Charley Boorman

Long Way Down is a television series, book and DVD documenting a motorcycle journey undertaken by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, on which they rode south through 18 countries from John o’ Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa via Europe and Africa in 2007. It is a follow-up to the Long Way Round trip of 2004, when the pair rode east from London to New York via Eurasia and North America.

The journey started on 12 May 2007 and finished on 4 August 2007. They were accompanied by the same key members of the team from Long Way Round, including cameraman and director of photography Claudio Von Planta and cameraman Jimmy Simak, producers Russ Malkin and David Alexanian. In addition they decided to travel constantly with a medic, Dai Jones, security officer Jim Foster and various “fixers”—local guides and interpreters—throughout the journey. They rode the BMW R1200GS Adventure, the successor to the R1150GS Adventure bikes they rode in Long Way Round.

As with their previous trip, and Boorman’s Race to Dakar, Russ Malkin and his company Big Earth produced the series. The television series based on the trip began broadcast on BBC Two on 28 October 2007. Video clips and photos from the adventure were shown online by the BBC during the series’ production.