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It’s a strange crowd, as Ruby Wax admits early on in her new three-part series, Trailblazers: Rocky Mountain Road Trip (BBC One). “You might be thinking, what am I doing in the middle of a Spice Girl and an actress?” He asks; it is assumed that Wax, Melanie Brown and Emily Atack are not ordinary holiday companions. The answer, of course, is to pay tribute to a 19th century female explorer named Isabella Bird, who made her way across the Rocky Mountains in 1873. Brown and Atack are here to shine. Are they trailblazers, too? That will do.
It doesn’t matter, because together they make an entertainment company. Wax reminded viewers of her status as a TV host last year when Ruby Met…back, and she has an uncanny ability to harness the chaos she causes at the same time. This makes him look great. Atack says he needs to get off Instagram and see the world, while Brown is there apparently monitoring Wax’s driving skills. If anyone remembers Maureen from Driving School, the comparison is unfounded. They bicker like an old married couple (“Piss off, Ruby!”) and there’s a family dynamic here. It is not unexpected when Atack calls one of them “mother”.
The plan is that the women will take the same path as the Bird, before turning to other parts of Colorado to make a travelogue combined with adventure, self-discovery and self-care. I say self-care, because I know it has Gwyneth Paltrow connotations, and this is not woo-woo or condescending like that. But Nyoni was 41 and in poor health when he left Britain for a vacation he hoped would cure his ailments. Her health was greatly restored on her journey and she became famous in Colorado as “the Englishwoman who rode with a man”. The program does not make a song and dance about it, but Wax, 69, Brown, 47 and Atack, 32, have many conversations that show that they are trying to make sense of how women should live and live today.
This is interesting for several reasons. One is that they come to it from generation to generation. Atack worries that her eggs are “dying”; Wax wonders what her life would be like if she didn’t feel compelled to have children. One is that they are entering a traditionally male country, although they are meeting a number of female herders, who now make up a third of all herders in the region. They wrangle cattle, hike mountains, visit pubs and eat prairie oysters – not from the ocean. More precisely, Atack eats them, and never backs down when told what they are. “Oysters?” he answers, which is added to the buffalo wings of Jessica Simpson in the history of TV God’s unexpected cut of meat.
There is a stage scene where the three enter a small town shop/bar, and the residents stop and stare, although I suspect the presence of the camera may have gone some way to catch their attention. Once they stop making rescue jokes, it gets a lot better. There are two main categories, both of which involve a little bit of popular stuff, and most of them get stories from ordinary people. The first is Linda, who used her free time during the pandemic to write a romance-style novel about Bird and her rumored love interest Mountain Jim, a “one-eyed wannabe”. He seems excited by the way his work has turned out, as Wax studies the selected areas, and goes on to describe the mountains as “a lover’s kiss”. I want him to join the Trailblazers throughout their journey.
Another highlight sees them spending time with Tim, a self-proclaimed “mountain man”, who lives in a remote cabin only accessible by snowmobile for six months of the year. He talks about running it on solar power and spring water, the bears that have appeared on his porch, and taking from the earth only what you need to survive. His personal history is moving and Wax teases it well for him. He then hides in his wardrobe while Mel B smashes his desk. Atack, somehow ending up in the role of Saffy-from-Ab-Fab, dutifully gathers firewood and carries it outside. The mix of chaos and calm is exhilarating and relaxing. They gather around the fire and peace rests upon them. Judging by the teaser for next week, it doesn’t last long.
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