After stepping into the footsteps of the famous writer Jerome K. Jerome and rowing their way up the River Thames in BBC Two’s hit series Three Men In A Boat, comedians Rory McGrath (They Think It’s All Over, BBC ONE), Dara O'Briain (Mock The Week, BBC TWO) and Griff Rhys-Jones (Mountain, BBC ONE) return to our television screens this Christmas as they attempt to race Griff’s 1950’s yacht, The Undina.

There’s one major problem however – Rory and Dara have never sailed before and no-one is quite sure if Griff has the patience to teach them. As Griff says, “They’re not really grown up are they, in some respects… the thing that gets me is that I have to turn into the daddy of the group, laying down the rules and ordering them about!”

From critically acclaimed television producers Liberty Bell, Three Men in Another Boat will see keen amateur sailor Griff teaching Rory and Dara, not only how to sail through some of UK’s most treacherous waters, but also how to race a yacht. The voyage sees the inexperienced crew tackling many different nautical challenges including, negotiating waters around Tower Bridge in the heart of London, to very tentatively venturing into the busiest shipping lanes in the world at Dover and finally coming into the sailing mecca of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  Once there they will be faced with a daunting final test – a vintage yacht race against the Undina’s sister ship, The Josephine.”

As Dara explains: “Three Men In Another Boat is going to be a different experience. The gentle tone of whimsy and happiness that Three Men In A Boat had will be replaced by the tense sound of me and Rory arsing up Griff’s yacht!”

The first of 2 x 60 minute episodes sees them cast off for what promises to be a fraught and challenging journey.   After an early stop at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, it quickly becomes clear that there is a lot of work ahead as the experienced Griff fails to get to grips with a simple demonstration of nautical know-how.   As Rory is only too keen to point out, “Griff has just failed to sail the 8 year-olds toy sailing boat. A dead simple thing to do. Which, I think, is rather worrying from the race point of view”.  

As the voyage continues along the UK’s south coast in Griff’s “old tub”, he makes the mistake of taking Dara to a boat agent to have a look at something more modern, “Why did you show me this, I’ve got to go back to your boat now! That’s like walking your children into the lobby of a hotel then saying, ‘right let’s go back to the caravan!’” Dara suggests the agent comes to value the Undina – which doesn’t go down at all well with Griff: “It like your girlfriend, you don’t want to hear people’s honest opinions about her do you? The last thing I want is for someone to appear and say ‘well, you could have done better’, or ‘not as beautiful as I thought’, or ‘if I were you I’d get rid of her.’”

Along the way we’ll follow the guys as they try to sneak into the Isle of Wight festival to see The Rolling Stones and take in the sites of Brighton and Portsmouth, where Dara finally gets the ship’s helm, but as Griff doesn’t trust him with his boat, he has to make do with the 20,000 tonne British naval flagship, the Ark Royal. 

(Liberty Bell Productions - Avalon Public Relations LTD)

Links

• The programme aired over the new year and is now available to view via BBC's iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/