Sailor return

IT’S a concept with all the hallmarks of one the best stereotype-based jokes, but this Englishman, Irishman and Welshman are at it again in Three Men Go to Venice.

When Rory McGrath, Dara O Briain and Griff Rhys Jones got together for a gentle boat ride a few years back, the BBC probably never expected to have a hit series on its hands. But following the success of that first adventure, the lads have reunited time and again for various nautical epics as the Beeb has found more water-based activities for them to undertake.

This time, they’ve been entered into a gondola race on Venice’s busiest waterway, the Grand Canal, in front of thousands of tourists.

Never mind making it to the finish line, the first hurdle they’ll be coming across is actually making it to the start, as the three men travel up the stunning Dalmatian Coast battling the elements to get to the city of love.

Of course, what kicked this whole concept off was a bright spark of an idea for McGrath, O Briain and Rhys Jones to recreate the most popular novel of the Victorian era – Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat.

The first episode, which saw the three take to the River Thames on their wooden skiff, raked in 3.83 million viewers. Of the arduous challenge, McGrath said at the time: “Immense fun... it was very hard work. Rowing 97 miles upstream is very, very hard work.”

The sweat and tears paid off and paved the way for all the follow-up series – Three Men in Another Boat, Three Men in More than One Boat, Three Men Go to Ireland and Three Men Go to Scotland.

This time, the comics will be attempting to blend in with the locals, diving, flying and basically blagging their way onto any boat that will take them across borders to one of the greatest cities on earth, Venice. The ten-day voyage starts in Montenegro, before heading up the coast of Dubrovnik, where the trio try to find a boat on one of the many islands along the coast of Croatia and hopefully, on to Venice before the race begins.

AT the Scottish naval base in Faslane, submariners undergo one of the world’s toughest command courses, nicknamed “The Perisher”, in the hope of becoming a commander on a £500m nuclear submarine.

New four-part series Submarine School shows how, after three months of simulated training, students spend a month in a submarine to test their coordination on the open seas and their ability to perform under pressure in real-life situations.

The vessel in which the students practise, HMS Triumph, is capable of sinking rival ships and striking land targets from up to 1,600km away.

The 130-strong crew can circumnavigate the entire globe in the vessel without surfacing, and the 20-year-old submarine has just had a £250m refit.

WHILE superchef Jamie Oliver has been waging a war for healthy food in California, school boss Mike McGalliard has emerged as a cult hero.

To say Oliver has been unpopular with LAUSD superintendent Ramon Cortines is something of an understatement. He was far from happy that Oliver was trying to upset LA’s school meals department, and eventually stopped him and his crew from filming on school premises for Jamie’s Food Revolution Hits Hollywood.

Which was nothing new for the celeb chef, as just about every attempt he made to introduce a healthier diet for the students has met with stiff opposition. Luckily, Mike has been doing his best trying to find loopholes which mean Oliver can cook and teach on the premises.

In tonight’s instalment, Cortines has now left his job and his replacement, John Deasy, is offering a fresh start. To impress him, Oliver organises a city-wide cooking competition with famous local chefs lending their support as mentors for teams of students, including some from West Adams High School.