For those of us who had never heard of Ray Goggins, it was difficult to fathom how he had landed his own globe-trotting adventure show last year. His aura was Roy Keane mixed with a stern PE teacher convinced you’d been smoking behind the bike shed when, in fact, you were just a bit weedy and wimpy.
He was too crotchety to be an Irish Bear Grylls – whose love of sleeping in caves and eating lichen is softened by a wispy English poshness – while lacking the dash of a real-life Indiana Jones. Yet Indiana Jones is a defining vibe of Uncharted with Ray Goggins (RTÉ One, Wednesday, 9.35pm), in which the former Special Forces man hauls random celebs around parts exotic. The idea is that, in pushing their bodies and minds to the limits, they’ll uncover deeper truths about themselves.
Still, there’s no doubting Goggins’s pulling power with the Irish A-list, and the fun, such as it is, of this so-so series comes from seeing famousish types operating outside their comfort zone. Last year Goggins dragged Leo Vardakar and the singer Lyra up a mountain in South Africa, then hauled Kneecap through the Arctic Circle in temperatures cold enough to freeze the stripes off their balaclavas.
Series two finds this anti ray of sunshine ploughing the same punishing furrow. But there is a twist. Goggins, though still refusing to smile, has ditched the sergeant-major routine: he no longer looks angry all the time. The idea that the only good celeb is a celeb weeping for their bed has also been ditched, and the atmosphere is more of a Boy’s Own romp as he leads the Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham and the comedian PJ Gallagher up the Himalayas.
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Cunningham and Gallagher are keen bikers. As they roar off into the Himalayan sunset, the ambience is less Operation Transformation in the Tropics than an Irish version of those old Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear specials (minus the offhand slurs). That suits the celebs down to the ground, as both are at home on the open road – though it’s trickier for Goggins, who hasn’t biked for almost 20 years.
That said, the terrain is challenging for all three. Cunningham, at 64, is mindful that an exhausting expedition to Nepal will soon be beyond his physical capabilities: this is his last rodeo. Adjusting to the altitude takes its toll equally on him and Gallagher, however. Their exertions require the attention of the production’s travelling doctor, who judges them in good fettle.
Medical emergencies aside, the atmosphere is chummy and the guests are good sports. Gallagher talks about his mental-health journey and what a huge step it was to admit that he needed help. Over a game of pool, Cunningham reflects on his outspokenness on social issues. Does he ever worry it might affect his career? He shrugs. “I play dress-up for a living,” he says. “I do what five- or six-year-olds do.”
They finish by visiting a remote temple and then crossing a fragile bridge that looks like the sort of thing Indiana Jones might fight cultists on. “My wife is going to box the head off me doing that. You wouldn’t have got a darning needle up my Swiss,” says Cunningham – though, to be fair, he looks to be having the time of his life.
