ITV’s new reality show sees Tom Watson, Craig Charles and more row the length of Britain, an onerous task that comes with a side of unending seasickness
‘Oh, the glamour,” says Craig Charles, an hour into the first leg of the celebrity sailing race Don’t Rock the Boat (ITV). His sarcasm offers a neat summary of what is at stake. If famous people chomping on assorted raw animals is too tame for you, just wait for the sea sickness that befalls amateur sailors on choppy waters. All I will say is this: imagine Tom Watson with a bucket as Charles realises – stuck on a tiny boat in the middle of the sea – that nautical nausea is not limited to, er, one end.
Despite this, Don’t Rock the Boat is a surprisingly enjoyable entry to the reality TV genre, even if it does scream of a title being decided and a concept being invented to fit it. Twelve famous people – proper famous people, from all walks of life, with only one YouTuber in sight – have signed up to row the length of Britain, from St Ives in Cornwall to Lochinver in Sutherland. They are split into two teams (red and blue), trained for a little while, then sent off in groups, in stages, to do astonishingly hard physical graft for hours at a time.
