The perfect antidote to the US presidential inauguration ceremony guff.

Oz & James Drink to Britain, is being broadcast on Tuesday 20th January at 20.00 on BBC2. The programme  will be available on the excellent BBC Iplayer for 7 days afterwards http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer.

The first two episodes featured the pair as a bickering old married couple, travelling through Britain in search of the quintessential British drink. James May acts the part of a sort of Inspector Morse type character; an ale-loving, old fogey of a proud philistine.  While the erudite and knowledgeable Oz Clarke, an excellent communicator, is dragged along to play his part as the bacchanalian patsy - a fancy talking, sybaritic know-all to be continually belittled. So far in the programme, the on-screen, tediously (and in my view clumsily) antagonistic relationship between these two presenters is sadly devoid of any real magic, a far cry from the reality when they visited at the end of last summer.

The 30 minute format certainly does not allow any real character or road-trip bonhomie to develop, and leaves this viewer (and several others I have spoken to) rather frustrated. Hopefully, as their journey continues the two actor/presenters get into their stride and become 'more likeable' - as they are in real life - and that some warmth comes to their relationship.  Perhaps camping out in the caravan is taking it's toll...

The book accompanying the series has now been released and is available from:

http://www.laddieshop.com/acatalog/Clothing___Gifts_On_Sale.html