Sandi Toksvig on mental health, women of a certain age, and laughing her head off with new friends
The comedian and presenter talks gong baths and Extraordinary Escapes
Last year, Sandi Toksvig achieved something she’s wanted to for most of her adult life: she left behind the hustle and bustle of the city for a move to the country.
“I have never been happier,” she says emphatically, as she enthuses about walking in woodlands and the nature that’s now right on her doorstep: mice, bats, “all manner of birds” and more.
“My wife is a therapist, and I think she thinks it’s one of the best things for people’s mental health, to be in the woods,” the 63-year-old TV presenter, author and comedian muses.
It seems an apt move in the context of her latest small screen gem, a return of Channel 4’s Extraordinary Escapes With Sandi Toksvig.
From a $3,000 penis to speaking Danish.
Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig, Wednesday 9pm. pic.twitter.com/kSEjj7jerI
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) February 14, 2021
In the upcoming series, which sees her once again visiting amazing houses and residences on home turf, she’s joined by an impressive line-up of famous faces, with The Royle Family and Brookside’s Sue Johnston, Casualty star Sunetra Sarker, comedians Sara Pascoe and Jenny Eclair, and psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry among those featuring.
She reveals she and Perry became friends through Perry’s husband, the famous artist Grayson Perry, adding: “My wife and I spent Eurovision with Grayson and Philippa, crying with laughter in their sitting room. So we were already good friends. The person I knew least well was Sunetra, who I just have completely fallen in love with. I think she’s amazing.”
Former Great British Bake Off and QI presenter Toksvig says surprisingly she had never met Johnston before filming, adding: “It felt like she was partly my mother, you know what I mean? She’s so much in our lives and is so extraordinary. And I have to say, some of the filming with Sue was amongst the most moving I’ve ever done in my life, [in] that she’s so able to be herself and honest and vulnerable.
“And as well as laughing, we also really got to know each other. And that’s one of the things I love about the show – these are not women selling a book or trying to plug anything, it’s just a chance to have a conversation with six fascinating women, and you will know them better at the end than you did at the beginning.”
Sarah Millican and Sandi Toksvig
The episodes see celebrities travelling to the likes of Cornwall, the east coast of Scotland, Wales and the Highlands, with comedian Sarah Millican featuring as the guest in the first instalment in Devon, where she and Toksvig stay at a Scandi-inspired retreat built into a wooded hillside, later moving to a 16th-century mill house with an enviable seaside position.
The pair try a gong bath and visit a spa in a bid to try and help them both learn how to wind down and relax.
“I haven’t seen the final cut,” Toksvig says, smiling. “I don’t know how much of Sarah and I crying with laughter they show. We were not good at lying there, and then I swear at one point she was snoring, but I like to try everything.
“I like to give everything a go, and I fully respect people who think yoga and gong baths are the way forward to relaxation, but it’s possibly not for me…”
Sandi Toksvig and Sarah Millican
The pair discovered throughout filming that they share many commonalities, including that – away from the limelight and comedy stage – they are both shy.
“I know it sounds cliched, but in order to be a woman comedian, particularly for our age, our generation, was really hard,” Toksvig explains. “You were always the only one on the bill, the only woman on the bill. You were always in the dressing room with no facilities, where the boys all weed in the sink. And you’re a bit stuck… so we all had to fight quite hard.
“So, you on the surface, you might seem as though you’re quite a confident kind of character, but there’s a vulnerability amongst all of those women.”
There are already talks for a third series of Extraordinary Escapes afoot, amid what sounds like a busy year for Toksvig, who is touring for the first time in two years with her show Next Slide Please.
Sandi Toksvig
“I think showing off the country is A, that’s a wonderful thing but B, I can’t think of another travel programme where it’s just two women of a certain age having a wonderful time together. There have been lots with boys, lots and lots of boys doing stuff…”
And, so far, the audience reaction off-screen has reflected the programme’s popularity, with viewers telling Toksvig how much they enjoy it.
“I’m really pleased with the way people are reacting to it,” she says.
Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig returns to Channel 4 on Thursday February 17
The Press Association
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