| Admin/Biog History | According to his autobiography Outsider II: Always Almost: Never Quite, Sewell had been interested for some time in making a television programme about the Grand Tour undertaken by wealthy individuals during the 18th and 19th centuries. He went on his own Grand Tour during the Easter break of his first year of study at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Between 24 March and 1 May 1955, Sewell and five fellow students drove through Europe and visited various locations in Italy, including Milan, Florence, Siena, Naples, Bologna, Venice, and Rome. He then undertook further Grand Tours in 1959, 1962 and in 1989. Related materials can be found in: BS/1/1/5 - Personal Papers: Biographical material: The Courtauld Institute of Art; and in: BS/3/1/12a - Travel: Travel journals: Europe, Sep 1989.
Sewell contacted the BBC in the early 2000s about his idea for a television programme but received no response, so he approached Martin Durkin at Wag TV. Following the success of The Naked Pilgrim - Road to Santiago, Wag TV were keen to work with Sewell again and they produced the ten-part series. The premise was that Sewell would drive through Italy following the route taken by the Grand Tourists of the 18th and 19th centuries, visiting places including Venice, Turin, Milan, Cremona, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples and Padua. The maps and guides that Sewell had collected on his previous trips were filed with the material relating to this television series and it is therefore assumed that he used them as resources for his research when planning and writing the programmes.
The filming took place between January to May 2005 and the editing process took the rest of that year. The series was directed by Christopher Bruce and the Assistant Producer was Eliya Arman. It was shown as: Brian Sewell's Grand Tour (2006). Channel 5, 2006. |