‘Constantly stunning and invigorating’ – Paul Merton and Suki Webster on campervan touring

The comedian and his wife on the great views, friendly folk – and friendlier sheep – encountered on their tour of England and Wales for a new TV series

With more British people holidaying at home and accommodation at a premium, demand for motorhoming holidays has soared. Curious to find out what “vanlife” is like, earlier this summer comedians Suki Webster and Paul Merton, who have been married since 2009, took to the road for a new Channel 5 TV series, Motorhoming with Merton and Webster. Over six episodes, it follows their trips through England and Wales in a 7.3-metre RollerTeam Pegaso 740 motorhome, and also offers vanlife hacks, kit testing and a peek inside some of Britain’s best vans.

Suki Webster: Motorhoming isn’t a “lie on the beach and just put your feet up” holiday, but you get used to it quite quickly. If you’re renting, there are quite a few things to work out in the first couple of days – the first being how to drive and not hit hedges or other cars. Within a few hours you get used to that. And then you’ve got to work out how to use the kitchen, how to make the shower work, how to change the gas and all of that. Once you adapt to it, it’s like a self-catering holiday but with the advantage that you wake up with a different view.

Paul Merton: Just to clarify, when Suki says “wake up to a different view”, she doesn’t mean that you haven’t put the handbrake on overnight and you wake up in the morning somewhere else. Sometimes when you arrive at a campsite and it’s getting dark you don’t take much in. The next morning when you get up it’s always a very pleasant surprise – particularly if you can see distant mountains or lakes or whatever. So it is constantly renewing your holiday experience.