Near Yosemite, Perkins encounters Alexandria, a seven-year veteran of “boondocking”, or camping on public land, who has 300,000 followers on YouTube and the nous to live without fixed electricity or water.

It is Alexandria who shows Perkins how a tiny spade and some efficient digging creates the perfect poo hole. “It’s so small,” Perkins says, in response to the shovelling. “Which means I have supplementary questions.”

She also meets Bob Wells, a beloved nomad celebrity in the RV (recreation vehicle) community. He has spent years helping others build a house-less future, many of them older women, while dealing with broader fame after playing himself in the Oscar-wining film Nomadland starring Frances McDormand. “The [nomadic community] gave me such a lot in terms of their life stories,” Perkins says. “Some have gone through very difficult things to be where they are. You can’t rose-tint that community too much.

“A lot of it is driven by hardship or the system, or friends and loved ones, letting them down,” she says. “The show is a great exploration of the landscape through the van, but also of people who have disconnected from ways of life that we take for granted.”

Perkins’s great strength in the series is her well-judged balance of curiosity and humour when encountering strangers in challenging situations. It is a common thread in her career, whether in travel shows such as Sue Perkins: Along the US-Mexico Border, World’s Dangerous Roads, and Netflix series Perfectly Legal, or as new permanent host of longtime BBC panel show Just A Minute.

Loading

As co-host of The Great British Bake Off for seven years, alongside longtime collaborator and best friend Mel Giedroyc, she soothed many a contestant’s nerves beside the oven.

“It’s always about going to places and being hugely respectful,” she says. “Finding as much as you can without inhibiting somebody’s personal boundaries and trying to communicate it,” she says.

For Patriot Brains, which features a rotating list of six Australian and New Zealand comedians trying to prove they know more about their countries, her role as British arbitrator was regularly mocked.

“I play the host role very much as an ignorant outsider,” she says. “I might as well be in a Victorian costume going, ‘Everything’s wonderful here’ and then I’m savaged to death by everyone taking the piss out of me and my country, and sent home repatriated.”

Loading

The series, which features comics such as Guy Montgomery, Nath Valvo, Urzila Carlson and Luke McGregor, consolidated the depth of rivalry between New Zealanders and Australians for Perkins.

“There were lots of chats about how dangerous Australia was,” she says. “The Australian teams will always respond with how pitifully benign New Zealand is. I mean, you can die from various wildlife just by going into the shops in Australia.”

On days off, she managed driving excursions between New Zealand’s coastlines, part of her desire to escape middle age. She kick-started the aim in Perfectly Legal where she took hallucinogenic drugs in the desert and agreed to be shot at.

“I love my job and I love my life and I like testing myself,” she says. “Sometimes it can be a bit reckless. But, the more you learn about other people, the less jaded and staid you become. You understand there’s different ways of living, different perspectives, urgencies and priorities that people have. That’s how I keep moving. Not just travelling and physical movement but also mentally. Asking, ‘Where am I at?’, ‘What can I do?’, ‘What can I learn?’ Always questing.

“It can be quite tiring, but it’s incredibly rewarding.“

Sue Perkins Big American Road Trip is on SBS Viceland from April 4. Patriot Brains premieres on SBS Viceland from June 4.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.