Caravanner of the Year

Home alone on Wednesday night, I watched Caravanner of the Year.  I have to admit this wouldn't normally have been my first choice of viewing, but I'd seen a clip on The One Show and it looked quite amusing.

As it turned out, it could easily have been a tribute to the wonderful Victoria Wood, who'd sadly died earlier that day.  It reminded me of her Middle-Aged Olympics sketches, which featured events such as the car parking challenge.

To win this inaugural Caravan Club event, six couples had to undertake various challenges.

The first obstacle for them to overcome was the awning challenge.  The awning is also known as 'divorce in a bag', according to Arabella Weir's brilliant tongue-in-cheek narration.  There were a few frayed tempers as they struggled with poles and canvas.

We were introduced to the couples and their vehicles - Keith and Angela, John and Jenny, Martin and Alison, David and Ann, Ali and Chris.

The youngest competitor, David aged 42, had brought his 81 year old Mum Gwyneth with him.  David had an encyclopedic knowledge of caravans, and we were told had been obsessed by them since he was five years old.  Unsurprisingly, David won the awning challenge due to his perfect alignment.

Then they all moved on to the very difficult 'reverse the caravan around a tree and back it through a gate' challenge.  Sadly David struggled with this, and nearly ran his mum over on a couple of occasions.  This was stressful for all parties involved, including the viewers.

When the competition moved onto the 'reverse past a hay bale and through a doorway' challenge, there was a dramatic twist - the partners who weren't usually allowed to reverse the caravans were let loose behind the wheel.

I felt genuine joy for two of the ladies who managed to do it perfectly, within the given time, despite their other halves shouting unhelpful terms like 'left lock, no not left lock, right lock, you've got the wrong lock!' on numerous occasions.