How Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon filmed The Trip to the Northern Lights

In a remote Norwegian restaurant-hotel above the Arctic Circle, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are enjoying a quiet, private meal. Though it’s not that quiet – over dinner they bicker, do impressions and complain about the foraged seaweed butter they’re eating.

And it’s really not that private, either. Cameras, sound equipment and rain-drenched crew members are shoved into every cubbyhole of the snug eatery, waiting for writer/director Michael Winterbottom to call “cut,” so they can pile into a different corner for the next shot.

“I did like the butter,” apologises Brydon between takes. “I was disagreeing for comic effect.”

“I’ll tell Chef,” the waiter replies drily.

It’s been more than six years since the last series of The Trip, the critically acclaimed comedy drama that sees Coogan and Brydon play exaggerated, egotistical versions of themselves restaurant-hopping through Europe. And now they’ve returned to embark on an epic journey through Sweden and Norway, where their hunt for the northern lights will take them to stunning landscapes (at one point, flying through the fjords in a small helicopter) and even fancier meals.

On another production, filming such an endeavour might require a crew of hundreds – but here, it’s a skeleton team of around 25 accompanying them. “This is a drama, but we film it like a documentary,” says producer Josh Hyams. “We keep it nimble and tight. It’s a very small and talented team. Zoe, our first assistant director, has just come off The Running Man. She’s going on to Supergirl – these are huge films. On those, she has a team bigger than our entire crew.”

There are no hair and make-up artists, dressing rooms or entourages to speak of. Cameras are lugged up and down steep hills in the pouring rain, extras are recruited from the restaurant staff and most of the lighting is achieved using natural sunlight. In fact, it’s all so naturalistic that their main problem may be convincing viewers it’s not just another celebrity travelogue.

“Some people do sometimes think it’s a documentary,” laughs Hyams, “but it is constructed.” If nothing else, you’d never see the fictional Brydon and Coogan buttering up the staff.

Authors

Huw Fullerton is a commissioning editor for Radio Times magazine handling comedy, entertainment and specialist drama. In a previous regeneration, he covered all things sci-fi and fantasy for RadioTimes.com.