Paul O’Grady goes on a ‘Great British Escape’

We may be in the middle of the second national lockdown, with foreign holidays off the cards, but Paul O’Grady is showing us that we don’t have to go too far to find adventure and beauty.

To say that the presenter has been surprised by what he’s found on his own doorstep is an understatement.

He says: “Kent is known as the garden of England but her beauty has been slightly tarnished lately because all you hear about Kent is lorry parks and operation stack on the M20. I think it’s about time Kent was given a fair hearing because there’s some lovely stuff down here and a hell of a lot I haven’t seen, you know.”

The latest episode of the domestic travel series sees the Birkenhead-born host explore Kent’s stunning coastline that stretches over 350 miles – and hides many surprising secrets.

He starts in Dover Harbour, boarding a speed boat to blast along the white cliffs. And if you have been watching this series, you will already know how Paul is taken aback by this iconic natural landmark.

When he flew over them in the first episode, he said: “When you see the white cliffs of Dover and you think this is the first thing the pilots saw when they were flying back from a mission in France, they must have breathed a sigh of relief. It makes you sort of proud… this should be on the National Health for people with depression – it’s just magnificent.”

Tonight’s particular boat-based journey takes Paul past wartime tunnels and over long-lost shipwrecks before he has an emotional encounter with some of Kent’s more unexpected residents – a colony of harbour seals living on a disused MOD navy base. Back on land, Paul heads further up the coast to the picture-perfect seaside town of Broadstairs, which was once the favourite holiday spot of Charles Dickens.

Paul meets the author’s Great-Great-Great-Granddaughter Lucinda and they uncover a remarkable coincidence between their two families and an amazing story about Paul’s ancestors murky past. In 1849, Dickens witnessed the double hanging of Paul’s relatives, the notorious Mannings convicted of a murder known as the ‘Bermondsey Horror’.

No trip along the coastline would be complete without sampling Kent’s most famous seafood export – native oysters. Braving monsoon conditions, a soaking Paul arrives in Whitstable to meet the West family who have been sorting, selling and shucking oysters for five generations. A good haul from one boat is 50 oysters, and it seems Paul is tempted to eat the lot in one sitting.

With his taste buds tingling, Paul returns to the white cliffs and the picturesque St Margaret’s Bay to seek out more bounty from the sea.

Professional forager Lucia Stuart leads the host on a journey of discovery across the cliff edges and rockpools, and he learns that while mermaid’s dust might be acceptable on pizza, brown seaweed tastes like the soul of his shoe.

It has been the year of the staycation, and with travel more complicated than ever and restrictions likely to be slow to lift, there’s a possibility that 2021 will much the same.

So perhaps we should all take a leaf out of Paul O’Grady’s book, and go in search of hidden gems close to home.

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