Long Way Home review – Ewan McGregor’s latest motorbike adventure is mesmerising slow TV | Television

They’ve gone Spherical, Down and Up, and now, for his or her fourth season, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are trying to experience the Lengthy Approach Dwelling. In 2020, the long-running blokes-on-bikes journey collection was revived by Apple after a 15-year hole, and it set its stars the duty of travelling from the southernmost tip of South America to Los Angeles on electrical motorbikes. Not all followers of the earlier seasons have been enamoured with it, not least as a result of it lacked the everyman attraction of their earlier runs. Having an enormous workforce at Harley-Davidson design and custom-build autos for the job, and getting an organization to put in charging factors alongside the route for them, wasn’t fairly the identical as two outdated mates leaping on their bikes and tenting wherever the temper dictated.

It is smart, then, for Lengthy Approach Dwelling to take it again to fundamentals. It definitely appears as if a concerted effort has been made for McGregor and Boorman to be extra relatable. We see extra of them with their households and kids, and it seems to be a extra intimate operation. As a substitute of the flowery central London workplace and big logistics workforce, there’s an enormous map pinned to the wall of McGregor’s storage, a small gathering of the unique crew, and that ought to do it. Or at the very least, it’s made to look that manner.

The plan this time is for the pair to set off from their houses within the UK – McGregor’s is in Perthshire, and Boorman’s in Suffolk – and experience classic motorbikes on a round route that visits “17 of our closest neighbours”, taking all of them the best way as much as the Arctic Circle, and again by way of the Baltic states and western Europe. It’s about 10,000 miles, ought to take them two months, affords them the consolation of setting off in June, fairly than in winter, and appears a little bit extra mild than their earlier efforts. After the horrific bike accidents that Boorman has had, and the in depth rehabilitation that adopted, who can blame them? “He rides more carefully now, especially at his age,” says Olly, his spouse.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a quieter, steadier tempo to this new journey, and when it does lastly hit the highway, it seems to be a easy and largely agreeable experience. The primary episode units up the thought for the place they are going to go, and follows the 2 males as they put together to set off. “We’re going to follow our noses and see what we find on the open road,” says McGregor.

It’s not a zippy opener. It meanders, delaying the departure, and provides a variety of display time to an try and find a cell phone that McGregor’s toddler son has dropped behind a bench. However the thought of doing the journey on outdated and probably extra rickety bikes places a couple of grains of sand within the petrol tank. McGregor opts for a 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado police bike, full with siren, whereas Boorman (ultimately) goes for a BMW R75/5, although his accidents imply he has to decide on with extra care. Kickstarting, for instance, will not be as simple because it as soon as was. “My legs are fucked,” he says.

Once they get on the open highway, in episode two, it kicks into gear. They set off from McGregor’s home accompanied by a marching band. “I had to run half-naked over this bridge in Trainspotting 2,” he notes, as they make their manner right down to Newcastle to catch a ferry to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, they eat herring, purchase cheese and take a look at tulips. They experience north and watch some fierljeppen, or far-leaping, a standard sport through which folks seize a pole and propel themselves over a physique of water. Neither appears eager to have a go.

As is usually the best way with journey reveals, and touring on the whole, the pre-planned set-ups are much less attention-grabbing than the spontaneous occasions. The pair head off to Germany, to the house city of Boorman’s late mom, and meet up with members of his household there. However on the best way, they encounter one other marching band, this time to rejoice an area gun membership. The gun membership members shoot, they socialise, and by the appears of it, they rejoice life with gusto. See additionally a Danish bar they go to, whose greatest prospects are of the equine selection.

Lengthy Approach Dwelling may very well be a bit extra concise. Ten episodes is loads, and whereas these early nations are stunning, the panorama lacks the drama of earlier journeys, at the very least till they get to Norway. It might not entertain viewers much less invested in McGregor and Boorman’s friendship, or classic bikes, or relentless rain. However the footage of them using ultimately turns into mesmerising, in a delicate, slow-TV form of manner, and whereas it’s regular, it is usually completely nice.