Following in the footsteps - or rather tyre tracks - of Ewan McGregor, flamboyant comedian Russell Brand is to make a road-trip programme for the BBC. The 32-year-old TV and radio presenter will retrace the journey around America taken by Jack Kerouac in his autobiographical novel On The Road.
"We'll go to places of significance, take long car journeys and, you know, just hang out," says Russell, who'll be accompanied on the trip by his Radio 2 co-host Matt Morgan.
As a 19-year-old Russell says he was gripped by the romance and glamour of Kerouac's story, which is based on spontaneous road trips the author and his pals took across the US in the Fifties, at a time when the country was swept by a new wave of free thinking, jazz music and poetry.
The documentary will mark the 50th anniversary of the cult classic, which is to be published uncensored for the first time this year. A film version, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is also in the pipeline for 2009.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
