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Ewan back in the saddle for new trip

15/05/2007

Ewan McGregor and fellow motorcycling enthusiast Charley Boorman are to get back on their bikes for a new challenge.

Just three years ago the friends went from London to New York the hard way while filming Long Way Round and they are to embark on a similar adventure for new BBC 2 series Long Way Down.

The actors began their motorbike journey from John O'Groats in Scotland yesterday and will be driving for 15,000 miles until they reach Cape Agulhas at the southern tip of South Africa – three months and 20 countries later.

Long Way Round was a huge success both as a book and the Sky TV series and McGregor will be hoping the pair's latest challenge will prove equally watchable.

"Long Way Round changed us all - it bonded us together and made our dreams come true - and it's not often something like that happens," he said.

"So to be given another opportunity to do something like this is amazing."

The pair will be keeping their fans up-to-date with their progress via regular updates on the BBC's Long Way Down website – the first of which was posted yesterday at John O'Groats.

"It has been nice to start here, at John O' Groats. Making the effort to come up has been fantastic, well worth it," Boardman said on the log.

The six-part documentary is due to be shown in autumn and the capture of the show from Sky represents something of a coup for the BBC.

"I really enjoyed Long Way Round and it's fantastic news that Ewan and Charley are coming to BBC 2 for Long Way Down," Richard Klein, BBC commissioning editor of documentaries, said

"And this time around it's going to be even more intimate – with cameras on their bikes and helmets, a website, and video diaries capturing their joys, sorrows and frustrations as they happen. Viewers of the series will enjoy a unique, first person perspective of the landscape and people of Africa."

Both Boorman and McGregor are long-term supporters of the Unicef charity and are planning to stop in Ethiopia, Uganda and Malawi to see the effects of Aids, war and poverty on children in those countries.

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