The ex-Bake Off presenter meets the stars of Nomadland, then buries poop alongside influencers – and it’s strangely charming
Am I alone in meeting news of a solo project by Sue Perkins with delight tempered by anxiety? Delight because I find her a very companionable companion on whatever televisual journey we are about to undertake together – warm, witty, and perceptive without ever veering into condescension or cynicism. And anxiety in case this means that she and Mel Giedroyc have fallen out. As a pair they were closing in on national treasure status during the Bake Off years and the sight of such enduring friendship – the powerful suggestion that once off camera, these two women now in their early 50s, could still enjoy being absolute idiots together – was, and remains important to me.
So this is the new outing for what I shall – unless otherwise informed by eight independent sources – cleave to thinking of as the latter half of emotionally inviolate duo Mel and Sue. This time Sue is travelling across California and Colorado as the presenter of Sue Perkins’ Big American Road Trip (Channel 4), setting off from just outside San Francisco in a fairly basic one-person caravan to experience the great outdoors (the girl from Croydon is rightly awed by the sheer size and spectacle on offer along the Pacific Coast Highway) and to talk to people along the way who have, through choice or necessity, taken up #vanlife.
