrassed to say that I was moved to tears watching Rylan see the Venus de’ Medici [in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery]. There’s a beauty there that truly takes your breath away.
RYLAN She had filthy nails, by the way.
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