Pilgrimage
BBC2

My heart sank when I heard that one of the BBC’s flagship offerings for its 2019 “year of beliefs” was to be a second series of Pilgrimage. The first series, which ran during Lent last year, had sent a group of celebrities sweating down the Camino de Santiago. Now another group is doing the same down the Via Francigena, the medieval pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome.

I hadn’t warmed to the first series, which seemed awkward and self-indulgent, but if the first episode (5 April) of series 2 is anything to go by, this one will be far more engaging. It’s the same format but it’s the characters who make the difference. It is a subtle chemistry that dictates the way a group get on – but personally I found this year’s battered round-up of not-quite-household names easier to root for.

They are all veterans of the heart-on-sleeve celebrity whirligig. The Olympic long jumper (retired) Greg Rutherford has been on Strictly Come Dancing, and so have sitcom actress Lesley Joseph and comedian Katy Brand. And who is that swinging lithely up the mountainside?