The Great Outdoors

A new comedy about rambling starts tonight on BBC Four, following the (mis)adventures of an oddball group of walkers as they tackle a different route each episode. So what inspired the series, and what will real ramblers make of it? Walk caught up with series creators Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil to find out…

walk: So how did the idea for a walking comedy come about?
Andy Riley: Well in comedy I think it’s been massively underserved – one of our personal bugbears in the past few years is the number comedies set ‘behind the scenes’ of television programmes, which I don’t really think connects with most people’s lives. But the actual business of going for a walk is universal. As soon as you decide to go for a walk and maybe take a slightly longer route to get a nicer view you become a rambler whether you know it or not. It’s got to be one of the most popular activities in the country but no one’s really written about in comedy – so we thought it was time to fix that!

On your ‘making of’ blog you mentioned that someone walked straight through the set because it was on their route – did real walks and walkers inspire a lot of the show?
Kevin Cecil: We’ve both done a fair bit of walking, though I have to say Mark’s better at the whole wild camping thing than me! A lot of it was inspired by real walks that we’ve done, and stories that we’ve heard. In episode three, for instance, the characters are eating sandwiches in a pub and they’re told they can only eat food that’s purchased on the premises – so they sell each other their sandwiches. And that apparently did happen.
AR: And a lot of our personal prejudices have found their way into the characters. I like to walk with paper – I don’t like to use GPS – and once got laughed at by a women who was in charge of a group of Scouts, since I was using ‘stone age’ technology.
KC: What we’ve realised in that walking as a hobby is at this cusp of technological change. It’s possible to never get lost again, or use maps or a compass. So we thought it would be interesting to have that kind of dynamic at the centre of the show – so someone who wants to keep things the same and someone who wants to embrace all the mods cons. I’ve got friends who do long-distance walking holidays and we talked to them. I hope it’s pretty clear when you watch the show that while we’ve got lots of jokes about walkers, we really are are on their side.

So have you shown it to any walkers or walking groups yet?
AR: No, we’ve only just finished editing it – we only stopped filming two weeks as go, so the editing process really has been tight because of BBC4′s outdoors season.
KC: Also, with filming the whole series outdoors we could only work during the summer months.
AR: But they will definitely see it tonight!

And what will they make of it?
AR: Well, walkers are such a diverse group that I’m sure there’ll have plenty to say! I think that a lot of people will recognise a part of themselves in the characters, like we have, and I imagine some people will say “how dare you, rambling’s not like this!” and other people who will think we’ve missed stuff out. So I hope they watch the next two, because there’s lots of jokes and stories about rambling that aren’t in the first one. But I wouldn’t want to presume – it will be great to see what people think!

Are there plans for more episodes after the first three?
AR: Well, we started with just the three for this season, but if it goes well, and if it’s well received, then we’d love to do some more.

So if people enjoy the show they should write to the BBC and let them know?
KC: They should walk to the BBC and let them know!

The Great Outdoors airs tonight at 9pm on BBC Four – let us know what you think on our Facebook discussion page or via the comments below. Click here to watch a clip and a behind-the-scenes teaser on the BBC website.