Sue Perkins tells Chris Evans about ‘dangerous and weird' Netflix series Perfectly Legal

Virgin Radio

17 Nov 2022, 12:47

Comedian Sue Perkins is seeking out all kinds of terrifying and dangerous pursuits in her new Netflix miniseries, Perfectly Legal, which is available to watch now. While on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, the former Great British Bake Off host reveals why her series makes I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! look totally tame and why we should all try living outside our comfort zone. 

In Perfectly Legal, Sue travels across South America, from Mexico to Colombia to Brazil to Bolivia, learning about Latin American people and their attitude towards authority, love and life. To do this, Sue does things that she never could or would do at home... in adventurous, shockingly legal and sometimes dangerous ways.

Dubbing it somewhat of a “midlife crisis”, the broadcaster felt she had a responsibility to try the dangerous experiences not just for herself, but also for the public who had been trapped inside in coronavirus lockdowns for years. 

She explained: “Everyone has a midlife crisis. Not everyone has the luxury that I did, of being able to go halfway around the world and just tick every, I mean, beyond bucket list. Ironically, it's the bucket list that could get you killed.

“For me, it was all about putting myself in dangerous, weird, expansive, brilliant situations, and just trying to communicate that. Because everyone, particularly the middle of the show, was stopped because of COVID. So no one could travel anywhere. Especially when we came back for the second part, I felt it was really on me to kind of travel for everybody.”

In just the first episode of the series, Sue gets shot at point-blank range whilst wearing a bullet-proof vest, plays an explosive game of bowls in Bogota, goes white water rafting with some new-found friends, goes for a drive with a full mariachi band, and is blessed in a ritual which involves being rubbed with an egg and having tequila spat at her. Despite loving the chance to defy death in inventive and legal ways, it’s not something Sue would recommend trying at home. 

“I don't encourage people to do the extreme things I did,” Sue added. “Although I hope they enjoy watching them. I did them for you and for all of us who are in our midlife, but a sense of enjoying and being grateful for what you have is what I've been left with, whether that's drugs, whether it's just having pushed myself.

“It was amazing. Do something outside your comfort zone. But don't be silly. That's my take home.”

If it sounds like Sue would smash every single challenge on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! now she's come face-to-face with real danger in this series, you'd be right!

She argued: "The sorts of stuff they'd be eating on a trial was the sort of stuff that was in an open cabinet in the first bar. We lived off that for the first couple of days. In fact, I did. I had a taco, which had a lot of a lot of genitalia in it."

Not only that, but Sue was proud to do it for the girls, having entered the usually male-dominated space of adrenaline pumping programming. 

Sue continued: “I'm proud that the adrenaline and adrenaline-fueled sports and things [are] sort of usually the preserve of young men and I'm glad this middle aged tired woman has got the chance to do it and go we've all got capacity. We've all got capacity and we can all do it.”

All three episodes of Perfectly Legal are now available to watch on Netflix and through Sky Q.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.