Tomorrow night BBC2 shows the third in the latest series of Ewan McGreggor and Charley Boorman driving large BMW motorbikes from the top of Scotland down to the sounthern tip of Africa. The previous series showed them driving from London across Asia to Alaska and the US to New York – an impressive trip. One recurring theme from the earlier trip was their annoyance at being recognised and treated as celebs when they were yearning for anonymity and just being the two ‘mates’. This time, we see them with t-shirts with their names writ large and clear on the back, not the best route to anonymity. Its a shame the style of these shows is unmistakably ‘reality tv’ because this genre insists tediously on making more of things than there is. The usual way they do this is by talking up some personal tensions between the people they are filming and there is a liberal helping of this spread across Long Way Down. It makes Charley and Ewan just come across as spoilt: having set up this venture with large sponsorship and filming deals, we see them complain about the schedule, the support people, etc etc. The fun part, for bikers at least, is the challenge of the journey and some vicarious thrills about the lovely kit, but you have to survive the other stuff for a few minutes of that kind of pleasure. I wonder whether I will get through to the end of the series. The BBC website on the series is good with some nice links to the BMW site.