To celebrate the 50th anniversary of seminal novel "On The Road", by Jack Kerouac, BBC Four sent comedian Russell Brand and his Radio 2 cohort Matt Morgan to the USA, where they retraced Kerouac's iconic road trip across the Big Country to San Francisco...
Starting in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, Brand and Morgan (both conspicuous in black), met the novelist's brother-in-law and visited his grave (to steal a pot of peanut butter a fan had offered up, for some obscure reason), before heading off in their truck to New York City.
While Brand is an acquired taste who fluctuates wildly from brilliant (his radio show), surprisingly edgy (Royal Variety), his token oddness (Big Brother) and unfunny tedium (his appearance on Have I Got News For You), I actually found him to be the perfect host here.
Brand's bohemian/spiritual/hedonistic image is a good fit to tell Kerouac's story, and in the edited context of a travelogue, ...On The Road gave Brand the necessary trim and polish that he benefits from.
This hour-long documentary was well-paced, packed a fair bit of information in, and Brand managed to speak to quite a few interesting characters, from Kerouac's then-girlfriend Joyce Johnson, to the millionaire owner of Kerouac's original transcript – which was written on a long scroll, and is currently "on the road" itself in a nationwide tour.
But there were plenty of opportunities for Brand to take centre stage, as he prank-called a footballer player with an outrageous US accent, chatted-up an attractive woman in a bar, peed out of a moving vehicle, dispensed cash to the homeless (before being berated by a "do-gooder" for supporting their drug habit – a criticism unpredictably countered by Brand), read Kerouac's poetry in venues packed with fellow fans, rode "bitch" on the back of a motorbike on a huge salt lake, and illegally picked up hitch-hikers...
It wasn't quite the hedonistic mindbender you suspect Brand would have embarked on a few years ago (drug-addled and free of a TV career to think about), but it was a decent adventure that reflected well on Kerouac's own beliefs...
Overall, I was surprised by how entertaining Russell Brand On The Road turned out to be, although it was unfortunate Matt Morgan was mostly sidelined. Morgan's the more reserved of the pair, but I suspect twice as intelligent, as he had the best line of the programme, spoken to Brand whilst standing in the expanse of a salt lake in Utah: "This is about the amount of salt I take with everything you say."
As a Kerouac layman, this definitely sparked my interest in the great American author, and can be considered successful in its aims to inform, entertain and educate... well, as much as any show can that has Brand running around in pants and cowboy boots.
12 December 2007
BBC Four, 9.00 pm
Starting in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, Brand and Morgan (both conspicuous in black), met the novelist's brother-in-law and visited his grave (to steal a pot of peanut butter a fan had offered up, for some obscure reason), before heading off in their truck to New York City.
While Brand is an acquired taste who fluctuates wildly from brilliant (his radio show), surprisingly edgy (Royal Variety), his token oddness (Big Brother) and unfunny tedium (his appearance on Have I Got News For You), I actually found him to be the perfect host here.
Brand's bohemian/spiritual/hedonistic image is a good fit to tell Kerouac's story, and in the edited context of a travelogue, ...On The Road gave Brand the necessary trim and polish that he benefits from.
This hour-long documentary was well-paced, packed a fair bit of information in, and Brand managed to speak to quite a few interesting characters, from Kerouac's then-girlfriend Joyce Johnson, to the millionaire owner of Kerouac's original transcript – which was written on a long scroll, and is currently "on the road" itself in a nationwide tour.
But there were plenty of opportunities for Brand to take centre stage, as he prank-called a footballer player with an outrageous US accent, chatted-up an attractive woman in a bar, peed out of a moving vehicle, dispensed cash to the homeless (before being berated by a "do-gooder" for supporting their drug habit – a criticism unpredictably countered by Brand), read Kerouac's poetry in venues packed with fellow fans, rode "bitch" on the back of a motorbike on a huge salt lake, and illegally picked up hitch-hikers...
It wasn't quite the hedonistic mindbender you suspect Brand would have embarked on a few years ago (drug-addled and free of a TV career to think about), but it was a decent adventure that reflected well on Kerouac's own beliefs...
Overall, I was surprised by how entertaining Russell Brand On The Road turned out to be, although it was unfortunate Matt Morgan was mostly sidelined. Morgan's the more reserved of the pair, but I suspect twice as intelligent, as he had the best line of the programme, spoken to Brand whilst standing in the expanse of a salt lake in Utah: "This is about the amount of salt I take with everything you say."
As a Kerouac layman, this definitely sparked my interest in the great American author, and can be considered successful in its aims to inform, entertain and educate... well, as much as any show can that has Brand running around in pants and cowboy boots.
12 December 2007
BBC Four, 9.00 pm
