John McCarthy: Excess Baggage
Ahead of Lyn Hughes' interview with Radio 4's John McCarthy at this weekend's Destinations Show, we revisit the sadly missed Excess Baggage glory days
How long has Excess Baggage been running for?
I don’t know... I’ve been doing it for five years – six years on and off, but regularly now for two or three years. It goes right back; it predates EastEnders somewhere.
Why do you think it has had such long-standing success?
That’s a good question! Obviously we cover an awful lot of the world and we have no particular axe to grind, apart from the fact that we all travel and are interested in travel. That sort of enthusiasm and interest permeates the programme – some listeners might be intrepid adventurers who have just come back from the pole, or climbing Everest or from the deepest, darkest Amazon, to very ordinary people who travelled somewhere and found something interesting, which they wanted to share.
It covers the gamut of travellers and locations. I think that’s the appeal – you get ordinary voices and people talking about these places that might be very accessible or might be on one’s dream list of places to go to.
With the current global economy, have you found that the locations are moving closer to home?
I think the people we talk to are still talking about a wide range, geographically, of locations they’ve been to. We often think there’s still a lot to do on the doorstep. Sometimes we think, actually we don’t have to travel too far to get to an interesting place or an interesting landscape and I think that’s one of the joys of the programme. One day you might be exploring the Congo with a guest or the next week it might be going up to Maidenhead.
Who gets to say which destinations go into the piece?
Harry’s the producer – he does the main research. Certainly Sandi (Toksvig, the co-host) and I will offer thoughts from locations, people or articles we’ve read saying, “Actually we haven’t done anything about that in a while,” and so in that respect it’s a combined decision. Harry’s looking for stories all the time but we’ve all got similar interests and we have to take into account issues of global warming and carbon footprints and all that.
Have you found that your audience has changed over the years?
Generally speaking, we have a steady audience of about a quarter of a million every week. Although I don’t know whether the demographic of that audience has changed over the years. In terms of feedback, we get people who are interested. They often talk about their own personal experiences in response to a subject we’ve had that week.
We get emails saying, ‘Oh I’ve been to so and so’ and sometimes we’ll refer to those phone calls or emails in the next programme. I think we’re all intrigued by the world and some of our listeners will have the chance to see some of it.
Travellers can seem to be finicky. If you get a location name wrong, or a bird’s name wrong or a tree’s name you’re in trouble...
Oh, I did make a mistake... once. We were talking about somewhere in the United States and I referred to a big city, which was the biggest city in the particular state we were in, and I called it the capital of the state and before the end of the programme we had an email.
There are inevitably people who know an awful lot about places and will email you or call you to set you right.
As someone who enjoys travel, do you find it frustrating working in a relatively desk-bound job?
I’ve been lucky over the past few years, to have travelled quite widely, not particularly with Excess Baggage but otherwise, so I’ve got that experience. I suppose there is still a sense of wonder about the rest of the places I'm yet to visit. Very often, like in a recent programme a guest spoke about the Congo and I thought I have to get there on a trip or to make a documentary. The frustration is there; I suspect it’s bedded in because I’ve had the chance to travel some.
Are there still places on your dream list that you’d like to visit?
Yes, very much so. I’m really intrigued by Central Asia. The places there seem to be exceptionally remote and not just the obviously high-risk places like Afghanistan. I’d love to get the chance to travel there. I spent a week in Iran once and I’d love to go back. I’ve never been to Australia or New Zealand. There are so many places you hear about but want to experience first-hand.
The Middle East seems to be undergoing a rapid amount of change at the moment. Do you think that’s going to affect travel?
It’s very interesting; I think in Egypt, with the revolution travel has dropped off. It’s going to be really interesting if Egypt can be peaceful, and to see what’s going to happen in Libya.
In theory, these places should be easy to travel to. I’m hoping that Syria will open up because it’s certainly part of the planet that I’d really enjoy getting to know.
Have you returned to the Middle East?
I made a documentary for Radio 4 about what Lebanon was doing, particularly what young people in Lebanon were thinking while their Arab neighbours were demonstrating at Tahrir Square or in Tunisia.
It was great to be back. (John was held hostage in Lebanon for over five years from 1986). When you think of a place like Lebanon, it is a very dangerous place, which for me became extremely frightening and bad. However, you see beyond that and you see that there is a level of complexities in the world and it’s so much better trying to understand that or accept that rather than write it off as a place you should never go to.
What would you say your personal favourite places to visit are?
One place I really loved and went to a long time ago was Damascus. I’ve always wanted to go back, to explore and have the time to wander around the city and see the Umayyad Mosque again. Someday, I’m hoping, when they have peace, to explore further.
The show’s been going on for so long you have such a loyal audience. You must get some interesting stuff off the show...?
The people are genuinely interested in travel and want to share their views on the place they’ve been to and it’s great when you get feedback for a written article or a broadcast programme. The enthusiasm listeners get from a guest talking about a particular place it makes them think, 'Oh I would like to go there...'
You’ve worked with your current co-host Sandi Toksvig before; how is your working relationship?
It’s fantastic, we met back in our early 20s when I was at university with her brother and we shared a flat together long before I was a working journalist. It was way before our careers took off in any particular direction. We have a great time working together. She was teaching me how to be a TV presenter; she’s got a brilliant sense of humour, we enjoy each other’s company a great deal and we’re close friends but also we do work together so it’s a very relaxed situation when you’re on the road and you’re travelling. Travelling companions can be slightly different when you get out and you find yourself in a slightly uncomfortable place.
It’s a live format are there ever any problems?
We’ve had a couple of bad lines where the quality of sound wasn’t good. But I’ve only had that once and communication tends to be pretty good these days. It’s incredible when a guest can speak to us from all the way in Buenos Aires.
The other week we were doing a show about the Tango and we had a guest get up at three in the morning and give a very perky performance. The technology worked really well. So you can have people phoning in from all over the world and fingers crossed, we’ve been very lucky.
Popular travel radio show, Excess Baggage was axed last year, follow a 'reshuffle' of Radio 4's Saturday schedule.