Pete's travels at the bar

CHRIS TITLEY caught up with him.

PETE McCarthy is one of Britain's best known travellers. He has been around the world as presenter of Channel 4's Travelog, for which he made more than 40 films, and wrote and presented three series of Desperately Seeking Something for the same network. He is a winner of the Travelex Award for Best TV Travel Writer.

So it was an interesting decision by the Royal York Hotel to place him in a basement room which smelled "like a student bedsit", in McCarthy's words. After a protest he was later moved to a sweeter smelling room, although still below stairs.

He is philosophical about the situation, musing on the fact that the hotel management might have done it deliberately to provide material for a future book. When the account appears in print, be sure to read it. McCarthy has a gift for turning his mishaps on the road into inspired comedy.

That is probably because this travel writer began his career as a comedian. Unusually the Warrington-born McCarthy didn't perform during his university years at Leicester. "I played rugby at university," he says with a smile. "The two things were mutually incompatible."

It was during a year-long stint as a teacher he realised he wanted to be on stage. Together with some friends from Brighton, including future Mr Bean writer Robin Driscoll, he formed the theatre group Cliffhanger.

Every week they would perform a half-hour show in a pub, each ending in a cliffhanger designed to persuade the audience to return the next week.

From this they formed a longer comedy show which they brought to York on tour. "Harry Enfield was a student in York," McCarthy recalls. "He thought comedy was just for Oxbridge types. He came and saw us at the Arts Centre and thought 'I will have a go at that'."

McCarthy's comedy career went from strength to strength. He compered London's pioneering Comedy Store; received a Perrier Award nomination for The Hangover Show at the Edinburgh Festival; and became a regular sketch writer for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones' TV series.

That he is more famous as a travel journalist than a comedian is thanks to an appearance on Radio 4's Loose Ends. "I told a true story about having a hangover at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Later I got a phone call from a producer at Channel 4 asking me to present a one-off show about Paris."

The next thing he knew he filming around the world. It was a change of direction that he relished.

Over a pint in The Maltings - which, with a seasoned travel-writer's eye he had already assessed as one of York's best pubs - he reveals his belief that people's careers should be like journeys. "You shouldn't plan it in any major detail, but put yourself in a situation and see where it takes you."

What brought him to York was the promotion of his first book, McCarthy's Bar. For this he returned to the west of Ireland, where he spent many an idyllic childhood summer (his mother is Irish).

While researching the book he decided to have a drink in every bar that bears his name, and there are plenty of those. But the book is about far more than the famous Irish pub culture.

"I wanted to capture Ireland as it is now, on the cusp of this huge social change it's going through. And I wanted to write a book that is laugh-out-loud funny. I wanted to embarrass people on public transport."

Not all the change in Ireland is for the better, McCarthy believes. "What has happened is that perfectly acceptable Dublin pubs have been gutted and transformed into parody Irish pubs. They're all old wood and brightly painted Celtic colours, conforming to the English stag night and German businessman's view of what Ireland should be."

This homogenisation on the high street is far more advanced in England, he laments. "I can't help notice how York has changed," he says. "You see Pizza Express, Ask, Caf Rouge. Ten years ago it was Boots and HMV; now you see the same places to eat. Soon there will be nowhere left that's local.

"One of the great things you still notice in small Irish towns is the businesses are almost all local names."

McCarthy cheerfully admits that he found writing a book liberating after so many years of editing his words to fit the demands of television. He plans to add five or six volumes to the bookshop shelves over the next few years. Readers are in for the trips of a lifetime.

Review

ALL the crack about the Irish being a slice short of a full sandwich is baloney. Well, they are, but they have got it down to a fine art. They like to poke fun at themselves, to do themselves down... but don't shed any tears over this because they are laughing all the way to bank while doing so.

I have been making an annual pilgrimage to the Republic of Ireland for several years now, holidaying and enjoying wonderful hospitality at small B&Bs and dining in pubs and restaurants, and spent a lot of time reliving moments which were just unbelievably funny.

And Pete McCarthy's journey of discovery in his book McCarthy's Bar just confirms everything ... that people who are in love with Ireland, as he obviously is, can recognise the illogical quirks, the amazingly laid-back attitude and the charm that makes this part of Ireland what it is, a country of magic and fun.

His journey to find all the pubs and bars bearing his name takes him from Cork to Donegal, and on the way he also found a world full of stories and humour.

His book is a great read, in fact a great read twice, because second time round it's even funnier.

McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy is published by Hodder & Stoughton at £12.99

Malcolm Baylis

PICTURE: Travel writer Pete McCarthy, who crossed Ireland drinking in bars bearing his name