INTERVIEW - Roy & Julia (Coach Trip)

Roy

What’s it been like watching the show back?

Firstly I’ve been dreading it a bit. Every night what I did, is I’ve been waiting for all the texts and calls to come in to see what I’ve been up to and then I watch it with a smile on my face. I don’t regret any of it, sometimes I think ‘oh what did I do that for’ or ‘say that for’ but it’s been fantastic.

Did you like Brendans’ impressions of you?

I think it’s a diabolical liberty because they were so bad but yeah, it was all good fun, at the time I did chuckle along with it and everyone. Apparently everyone reckons he’s very good at them and maybe if he’s doesn’t continue with the tour guiding he can become an impressionist. My opinions different, but he was alright.

What’s the response been like from fans of the show on Twitter?

It’s been really nice. Really surprising. I’m not the type of bloke that goes around looking for compliments and what ‘ave ya. People have been saying nice things, obviously you get the few not so nice, but as long as the majority get me and know that I’m not nasty, rude, obnoxious, self-opinionated person, I’ve just got my way of doing things and saying things and people seemed to like that.

Do you regret anything you said looking back?

No there’s nothing. I have to stand by everything I’ve said, so long as it was taken in the way I meant for it to come across. So no, I don’t regret anything. It’s my way of thinking and my way of dealing with things.

Does Julia regret anything you said?

No, she’s used to me by now. She usually tells me after. I think she’d have pulled me up on it on the spot if I overstepped the mark at all.

Did you expect to be on the coach for so long?

No, when she actually told me a week before we had the interview I didn’t have a clue what the show was about, I’d never seen it before or anything. The first time I actually lay eyes on Brendan was when he turned up an introduced himself at the Vespa museum. I didn’t have a clue what the show was about or the nature of the game so I went along with the flow. I had one aim, one game plan and that was, when Julia briefly told me the rules, I didn’t want to get on for three days, yellow, yellow, red card. I knew that would upset Julia and she would take that personally. So I did my bit, then after a week I thought, well she can’t moan now and I got on with it. Once you find out what the shows about, and the nature of it, to get where we did without getting a card, it didn’t really bother me or effect me, but I was more than happy because I knew that would mean a lot to Julia.

Coach Trip revealed your love of donkeys, was their anything else you did on the trip that you surprisingly enjoyed?

Well when we go on holiday and lucky enough we do go on holiday a fair bit, we’re more of a sun lounger, swimming in the pool, cocktail kind of couple. Now obviously with this you don’t get that option and it’d opened our eyes up and we’ve had a couple of holidays since and we head straight for activity shops for things like keep safaris and camel rides. We do that kind of stuff now, we grasp it and just go and do it, because we’d never done it before Coach Trip showed us what fun they can be.

What was your favourite activity?

I thouroughly enjoyed the banana boat, not because of the tagline of ‘the hoff’ but it was good, it was fun. The quad biking was good, loads of it. I think my least favourite activities were what I will say were the more feminine ones, the pole dancing, the ballroom dancing, I wasn’t a lover of the pottery. I knew before I even sat down that I wasn’t going to be any good at that. I’d say I enjoyed half of them and done the other half but wouldn’t do them again.

You voted for Emily & Annabelle to win, but out of all the couples you met who did you get along with most?

Luckily we got along with, other than those we voted two nights on the trot for the yellow card, all of them. Nick and Ben, Darren and James. We were very close to Nick and Ben because our children aren’t much younger than them and also we came from the same part of the world, we’ve met up a couple of times since because we’re not 20 miles from each other. Raz and Elv at the end, we seemed to get on with them a lot better than other people did, maybe that’s just personalities. At the end, on the final day, not so much a close nit group with Georgina and Leah and Victoria and Liam but I’ve got no reason to believe if they’d have been there longer we wouldn’t have had a stronger bond with them too. Darren and James, funniest blokes I’ve met as a couple, Emily and Annabelle, well you just scratched your head with them. People have said to us, why did you vote for them and we voted for them because they were fun, they gave every day, everyone had their moody bits but they were great.

Julia banned you from speaking during on of the votes, what would you have said?

I would basically told, Penelope it was, that she was a disgusting person, at the time I said she’s got the same manners as a pig. Me and her had a couple of stand-up rows and she was just the worst person anyone could ever be with let alone on a coach. Julia said ‘I know you’re going to go in on one, they wont be able to televise it so you’re not going to speak tonight” I was told, and that was that.

Are you glad you took part and would you do it all over again?

In a heartbeat. If you’d have said to me the morning we were to fly out to Italy someone had knocked on the door and said ‘oh I’ll go if Roy doesn’t want to go’ I wouldn’t have been on the show. But, now, if they said ‘we want you to do another one from the start’ I’d just say, ‘where do you want me to fly to?’. I’d be there in a heartbeat.

Julia

What’s it been like watching the show back?

It’s been fantastic, it’s been just like reliving it again. It’s like we were back there and doing the whole thing again. Obviously not as good as the real thing but it’s been amazing just watching it. We’ve laughed and cried and done everything again.

What’s the response been like from people who’ve watched the show?

All my family, all my friends watch it, they’ve absolutely loved it. They messaged me every day saying it’d hilarious, a lot of them had never seen the program before and watched it o the basis we were on it. Even old school friends have been getting in touch saying ‘oh my god you’re on the telly” It’s just been amazing and the feed back has been full of support as well. The response from everyone has been positive, although you do get some, I think they’re called trolls that fly off odd comments about not just us but some of the other couples too, I just ignore those. There’s more good than bad.

Did you expect to be on the coach so long?

No, I was hoping I would be but a lot of people said you’re going with Roy so you’ll be off in three days. I think as each day went by we were shocked we didn’t get a yellow card because obviously a lot of people were on yellows and we were shocked we only got a few votes out of all the time we were there. I think it just sort of spurred us on even more, we were just ourselves, we didn’t play any games or tactics, went it as ourselves to have fun and just took each day as it came.

What was it like making it all the way to the final without receiving a yellow card?

That was a very proud moment, it was an achievement in itself. Just to get to the end, without a yellow and not many votes, that made me feel like we were the winners to do that.

Where’s your favourite place you visited?

I would have to say Sardinia, I’d never been there, it’s absolutely beautiful, just really really lovely.

You always looked like you had a lot of fun at the activities, even the slightly less thrilling ones, which was your favourite?

I think my favourite with no fear was the miming, that was just absolutely hilarious, miming along in Cannes. You’re in disguise and we just went for it along the high street and it was amazing. Second to that would be the hot air balloon, it had a bit of fear factor in it. It was something I never thought I would do, but once I was in it, it was amazing, just like you were floating.

Have you got your cave yet?

Have I got my cave? No. I really did like them caves and that was the first thing I said to Roy when we was there, can we buy one.

You voted for Emily and Annabelle to win, but out of all the couples you met who did you get along with most?

We got along with most of the couples all of the time, there was just the odd ones that we didn’t. I really really bonded with Emily, she became like a best friend over night, there’s 27 years different but we just clicked. Then there was Ben and Nick, absolutely amazing guys and Darren and James. They’re the main ones, those six, that we really did have a special bond with. It’s weird because they’re all younger than us and from different walks of life but it’s amazing how you just click people and you do just gel and they become friends not just travel buddies.

You banned Roy from speaking during one particular vote, are you glad you did?

Yeah, I banned Roy from the Penelope vote. We were taking it in turns anyway to vote, one night Roy, one night me, but I just thought that she was a crazy woman but I just wanted to give her some constructive criticism because I knew some people would just say it like it is. I felt if Roy said his bit, he wouldn’t have been horrible to her but he would have just said, you’re rude, you’re horrible and all of this. I just wanted to give it to her constructively and I thought she’d take it on board as I had a chat with her afterwards but she didn’t.

What made you apply for the show?

It was my sister who used to watch the show and said ‘you and Roy have got to go on Coach Trip, you’ll be brilliant’ which planted the seed in my mind and I thought I’ll have a look into it, sent off an email and obviously the rest is history.

Are you glad that you did? Would you do it all over again?

Absolutely 100% I would do it again tomorrow and I’m so glad we did it. It was an adventure of a lifetime, the fact we’ve made good friends that we’re going to stay in touch with is an added bonus.