Shows hit the road this week

One of the enduring numbers from this gem, which delighted London audiences in 1962, was ‘Why do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home.’

A half century on, it’s still apt for many, whether the ditty is hummed waiting amid fellow passengers who don’t seem to understand the concept of queueing at Mansfield bus station or undergoing a pre-flight airport security check, or sung as the unofficial theme tune for ITV1’s Travel Guides series.

These Monday night trips - dubbed as BBC’s Holiday meets C4’s Gogglebox - follows the travels of five families who are sent near and far to road test popular travel destinations.

So while you are ‘coppering up’ for a break, these ‘famous five’ have been chilling out at home (the final check-in is a staycation in the Lake District) or away with holidays in Dubai and Tenerife.

The series’ first destination, the beach resort of Koh Samui in Thailand, was a real eye-opener with one family from Yorkshire showing that holidays are wasted on teenagers while three girls from Birmingham prompted one critic to say they had packed their bikinis but forgotten their brain cells as they bemoaned the absence of a make-up mirror or the lack of toast at breakfast when they ordered pad thai noodles.

Travel, but with the added attraction of real food, is top of the menu for two TV favourites who have been getting out of the kitchen and hitting the road.

For Gino D’Acampo, it’s journey’s end for his six-part Gino’s Italian Escape: A Taste of the Sun (ITV1) while Rick Stein is just getting into gear on his seven-week trek around the Adriatic in Rick Stein from Venice to Istanbul (BBC2, Friday) as he takes a tasty trip sampling the cuisines of Croatia, Albania, Greece and Turkey.

If all this travelling and varied diet is too much, you could do worse than stay at home and catch the glory days of TV favourites, good and bad, in the closing chapter of The Saturday Night Story (ITV1, Saturday).

The current Saturday night line-up might to some be a dog’s dinner, so prepare to go down memory lane as Stephen Mulhern narrates this round-up of the stars and shows, dreams and drama that will always be remembered or at times best forgotten.