Rylan Clark has admitted he spent hundreds shipping fake tan to India after a travel disaster meant he was without it for his trip, something he wasn’t willing to sacrifice.
After winning a TV Bafta earlier this year for Rob And Rylan’s Grand Tour , it seemed like a no-brainer for pals Robert Rinder and Rylan Clark to head to India to take on a second series of travel adventures.
However, while Rob was thrilled to be following in the footsteps of his literary hero, A Passage To India author EM Forster, Rylan admits that he was concerned about the possible pitfalls of a journey outside his comfort zone – and he was right to be.
The friends kick off their journey in Delhi, India’s capital and home to 34 million people, almost four times the population of London. “I was worried about everything,” he says. “Everyone said, ‘You’re going to get ill, you’re going to get Delhi belly, it’s going to be hot.’ And I thought, ‘This is my worst nightmare.’ And lo and behold, I get off the plane, it must have been about midnight, and I walk into Delhi airport and get bit in the face by some mosquito thing and I’ve got a golf ball on the side of my cheek.
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“I thought, ‘Here we go.’ Not a great start. I then have about four hours’ sleep, and am chucked into a tuk tuk in the middle of what I can only describe as a Wacky Races replay. I really dived into India head first.”
An insect bite and a frenetic journey in the Delhi traffic weren’t the only traumas Rylan had to contend with. When he and Rob arrived in Jaipur to meet the royal family, Rylan discovered that his bottle of fake tan had exploded in his luggage. “I was going to fly home,” he jokes. “There is no fake tan in India, you can’t find it anywhere. It was a nightmare. I ended up having to do some FedEx type thing from London, and it cost me 400 quid, just to get a bottle of St Tropez Bronzing Mousse.”
Rob admits that such dilemmas meant he occasionally lost patience with his image-conscious travelling companion while they were filming. “I say in the show that I feel like I’m the benevolent headmistress of a school for excluded children, and that went on for quite some time. You do run out of patience,” he says.
“We’ve both got annoying habits,” adds Rylan. “There are things I do that wind Rob up and there are things he’ll do that wind everyone up! But that’s why we’re best mates. We went into the Grand Tour as acquaintances and left as friends. And we’ve gone into Passage To India as friends and left as best friends. I know you were hoping I would say ‘boyfriends’ then, weren’t you?”
While fans of the first series did hope Rylan, 36, and Rob, 47, had become more than just friends, the pair make it clear during their Indian travels that their relationship is strictly platonic, but that doesn’t mean the two don’t tease each other with great affection, especially during a detour Rylan that wanted to make to see an astrologer.
“Usually when something is funny in real life, it can’t possibly be as funny when you watch it back, but that really was the funniest moment for me,” Rob says. “For me, astrology is absurd, woo woo, a bucket load of horse s**t, and I was really worried because I wanted to explore those ideas about going to India for enlightenment, but he wanted to go to an astrologer.”
After Rylan phones his beloved mum Linda to get his time and place of birth for the reading, it all descends into chaos when astrologer Professor Vinod Shastri tells Rylan he should expect to have teeth, lung and leg problems in the future, reveals that in Rylan’s past life he had many relationships and also tells the TV presenter that he has a “slightly psychotic problem”, much to Rob’s amusement.
“I was so excited. And the s**t he came out with,” Rylan says, laughing. “And to make matters worse, when I got back, my mum told me she got my time of birth wrong, she had mixed it up with my brother’s. So it was all b******s anyway!”
Rob wasn’t spared from having his own embarrassing moments in India, most notably when he ended up rapping in a marketplace in central Delhi after meeting a rapper called Naveen Koomar. It was an experience he describes as “horrific”.
“I like grime artists and I got so excited, but I was like David Brent on steroids,” he says. “There are no protrusive parts of my body left to cringe with when I watch it back. But I am glad I took part.”
There are also some emotional moments during the trip, especially when Rob and Rylan see the religious traditions associated with death along the River Ganges that lead them to talk about their own mortality.
“I can’t emphasise enough that either of us would never have taken part in anything that, even in the thinnest way, felt like constructed reality. It really mattered to us that we could have safe and deep conversations,” Rob explains. “It’s part of Rylan’s power. He creates a space where I just forget they [the camera crew] are there, so we can share those challenging conversations. It’s sometimes difficult, but it is a real privilege to make.”
The pair are hoping that Passage To India is as well-received as the acclaimed Grand Tour , and that it could lead to a third trip together. However, while the first two series were inspired by Rob’s literary heroes, it’s unlikely that a third would focus on a literary choice of Rylan’s.
“I’ve only ever written and read my own book!” Rylan says. “Where would we go? Maybe Marbella – someone must have written a novel about Marbella. Then we could spend a few nights outside the Sinatra bar, days sitting round the pool…”
Rob and Rylan admit they never quite saw their careers leading them here. “If I think back 20 years ago, I was going out in G-A-Y underage and wearing the Ted Baker sale, so I definitely didn’t see myself doing what I do now. I thought I’d probably be doing time!” laughs Rylan.
Similarly, Rob never foresaw his career in showbiz. He adds, “20 years ago I was defending murder trials – I didn’t see this in my future. But it comes back to that full life cycle and that you never know what’s around the corner.”
