The “chat show” series Carpool, in which actor and presenter Robert Llewellyn gives a lift to various famous faces, has been a podcast favourite of mine for some time now. It’s a fun programme, and the genius is in the simplicity of being both practical (the guests really do need to be dropped off) and entertaining. It’s a wonder why it has taken this long to move onto television. Well Dave actually, but that’s just being pedantic.
This is the perfect home for Carpool on TV as it mixes together the two things an average Dave viewer enjoys more than any other: cars and comedy. It’s like Top Gear with jokes. The best thing is that there’s no agenda: the guests aren’t appearing to publicise a new book or TV show, it’s not about finding the next big comic talent, there isn’t a big location to race for the conclusion and the subjects are universal.
In his web series Llewellyn wasn’t just interested in driving people who are professional comics but prefers those who are fascinating. Obviously with this series being on Dave (predominantly a comedy channel) it will learn heavily towards guests who are known for being funny.
Carpool TV Series
His first occupant was “new Adrian Chiles” Jason Manford hitching a lift to a filming of The One Show. As expected he proves to be a nice, pleasant fellow and goes on to explain the highs and lows of everyday life on the Beeb’s vanilla flavoured magazine show. But no-one cares about that; we just want to know why YouTube arguments becoming international incidents and that the young Manc is seen to have trouble getting through the BBC security, to the point that he has to spell his own name.
Next up was Rufus Hound, who begins with an insight into the background of his famous scene from Argumental when he pranced around in the buff to defend nudism. While it does lead momentarily into a dull conversation about Twitter, Hound revives it by explaining that the two had met years before at Edinburgh but our esteemed host has forgotten his early experience of the 'tasched one.
Bobby Llew on Carpool is great because he doesn’t pretend to have done research. In fact the less he knows about the guests allows for a laidback atmosphere where topics segway into one another without a pre-prepared routine. Carpool benefits from this "two mates having a chat" set-up. If they were being interviewed by Jonathon Ross (God bless his soul) the host would be sucking up and pretending to know everything about them. A little bit of honesty goes a long way.
Carpool Podcast with Robert Llewellyn
The transition from web to TV has been done very well and by keeping the same format has lost none of the charm, as there’s no producer shouting in Llewellyn’s ear to move on to something new. On the downside it’s a shame the full interviews have to be edited and cut down for TV. But fear not, the brilliant Bobby Llew will be uploading the full episodes through the usual channels at a later date. What do you mean you don’t know what they are? Fine, here you go:
Now don’t say I never give you anything. Meanwhile, until then Carpool is on Dave every Thursday at 8.30pm.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
