Review: Jack Whitehall – Travels With My Father, Netflix

Review: Jack Whitehall – Travels With My Father, Netflix

It looks like comedians and their parents as a travel documentary concept is set to run and run. While Romesh Ranganathan does seem to have shaken off his mother for the time being at least, Comedy Central has just announced the return of Russell Howard and his mum and Netflix has just released the third instalment of Jack Whitehall's tetchy trekking with his father Michael.

As much as every fibre in my body wants to be irritated by this twosome's antics it does seem to work. It is no surprise, I guess, that there is plenty of chemistry between them as they share so much history. It does rather get on my nerves though that Jack calls his father "Daddy", as if he is constantly reliving the final scene of The Railway Children in his head. And it does get on my wick that father Michael is such a central casting curmdgeon. And yet, and yet...

This time around they are in America. Jack has been trying to get acting work out in Los Angeles so off they trot to some drama classes straight out of the Kominsky Method. Whitehall senior does have some previous here as a showbiz agent so it's no suprise he behaves as if the whole process is beneath him.

He adopts a similar position in a hipster eaterie called Cafe Gratitude. When asked to write something nice in chalk on the board outside you don't need to be Nigel Farage to guess which one writes Brexit. And which one tries to cover it up before anyone sees it. The Whitehalls are a little more on the same page at a wrestling match where Jack does the fighting and Michael plays his hypeman dressed as Winston Churchill. And when they meet up with a former gang member in Compton it's dad who gets the praise for his sartorial style. 

Elsewhere it is no shock that the idea of naked yoga is not to Whitehall senior's tastes. He isn't prepared to take much more than his jacket off, whereas Jack gets his kit off and his bum out for the cameras. it's a sequence that is full of easy laughs. But there are plenty of laughs and nobody is getting hurt so what's the problem? If you don't like the sound of it don't watch it. I'm not trying to bend over backwards to say nice things about this instalment, it's genuinely enjoyable. 

Available on netflix.com now.

Picture: netflix

Tags: 

Articles on beyond the joke contain affiliate ticket links that earn us revenue. BTJ needs your continued support to continue - if you would like to help to keep the site going, please consider donating.

Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.