Coach Trip


Coach Trip is a British reality game show that began airing on Channel 4 on 7 March 2005. The show's premise sees four to seven pairs of tourists undertaking a coach tour principally of continental Europe between twenty and fifty days, whilst accompanied in every episode by tour guide Brendan Sheerin. A vote takes place every evening in which each couple votes for the pair they least enjoy travelling with, and the pair with the most votes receives either a yellow or red card. The show went on hiatus on 30 June 2006, and returned after a three-year break, from 25 May 2009 to 9 March 2012. In early 2013, the show went on hiatus again and was replaced by two new shows, Brendan's Magical Mystery Tour and Brendan's Love Cruise. However, in September 2013, Channel 4 announced that they had renewed Coach Trip for another series in 2014. On 9 April 2014, a further four series were announced following the success of the ninth series in early 2014.
The fourteenth series was the first of the relaunched Coach Trip: Road to... series, and aired on E4 from 25 July 2016 to 2 September 2016 entitled Coach Trip: Road to Ibiza, the fifteenth series aired from 16 January 2017 to 24 February 2017 with the title Coach Trip: Road to Marbs. The sixteenth series aired from 24 July 2017 to 15 September 2017 with the title Coach Trip: Road to Zante. The series was renewed for its seventeenth series in July 2017. This was titled Coach Trip: Road to Tenerife and aired from 8 January 2018 to 2 March 2018. The eighteenth series began airing on 28 January 2019 with the title Coach Trip: Road to Barcelona, reverting to 30 episodes, it ended on 8 March 2019. In February 2023, Channel 4 said the future of Coach Trip was uncertain.
The show's spin-off Celebrity Coach Trip launched in November 2010, and featured celebrity pairs embarking on the trip. The celebrity series' have been marginally shorter and have run between ten and fifteen days. Seven editions of Celebrity Coach Trip have aired in total, with the latest series concluding on 21 January 2022. Christmas and Halloween versions of the series' have also aired, with Christmas Coach Trip and Celebrity Ghost Trip in 2011 and 2021 respectively.

Broadcast, narrators and repeats

Coach Trip originally aired weekdays at 4:30pm before Deal or No Deal debuted on Channel 4, with the second series aired at 2:55pm instead. Since the revived series, Coach Trip has moved to the 5:00pm slot and later to the 5:30pm slot on Channel 4. Since the 14th series in 2016, the show has aired on weekdays at 7:30pm on E4.
In series 3, an omnibus edition was also shown on weekends but was cancelled part of the way through the series. It returned for series 9 on More4.
Andy Love was the narrator in the first two series, with David Quantick taking the role in both series 3 and 4. From series 5 to 8, Dave Vitty was the show's narrator; he was also the narrator for all the Celebrity and Christmas series' of Coach Trip to date. Jackie Clune was the narrator from series 9 to 13, with Clara Amfo taking over for the fourteenth series.
4seven aired repeats of series 8 onwards, More4 repeated all series, and defunct Sky Travel, Sky Mix and defunct Sky Real Lives have all only repeated series 1 & 2 of Coach Trip along with defunct Channel 4 scheduling slot, T4 on weekend mornings. Celebrity Coach Trip began showing repeats on Travel Channel in May 2014.

Hiatus

A Channel 4 spokesperson said the broadcaster previously had no plans to commission another series. Brendan later said in June 2013, during a telephone interview to Paul about his 2 new shows, that "Coach Trip has been rested at the moment – it's not the end of the programme, but we decided that we’d experiment with two new formats".

Revival

On 4 September 2013, Channel 4 announced there would be another series of Coach Trip consisting of 30 episodes, each 30 minutes long. Sheerin and Donald both returned to the show. Applications for the new series opened on the same day. On 9 April 2014, it was confirmed by Digital Spy that the show would return for a further four series.
On 6 April 2016, it was announced that Coach Trip will return for a fourteenth series in 2016 on E4. This series was called Coach Trip: Road to Ibiza and it began airing on 25 July 2016. On 23 August 2016, Channel 4 confirmed that Coach Trip would return for series 15 & 16 in 2017. On 13 July 2017 it was announced that Coach Trip would return for series 17. It returned for an eighteenth series in January 2019.

Format and continents

The show's format consists of four to seven teams of two undertaking a coach tour principally of continental Europe and has been sold to other countries. The tours have usually lasted between 20 and 50 days, with passengers remaining on the tour only until they are ejected by their companions via popular vote, to be replaced by a new couple the following day. The travellers are accompanied by tour guide Brendan Sheerin, who appears in every episode.

Coaches, registration plates and drivers

The coaches used were originally supplied by Motts Travel, a coach hire company based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, up to Series 13. From Series 14 entitled "The Road to Ibiza", the coach has been supplied by Westway Coaches, based in Raynes Park, London. The coaches are installed with cameras and microphones to record the passengers while on board. The coaches used in the show are decorated with a Union Flag design on the outside, Series 14 entitled "The Road to Ibiza" introduced a new beach design with #COACHTRIP on the coach roof.
  • The first coach 'T100 MTT' was a Volvo B10M with Jonckheere Mistral 50 bodywork. It was used during Series 1 and Series 2.
  • The coach 'MT04 MTT' arrived in Central London to be used for Series 3 only. It is a Volvo B12B with Plaxton Panther bodywork.
  • The coach 'MT09 MTT', also a Volvo B12B/Plaxton Panther, was used between Series 4 and 13.
  • The coach '29 WT', a personalised Van Hool TX series tri-axle, is used from Series 14 entitled "The Road to Ibiza" also use for other Road to ? series.
There have been four different drivers who drove each coach on each different series. In the 1st series, the driver was Chris Groombridge who only drove T100 MTT. Series 2 saw his successor, Paul Donald take over as coach driver until the 10th series. On Day 13 in Series 8, a temporary driver took over for the day and drove the coach to the ferry port. Series 11 saw Malcom Kimber take over as coach driver, Series 14 entitled "The Road to Ibiza" introduced George & Charles as new drivers.

Regular series

Series 1 (2005)

Coach Trip 1 was the first series of Coach Trip in the United Kingdom. Filming started in April 2004 and lasted until June 2004, the series began airing on 7 March 2005 and concluded on 19 April 2005. The trip went through several European countries. Chris Groombridge was the driver for the only time, Brendan Sheerin was the tour guide, Andy Love was narrator and the registration was T100 MTT.

Series 2 (2006)

Coach Trip 2 was the second series of Coach Trip in the United Kingdom. Filming started in May 2005 and lasted until July 2005, the series began airing on 22 May 2006 and concluded on 30 June 2006. The show's format had the same idents as series 1. This year, the trip was centred on Mediterranean countries. Brendan returned as the tour guide, the narrator was once again Andy Love and the registration number plate once again was T100 MTT. Paul Donald was the driver for the first time.

Series 3 (2009)

Coach Trip 3 was the third series of Coach Trip in the United Kingdom. Filming started in September 2008 and lasted until October 2008, the series began airing on 25 May 2009 and concluded on 3 July 2009. The show's format after a break of 3 years remained unchanged from the previous series but the titles were new along with the timeslot: seven couples travelling around Europe on a coach like series 1 for 30 days attempting vote off the least popular couples. With visits to Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg for the first time. Tour guide Brendan Sheerin and coach driver Paul Donald both returned for this series, which aired on Channel 4 with a similar start to series 1 and a similar end to series 2. David Quantick was the narrator and MT04 MTT was the registration number plate for the first and only time.

Series 4 (February to April 2010)

Coach Trip 4 was the fourth series of Coach Trip in the United Kingdom. Filming started on 7 September 2009 and lasted until 27 October 2009, the series began airing on 15 February 2010 and concluded on 23 April 2010. The length of this series was longer than the previous instalments, increased from 30 days to 50 days for a tour centred on European, Mediterranean, North African and West Asian countries on a coach like series 1, 2 and 3 attempting to vote off the least popular couples. Tour guide Brendan Sheerin, coach driver Paul Donald and narrator David Quantick all returned for this series, which aired on Channel 4. MT09 MTT was the coach registration number plate.

Series 5 (August to October 2010)

Coach Trip 5 was the fifth series of Coach Trip in the United Kingdom. Filming started in May 2010 and lasted until June 2010, the series began airing on 30 August 2010 and concluded on 8 October 2010. The show's format changed slightly from previous series and with weekends included, from Day 2 of that the couple who received a yellow card the previous day would be immune from the following vote the next day. The series involves seven couples traveling on a one-month tour centering on Northern European countries for the first time, with visits to Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Tour guide Brendan Sheerin, coach driver Paul Donald and the MT09 MTT registration all returned for this series, which airs on Channel 4. David Vitty was the narrator for the first time and the airing time moved from 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm.