When Bradley Walsh’s son Barney declared he was taking him to Florida, he had high hopes about what lay in store: Disneyland, waterparks and a bit of what he calls ‘splash and slide’.
He wasn’t entirely wrong. There were plenty of opportunities to get wet – just not quite of the poolside leisure variety.
Think instead cage-diving with sharks and adrenaline-pumping whitewater rapid rides.
Then again, Bradley should be used to Barney pushing him out of his comfort zone: last year his son took him on an all-action 2,000-mile road trip from Los Angeles to New Orleans for a TV show and subjected him to an assortment of grit-your-teeth activities, including a memorably tense skydive.
Bradley Walsh and his son Barney (pictured gearing up for high-speed thrills) explore the east coastline of the US in the second installment of their road trip series
The series, Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad, proved a hit with viewers who were both amused by Bradley’s ongoing horror at his son’s plans and charmed by the affectionate banter between father and son as they spent time together on the road.
Unsurprisingly, it’s the prospect of the latter not the former that persuaded Bradley to sign up for a second series.
‘The first time around I honestly didn’t see it as anything else other than spending time on the road with Barney,’ he reflects.
‘I remember a pal of mine saying, “Look, the thing is Brad, it doesn’t matter what happens because no dad really gets to do all this stuff with his son.”
‘So that’s the beautiful thing – basically I forgot we were making a TV show. For me it’s just about hanging out with Barney.
‘We’ve been very close since the day he was born; this just gave us the opportunity to bond on a different level.’
That bond between father and son certainly appeared to strike a chord with the public.
‘Since season one was shown I’ve had so many messages on social media from people saying they’ve reconnected with their father because of the show,’ reveals Barney.
‘I had dads saying they would love to do a road trip with their son or daughter, or they’re going on a trip because of us.
Barney (pictured flyboarding) revealed he was contacted by a father who was inspired by the last series of the show
‘There was a guy on Instagram who said he hadn’t spoken to his son for about three years or something, and his son’s really into motorbikes.
‘They both watched the show and after the episode where Dad and I rode Harley-Davidsons, they decided to reconnect and drive down Route 66 together. So that’s really lovely.’
For the second series, the pair headed to the east of the States, voyaging 2,500 miles up the coastline during the course of the six-episode series.
They picked up their vast hotel-on-wheels motorhome (this time with their own personalised number plate bearing the legend ‘Bradney’) in the Sunshine State of Florida, heading down to Key West at its southernmost tip – a trip down memory lane for Bradley, who reveals he first visited 20 years ago with his wife Donna and the then year-old Barney.
In fact, he still has the baseball cap he bought at Sloppy Joe’s, the bar made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway.
‘We visited Disney and then drove to Key West and we sat and had a drink in that bar – me and Donna with Barney in his pram. So to take him back 20 years later was lovely.’
The first official challenge launched on Bradley by his son was cage-diving in the shark-infested waters off eastern Florida.
The shark bit the camera attached to our cage
Even the thought left him ‘panic-stricken’ and it didn’t help that he had to sign off the prospect of his ‘accidental death’ on a waiver form beforehand.
Still, he consoled himself with the idea that he was going to be in a protective cage.
‘Then I rang home just as I was getting on the boat and said, “I’m going shark diving apparently”, at which point my mate Geoff sent me footage of a shark getting into the cage with the diver,’ he recalls.
‘It turns out the cage is open at the top, so you had to swim, get in there and leave yourself with all these fish mooching about.
‘Then this dude lobs lumps of tuna into the water, at which point you start to see fins.’
Barney points out that bull sharks don’t like to get into spaces they can’t get out of.
Bradley (pictured taking to the wheel of his racing car) and his son Barney, went motor racing in cars worth £150,000
They certainly liked swimming closely around it, though: at one point there were at least a dozen sharks swirling about, and after the men emerged from the water they found that one of their underwater cameras had been eaten.
‘The shark had bitten the camera attached to the top of the cage, which makes you think,’ says Bradley.
There were no sharks at the whitewater rafting, but instead the possibility of falling out and drowning. Or plunging over a waterfall.
‘Geoff also sent me footage of people going over the waterfall and crashing into the rocks,’ Bradley recalls.
‘So I couldn’t stop thinking about bashing my head.’ What surprised him – once he’d reluctantly got on the water – was the speed.
‘It’s like someone’s towing you along behind a bus; that’s how quick you’re going. I mean there’s no messing with it.
”And then you think to yourself, “I’m nearly 60, why am I doing this?”’
‘To spend time with me, Dad, remember?’ grins Barney, as his father raises an eyebrow.
Barney’s obviously in his element when it comes to watersports, judging by his aptitude at flyboarding – essentially, standing on a special board and being thrust into the air by the force of water coming from two jet nozzles beneath him.
But back on dry land it was his turn to be worried when the pair went motor racing – in £150,000 cars.
‘It was the most expensive thing I’ve ever driven by a long shot,’ says Barney.
‘I remember thinking, “Dad’s been an engineer in the past and he loves mechanics and driving – this is going to be a walk in the park for him but it’s actually quite scary for me.”’
But he turned out to be a natural – providing an emotional moment for Bradley as he watched his son tear up the track.
‘I’m sitting there watching him and remembering when he first took his car out on the road back home, thinking, “Please be careful”.
‘Now he’s hit 150mph in six seconds. It was very peculiar.’
Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad returns on Wednesday 8 January at 8pm on ITV.