Travel from Sydney to Japan with Charley (Charley Boorman - By Any Means (DVD))

Member Name: nykied

Product:	Charley Boorman - By Any Means (DVD)
Date:	03/11/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Much better than the first 'By Any Means'

Disadvantages: It's finishing next week

This review is about both series' of 'By Any Means', the second of which is now finishing its run on the BBC.

This series came about as an offshoot of 'Long Way Round' and 'Long Way Down', in which Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman went off on motorbike trips, firstly round the world and then down to Africa, both purely on motorbikes. These were both very enjoyable programmes, the former more than the latter.

Once those finished, Ewan went off to become Obi-Wan and other characters again and Charley decided to continue making similar programmes (possibly because he's not been as successful an actor as Ewan).

His first effort was trying to get from Ireland to Sydney, 'by any means'. This meant using the most appropriate means of transport linked to the area in which he was travelling, such as fishing boats and tuktuks.

This was a good series, but quite a lot of the time I felt as though Charley was just using each mode of transport in order to add another number to the tally of transport types used. This, I felt, detracted from the programme, especially as it was displayed prominently at the bottom of the screen. This spoiled it a little for me as some of the 'means' seemed pointless, so much so that I wasn't sure whether to bother watching the second series.

Well, it seems that the producers actually read my thoughts, as the second series, in which Charley goes from Sydney to Japan, is so much better. It's the same concept but the 'means ticker' has gone from the screen and Charley's no longer just using a mode of transport for the sake of adding another notch on his bedpost, as it were...

The second series brings out Charley's sense of humour. He's a lot less serious than Ewan and it shows in this programme. He doesn't mind making fun of himself and he's really down to earth. He has been frightened by a plastic snake, drank both snake blood and turtle blood and tried to take part in illegal bike racing, almost been sick in a performing fighter plane, plus much more.

This programme involves Charley meeting the people who are indigenous to the region through which he's travelling, such as monks in the largest Buddhist monastery in Thailand. He eats with them, lives with them and prays with them, which gives the viewer an excellent insight into both the countries and the people. It's a really enlightening programme and I'm very glad that I decided to put this second series on my Sky planner. I watch it every week without fail and I'm even thinking about spending my Amazon vouchers on this on DVD.

'By Any Means' (the second series) gets an absolute thumbs up from me!

Summary: If you decided not to bother with this after the first series, give it a try.