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Wearing Reactolite lenses and holding a clipboard close to his chest, Brendan Sheerin, or Brendan off Coach Trip to most, spent 14 iconic years guiding hundreds of people – and viewers – around the world in a white vehicle adorned with Union Jack flags.
His efforts meant the unique reality competition Channel 4 series ran for a whopping 640 episodes while paving the way for the likes of Race Across The World and Four in a Bed.
Each episode was full of cheeky humour, required no strenuous brainwork, and felt quintessentially British. In addition, the episodes celebrated ordinary folk most beautifully, and somehow, viewers can enjoy 00s repeats just as much as the most up-to-date offerings.
It’s been 20 years since Coach Trip parallel parked onto our screens, and pinning down Brendan, 66, to divulge on his experience has been a challenge, as even when the cameras aren’t rolling, he is still gallivanting around the globe.
After back-to-back trips to Brazil and Barcelona, the TV personality stays in his hometown of Leeds long enough to log into Zoom and share his journey to reality TV royalty.
How Brendan got the Coach Trip job
In the summer of 2004, Brendan was content working at a seafront spa in Scarborough. Three hours away, TV producer Andrew Brereton was on a trip to his parents’ house in Stoke-on-Trent.
On this visit, he was fascinated by his parents’ tales of their recent coach holiday, so upon returning to his London home, an inspired Andrew worked it up into a show idea. He had the format and financial backing, but one thing was missing: someone to guide the travellers.
His team were intent on finding someone charismatic, funny, and who could control different personalities with ease. They contacted many people in the tourism industry, including Brendan’s boss, who was asked if she could think of anyone.
‘I said “I’m alright here” when she suggested it to me,’ Brendan recalls. After some convincing, he eventually travelled to London for an interview, booking himself a theatre ticket, so there was something in it for him too.
‘These producers were young kids; they looked about seventeen. They asked me about my worst day at work, and I said when a client died,’ he remembers, adding, ‘People do die on holiday, you know, it happens.
‘The next day they rang me and said “We found the person we want”. I replied, “Oh, I’m so happy for you”, and they said, “No, Brendan, it’s you, it’s got to be you”.
‘My stomach churned. I knew my life was about to change.’
The timing of the opportunity came at a tough point for Brendan. ‘It was weird because my partner of 25 years, Les, died two years before of heart failure, so I was getting over that,’ he explains.
But his loss also made him all the more aware that life can be short, which fuelled Brendan’s decision to join the show. ‘When you get a new opportunity, you either say yes or go home and live in regret. I can put my hand on my heart and say, I ran with it.
‘Les was probably looking down from heaven with a smile because he liked a coach trip.’
As a tour guide himself, Les taught Brendan the tricks of the trade when he accidentally became one. The story goes that he was working in the office of a travel company, but when one of the guides became ill, he had to step up. ‘It was sink or swim, and well, I swam,’ he jovially says.
Brendan says his ‘big love’ helped when filming commenced, too. ‘I carried a bit of Les onto the show with me for sure,’ Brendan says.
‘What people don’t know is that I sometimes had Les’ notes with me. We lived in L’Estartit on the Costa Brava near Barcelona, so I’d definitely use them whenever we went around there.
‘Me and Les used to walk down the La Rambla together every Sunday evening. It’s a special place for us.
‘It wasn’t always easy to be a gay couple back then. We faced some abuse, but we had each other. I’ve had viewers thank me for being representation for them, which is heartwarming.’
The start of the Coach Trip adventure
The basic premise of the Channel 4 show involved seven pairs of people — the spectrum ranged widely from sweet retired couple to unruly university pals — embarking on a voyage around Europe.
To have a longer trip, contestants had to be popular, as each day concluded with a face-to-face vote. At this roadside ceremony, Brendan handed out a yellow card to the couple with the most votes or a red card if they’d already received it. At this point, they were forced to unload their baggage and watch as their ride continued off into the sunset without them.
An initial pilot was filmed for Coach Trip in Oxfordshire, and Brendan remembers that the voting dramatically changed – travellers were previously allowed to keep changing their vote, but that naturally proved too time-consuming.
After that, they were TV-ready and hit the road in Amsterdam. In those heady early days, the cameramen would lie down in the bus gangway as they didn’t have the budget to fit permanent ones.
‘The first day was very long. They filmed the coach’s wheels going round, and then my shoes coming down the steps over and over. I had never done anything like it before, so I was guided by production,’ Brendan says.
The commitment to doing what was necessary paid off, with TV magic soon being made. ‘In Greece, we went to the worst mud bath ever, full of frogs that were jumping on us, and one traveller got stuck. We had to drag her across the top while she was sinking down,’ Brendan fondly recalls with a laugh.
When it came time for airing in March 2005, the audiences lapped these antics up and voted with their remotes: ‘It kept getting bigger and bigger. We were getting nearly two million people watching every day. Crazy!’
Being Brendan off Coach Trip
There were plenty of Brendan-isms from his tutting at breakfast latecomers to getting passengers to sing the national anthem as they entered the boundary of a new country.
A name badge was always clipped onto his summer shirt – although why, is unclear, as after the launch series, everyone knew who he was, but his commitment was part of the charm. Despite being part of one of telly’s longest-running shows, he still felt like a tour guide you would get assigned on a package holiday in Menorca.
Brendan’s touch was all over the behind-the-scenes too; the coach drivers sometimes relied on his navigation, while production would come to him to check itineraries.
When asked what makes a good tour guide, Brendan says: ‘Being a people person and caring about holidaymakers’ enjoyment.
‘It was my responsibility to make sure they had a lovely time on holiday, and that didn’t change whether it was for a TV show or not.’
His enthusiasm for the role is still intact today. ‘We never queued up for anything,’ he excitedly tells us. ‘If we went to a water park, they would give us it for the whole morning and we could ride as many rides as we wanted.’
So, were there any downsides to the job? ‘We stayed in France for a bit too long once,’ he says after a long pause, in a way that tells us he was grappling to think of anything negative.
After years as part of the show, Brendan understands why viewers loved it. ‘It was two in one — a travel show, where people could be like “Oh look they’re going to Salzburg” and the other part is seeing who liked who and friction,’ he says.
The Coach Trip contestants
Being stuck in a coach for hours and forced to pick the least favourite travel companion led to plenty of bickering, which didn’t slow even when the credits were rolling.
‘We had a lovely feast in the Sahara desert for a final episode. I was riding away on a camel and could still hear two women rowing with each other,’ he recalls.
But being Switzerland, Brendan stayed firmly out of any drama. ‘If there were people that I didn’t like, then usually the group didn’t like them anyway,’ he points out.
‘When people were on the coach quite a while, they’d get a bit too comfortable and say, “Oh, are we doing a painting class? Boring!” They would slowly get a bit more non-appreciative, but if start sitting on your laurels, there’s always someone behind you waiting to take the place.’
Although we saw a lot of the goings-on, there were a few things that viewers weren’t privy to, and they’re likely grateful: ‘We wouldn’t film people retching, and there could be some of that whenever we had to get onto a ferry.’
The sun sets on Coach Trip
After travelling to every country in Europe, bar Russia, and specials in North Africa and Western Asia, the brakes were firmly applied to the show in 2023. Channel 4 announced that the future of the show was ‘uncertain’ after showing only repeats for the last four years.
‘I think money’s a problem in television at the moment. Getting funding for programs is difficult,’ Brendan says. ‘We had other ideas, but when Covid came along, it put the nail in our coffin.’
But he wasn’t disappointed, the reality star felt grateful he’d got the experience at all. ‘After series six, my brother Patrick asked, “What will you do when this finishes?” I said, “Patrick, I’m on the crest of a wave and I’m surfing. I’m going as far as it’ll take me. When it gets me to the beach and I have to stop, what a ride I’ve had,’ he says philosophically.
‘Maybe it has run its course, but if they rang me up tomorrow and said we’re doing another one, I’d be there.’ Clipboard in hand, we’re sure.
Coach Trip is available to watch on Channel 4.
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