Pilgrimage, another series on BBC2

[Annette london]

Just reading Madroods thread about St Columbanus reminded me of the next series of Pilgrimage being screened this week on BBC 2
It follows in the footsteps of St Columba, another Irish monk who travelled from Ireland to Scotland around 1,500 years ago to spread Christianity
St Columbanus, St Columba …these Irish monks seem to get around don’t they!

 

[Tassie Kaz]

Just reading Madroods thread about St Columbanus reminded me of the next series of Pilgrimage being screened this week on BBC 2
It follows in the footsteps of St Columba, another Irish monk who travelled from Ireland to Scotland around 1,500 years ago to spread Christianity
St Columbanus, St Columba …these Irish monks seem to get around don’t they!

Thanks Annette. Hopefully the series will air in Australia eventually...its a route I'm not familiar with at all but I'm sure it would provide beautiful scenery.
Do you know any of the 'celebrities'? Not surprisingly, no familiar faces to me... I usually recognise perhaps one but no flash of such this time.
Happy viewing. Wonder if this series will polarise like the others have...

 

[Annette london]

Thanks Annette. Hopefully the series will air in Australia eventually...its a route I'm not familiar with at all but I'm sure it would provide beautiful scenery.
Do you know any of the 'celebrities'? Not surprisingly, no familiar faces to me... I usually recognise perhaps one but no flash of recognition this time.
Happy viewing. Wonder if this series will polarise like the others have...

Celebrities..Ha Ha ,I’m not really up on the celebrity culture!
never heard of any of these ones on the Pilgrimage
I took a snap of the names though
see below

 

[Tassie Kaz]

Celebrities..Ha Ha ,I’m not really up on the celebrity culture!
never heard of any of these ones on the Pilgrimage
I took a snap of the names though
see below ...

Thanks for the effort Annette.
Woo hoo ...there's my one 'celebrity-per-series' I've heard of! I know who Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is but hadn't picked him out of the line-up. He was a questionable judge (in the 'why him?' sense) in a short-lived Aussie reality show...can't even remember which one.
Let's hope the program actually involves walking this time...
Enjoy!

 

[Feetzgerald]

I've only just heard of this series. Does anyone have a link to somewhere I can watch the first series about the Camino? Can't find it anywhere and it's not available on BBC iPlayer

 

[Harland2019]

I have found episode 1 here:-

youtube bbc pilgrimage the road to santiago - Search Videos

www.bing.com

I can't spot Episode 2/3 at the moment, although there may be a pay channel that has it.

 

[Dan Amin]

Way of St. Columba is one of the eight ways of St. Andrew's, it seems...

https://www.thewayofstandrews.com/

All new to me, but on my doorstep (relatively!). Thanks @Annette london

 

[JTCamino]

Celebrities..Ha Ha ,I’m not really up on the celebrity culture!
never heard of any of these ones on the Pilgrimage
I took a snap of the names though
see below View attachment 121978

"celebrity pilgrims" whose descriptions sadly read like a microcosm of the secular world we live in, following in the footsteps of St. Columba to 'seek out his legacy'...excuse me for my jaded distrust in this production being anything but an attempt to disavow truth. Hope not...

 

[Introibo]

Not a single practicing Christian amongst them! Imagine if this was a series about the Hajj, packed out with lapsed Muslims. Or the Kumbh Mela with non conforming Hindus.
As always, Auntie knows best

 

[wayfarer]

Be mindful of Rule #2 before posting.

 

[RJM]

Celebrities....ugh.
Nothing involving celebrities is reality when it's projected out of a flat screen.

 

[wayfarer]

The Camino is for everyone, even celebrities...... and the rest of us.

 

[domigee]

Let's hope the program actually involves walking this time...

just what I thought!

 

[Phoenix]

Not a single practicing Christian amongst them! Imagine if this was a series about the Hajj, packed out with lapsed Muslims. Or the Kumbh Mela with non conforming Hindus.
As always, Auntie knows best

A reread of the second paragraph might be enlightening...

 

[peregrino_tom]

Well a more postive view from here..
When I heard in advance of Series 1 how the so-called celebrities were being ferried from place to place and just walking little bits, I feared the worst. But actually, somehow by the end it had managed to portray something of the essence of the camino, particularly on how the group began to bond and feel the sense of journey together.
The second series didn't make such a strong impression on me - although strong enough to write to the production company afterwards and ask if they could release more of the conversation when, at the end, the group received a wonderful audience with the Pope. I never received a reply.
I found the third series unexpectedly thought-provoking and moving. Again a bunch of people with little in the way of background or 'qualifications' for the job.. but maybe that's how the camino works?
So I am not prejudging Series 4 in any way, except to say that I'm looking forward to wild celtic scenery, Atlantic weather with attitude, and just hoping in the first episode they feature some of the Donegal I love (well that's pretty much all of it actually) but fingers crossed for Glencolumbkille..

 

[Trishagale]

Thank you @peregrino_tom for your positive and honest comments which are obviously based on actually having watched the series.

 

[RJM]

Thank you @peregrino_tom for your positive and honest comments which are obviously based on actually having watched the series.

In regards to anything coming out of the good old telly one doesn't have to do much much research these days to know the content lol.

 

[makingtrax]

Thanks for the effort Annette.
Woo hoo ...there's my one 'celebrity-per-series' I've heard of! I know who Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is but hadn't picked him out of the line-up. He was a questionable judge (in the 'why him?' sense) in a short-lived Aussie reality show...can't even remember which one.
Let's hope the program actually involves walking this time...
Enjoy!

Wasnt it The Bock or my house rules?

 

[Tassie Kaz]

Wasnt it The Bock or my house rules?

Yes; I think you're right with My House Rules. Groups of people doing renos on each others houses...hence LL-B as a judge being an interior designer...amongst other things. He was also in a 'doco' about refurbishing his own country estate which was aired here.

 

[Kathar1na]

I've not seen series 3 (The Road to Istanbul) but I have seen the other two (The Road to Rome and The Road to Santiago). By now, it ought to be clear that this is not a documentary about "walking a Camino" or "walking it all the way".

It's about a group of people put together who walk and talk and explore, with some good views of landscapes and cultural highlights. Leading phrases of series 4, The Road to the Scottish Isles, are a modern-day pilgrimage which promotes tolerance for all culture, they explore religious faith (of any kind), especially what faith means or meant to them personally, and searching out the life and legacy of St Columba, a person who was born 1,500 years ago. They visit places of worship, from pagan stones to an early Christian cave and a contemporary mosque and Sikh temple.

If you fear, believe or know that it does not show what you want to see and does not have the people in it you want to see in it, then my advice would be to just not watch it. For others: enjoy!

 

[David with new Kit!]

Chill guys - Its a bit of fun, entertainment TV. If you don't approve, then don't watch it

 

[Kathar1na]

following in the footsteps of St. Columba to 'seek out his legacy'...excuse me for my jaded distrust in this production being anything but an attempt to disavow truth. Hope not...

Not sure what you mean by this but could this be about the meaning of 'legacy' in this context?

The legacy and lasting impact of these Irish missionary monks during Europe's 'Dark Age', i.e during the 6th to 8th century, is huge. I don't know too much about it, I am ashamed to admit, but I've known the name of at least one of them since my childhood despite growing up far away from the Scottish Isles in Continental Europe. I knew his name because the biggest fiesta in our town with ferris wheel and carousels as well as the Romanesque cathedral in the town are named after one of them. His relics are there, too. A real person who once arrived there from far away.

From Wikipedia: It may be that the example and success of Columba in Caledonia inspired Columbanus to similar exertions. The life of Columbanus stands as the prototype of missionary activity in Europe, followed by such men as Kilian, Vergilius of Salzburg, Donatus of Fiesole, Wilfrid, Willibrord, Suitbert of Kaiserwerdt, Boniface, and Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne. Or here: Gallus and the Irish monks: grandfathers of European culture?

Quite some legacy, if you ask me, and worth knowing more about.

 

[Kathar1na]

We still have to pay our licence fee to watch fake pilgrimage or NOT. Its a pity they cant take the subject seriously rather than propagandaise it with people who are simply there to earn a few bob or raise their celebrity profile. Having seen some of the previous attempts its a MacDonalds version of restaurant eating.

You managed to express, in just three lines (I have a wide screen), your disapproval of the BBC licence fee system (£159 a year or $200 for those unfamiliar with it), of the BBC2 Pilgrimage series, of not widely known persons in the public eye on TV and of the fast food corporation McDonald's! That's no mean feat.

 

[Former member 49149]

If you want to really chill, hurry up and get retired and live in Ireland. No tv licence to pay. Courtesy of the government! The op was doing what many others do all the time: share something however camino related, out of goodwill. Thank you, OP.

 

[Annette london]

We still have to pay our licence fee to watch fake pilgrimage or NOT. Its a pity they cant take the subject seriously rather than propagandaise it with people who are simply there to earn a few bob or raise their celebrity profile. Having seen some of the previous attempts its a MacDonalds version of restaurant eating.

I like a McDonald’s now and then!
Too much restaurant food can be a bit rich for my taste

 

[RJM]

Chill guys - Its a bit of fun, entertainment TV. If you don't approve, then don't watch it

I don't lol
I believe criticism of TV and movie entertainment is as old as....well, TV and movie entertainment. Same goes with books. Some people even make a living doing it. Naturally people on this forum are going to have different opinions of entertainment based on walking the Camino and are going to voice it here as that's the purpose of an internet forum anyway. I doubt very highly there's a single, movie, book or television show about the Camino that everyone is going to have favorable views and opinions of.

 

[trecile]

I believe criticism of TV and movie entertainment is as old as....well, TV and movie entertainment. Same goes with books. Some people even make a living doing it.

Yes, but they usually actually watch the movie or TV show before writing their critique.

 

[RJM]

Yes, but they usually actually watch the movie or TV show before writing their critique.

Honestly, with all the fetid garbage coming out of the flat screen human umbilical cord these days watching it is no longer a prerequisite.

 

[Kathar1na]

I believe criticism of TV and movie entertainment is as old as....well, TV and movie entertainment. Same goes with books. Some people even make a living doing it.

I am not a native speaker of English and I wondered whether you are confusing criticism and critique. I am also not an etymologist but I would guess that a review, even a critical one, means re-view, view it again, make comments about it after having read or watched it at least once. That cannot be the case about the three one-hour long episodes of the BBC2's Pilgrimage - The Road to the Scottish Isles because they have not aired yet. The first episode will be on the telly tomorrow (Friday 8 April) and other two episodes can be watched a week respectively two weeks later.

But, obviously, people have a need to announce that they won't watch because they are against one thing or another.

 

[Kathar1na]

The second series didn't make such a strong impression on me [...]

I found the third series unexpectedly thought-provoking and moving. Again a bunch of people with little in the way of background or 'qualifications' for the job.. but maybe that's how the camino works?

Thank you for this comment. I remember little about the second series and, similar to your case, it did not make much of an impression on me. Of course, I had not walked to Rome so the element of 'been there seen that' was missing, unlike in the first series.

I did not watch the Road to Istanbul. Your comment made me curious and since the series is currently not on iPlayer I did look for it on YouTube and there is a pirate copy, technically not ideal, but I have now watched the first episode that goes through Serbia. For me it was more than worth watching, and I will look for the other two episodes, too. Thank you!

 

[Kathar1na]

I'd rather watch some of the Youtube content with real people but then thats not everyone on here.

That's nice to know that you enjoy YouTube content. Does it bother you that other people enjoy BBC2 content? I'm really just curious. BTW, I have BBC2 on cable.

I agree with you, people can't agree on what pilgrimage is. Truth be told, they can't even agree on what one contemporary pilgrimage subcategory, the Camino to Santiago on foot or on bike pilgrimage, is.

 

[wayfarer]

We have gone way off piste on this thread. From complaining about "tv celebrities" to tv licence fees. Please stay on the op's topic which is about a pilgrimage.

 

[GailGwyn]

Just reading Madroods thread about St Columbanus reminded me of the next series of Pilgrimage being screened this week on BBC 2
It follows in the footsteps of St Columba, another Irish monk who travelled from Ireland to Scotland around 1,500 years ago to spread Christianity
St Columbanus, St Columba …these Irish monks seem to get around don’t they!

Saw this advertised. Looking forward to watching it.

 

[peregrino_tom]

Well that wasn't awful but it was very, very dull.

 

[Trishagale]

Well that wasn't awful but it was very, very dull.

Oh that’s a shame. In Australia it can be viewed on our streaming service Binge. I still intend to check it out

 

[David with new Kit!]

I very much enjoyed it, and took it for what it was.

I didn't find that listening to their varied religious beliefs was dull at all. It was interesting watching the introspection going on.

But, I do appreciate that everyone will get something different from it. A pilgrimage means different things to many people.

In some respects it reflects most of the people I walked with and met on the Camino.

 

[ParrisPair]

I was going to give this a miss, but watched it and actually found it quite entertaining. So much so that I watched 2 episodes back to back. I enjoyed watching the dynamics within a diverse group of people. For me, this is part of the draw of the Camino? It was also interesting to learn about a pilgrimage closer to home.

 

[Sixwheeler]

Well a more postive view from here..
When I heard in advance of Series 1 how the so-called celebrities were being ferried from place to place and just walking little bits, I feared the worst. But actually, somehow by the end it had managed to portray something of the essence of the camino, particularly on how the group began to bond and feel the sense of journey together.
The second series didn't make such a strong impression on me - although strong enough to write to the production company afterwards and ask if they could release more of the conversation when, at the end, the group received a wonderful audience with the Pope. I never received a reply.
I found the third series unexpectedly thought-provoking and moving. Again a bunch of people with little in the way of background or 'qualifications' for the job.. but maybe that's how the camino works?
So I am not prejudging Series 4 in any way, except to say that I'm looking forward to wild celtic scenery, Atlantic weather with attitude, and just hoping in the first episode they feature some of the Donegal I love (well that's pretty much all of it actually) but fingers crossed for Glencolumbkille..

Well said, rather a lot of knee jerk reactions on here because they're "celebrities" so it must be worthless. I watched the first episode last night and there were some interesting discussions. To be clear there is a Christian plus a Jew, a Muslim, a Pagan, a Sikh and a man of no faith but having an open mind. Perhaps an open mind is what's needed here.

 

[Pauline21Again]

Well that wasn't awful but it was very, very dull.

I really enjoyed it as entertainment value and from the perspective of people coming together to get on and discuss all of their religious believes with no judgement. The scenery was interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing the journey as it goes from Ireland to Scotland.

 

[MikeyC]

Not a single practicing Christian amongst them! Imagine if this was a series about the Hajj, packed out with lapsed Muslims. Or the Kumbh Mela with non conforming Hindus.
As always, Auntie knows best

The young Ms Moffatt is clearly a devout Christian and stated how important her faith was to her as she grew up. She was also quite emotional when there were comments that she thought were negative about Christianity.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Just reading Madroods thread about St Columbanus reminded me of the next series of Pilgrimage being screened this week on BBC 2
It follows in the footsteps of St Columba, another Irish monk who travelled from Ireland to Scotland around 1,500 years ago to spread Christianity
St Columbanus, St Columba …these Irish monks seem to get around don’t they!

Yes...we do...

 

[Annette london]

Yes...we do...

We certainly do!

 

[Karl Oz]

Chill guys - Its a bit of fun, entertainment TV. If you don't approve, then don't watch it

Well, we all have an opinion about it, and we can express it even if it is not entirely endorsing. It is a forum, after all. No one is overheating.

 

[Former member 49149]

It's a holiday, so I watched episode 2. I like how it is being presented, actually. There are some moving moments.
One voice said: This should not be called Pilgrimage, it should be Privilege.
Another said : Pilgrimage is a journey in which we discover truth about ourselves.
I will watch part three when I have time.
Thanks, Annette, for alerting us to this.

 

[Annette london]

It's a holiday, so I watched episode 2. I like how it is being presented, actually. There are some moving moments.
One voice said: This should not be called Pilgrimage, it should be Privilege.
Another said : Pilgrimage is a journey in which we discover truth about ourselves.
I will watch part three when I have time.
Thanks, Annette, for alerting us to this.

Thank you Kirkie,
Agree with you wholeheartedly and the interaction between the participants is good.
The scenery of course is wonderful
Next stop…Scotland with some amazing scenery too I’ll bet