Episode 1:

• From a research boat in the Svalbard archipelago, we see a rare blue fox, reindeer and even a whale, representing the wildlife that has happily increased since the hunting ban. Longyearbyen, the most northerly town in the world, is a tight-knit community. Mothers-to-be are sent to the mainland where the hospitals are larger, while at the opposite end of life, burials do not take place either because of the permafrost. Simon goes 6km down a coal mine, where to drive into the low seam, they are practically lying down. It is due to close and the miners will have to find new jobs.
• A tense visit to a Russian outpost, Barentsburg; they are not friendly with the Norwegians and there are some Cold War tactics going on. Simon has an odd meeting with a bureaucrat, which is not filmed. In Lapland in Finland, it’s minus 30 degrees centigrade near the Russian border. At the home of the real Father Christmas, with a huge tourism industry built upon this, Simon seems embarrassed to be confronted by elves in a forest and taken to meet Santa, who gives him a fluffy reindeer gift. Any sentimentality quickly goes as it turns out that the SantaPark is actually a nuclear bunker, one of thousands in the country which could shelter the population. Simon explores the military side to Finland, where national service is mandatory for men and voluntary for women, after which they join the reserves. At a very snowy training camp, patriotic young people are skiing into freezing water to learn how to climb out if they fall through weak ice. Simon has a go, the instructor insisting it’s good fun.
• The Finns are a very hardy lot, even from a young age. At a forest nursery school, small children play in the snow, which is very beneficial as it improves their immune systems and social skills. Next, into Sweden, a Sami reindeer herder demonstrates the modern way of herding, using a drone, GPS and snowmobiles, however it’s becoming harder to keep the way of life. Finally the town of Kiruna, where whole buildings are being moved due to the expansion of the iron ore mine. The mine is very high tech; one of the miners demonstrates using a joystick and gaming console to control the machines. Most amazing is a sort of robo-dog, which emerges from a kennel.

Episode 2:

• After helping a Norwegian family round up their sheep, continuing a traditional way of life, Simon accompanies the farmer, Roy, to his other job, at Norway’s biggest oil and gas refinery. Interestingly, Norway uses a lot of clean energy sources while getting rich from exporting oil and gas to places like the UK and Germany. On to Bergen where he meets ‘Oyster Dundee’, a 72-year-old oyster diver who rose from humble beginnings, to a career with the oil industry, who owns an expensive seafood restaurant and says it is lucky to be born Norwegian.
• A sleeper train to Oslo and the headquarters of the sovereign wealth fund, which is worth the equivalent of nearly 25,000 tons of gold, over £1 trillion. Simon meets the head of the fund, Trond, who explains the policy behind it. Not everyone is happy about the country sitting on its wealth from oil. Simon meets a campaigner, Bente, and while travelling to the Lofoten Islands by boat, he suggests that this may be the most beautiful country in the world – that is really saying something from a man who has been to so many places. There is a fantastic shot of an eagle swooping down for a fish. Bente was one of the founders of a locals’ movement to stop the oil industry in the islands, where it would ruin the environment. There is a wonderful shot of several orca playing in the sea. He visits a huge, high-tech fish farm, a segment which I partially skipped.
• While driving during the midnight sun, Simon is surprised to see a shop has left their stock out and customers are trusted to pay, something you wouldn’t see in a British town. On to Iceland, where vulcanologist Helga drives through a spooky road of cooling lava which steams either side of the road. Towns are under threat from volcanoes and earthquakes, which can also have a global impact. A journey to a glacier and an ice cave reveals they are standing on the Katla volcano which last erupted in 1918, but as the glacier rapidly melts, this releases the pressure on the volcano and could cause an eruption. Finally, a carbon capture company is doing some good work but as Simon says it’s only small and like ‘trying to bail out the Titanic with a teaspoon’.

Episode 3:

• A cosy cabin in the woods, ABBA on the radio, references to flat-pack furniture… but trust Simon to find another side to Sweden: arms exports. They have their own defence industry. He visits a weapons testing site, cue slow-motion shots of firing and explosions. On to Stockholm by hydrofoil, which cuts quickly and smoothly through the water. Swedes rate highly for happiness, and we meet a ‘hipster Jesus’, professor Micael, who explains the welfare economy. Benefits are generous but everyone is expected to play their part. On an e-scooter ride through the city, they meet a dads’ baby group in the park.
• With the elite police squad, we are shown a cabinet of homemade devices, often thrown by teenagers recruited by gangs. Simon is suited up to experience what the police wear on the streets, and it’s almost like an astronaut suit, with built-in fans. Immigration is a huge factor in the crimewave. Faysa was born in Sweden, from a Somalian refugee background, and tells how her family and friends were lost in drug wars on the estates where migrants are housed.
• Over the Oresrund bridge to Denmark, which Simon knows already as he visits family there. The country is a leader in wind energy and Simon actually goes up a turbine which powers 20,000 homes. Henrik Stiesdal, one of the original turbine engineers, enthuses about his invention of floating wind farms. In Copenhagen, Simon looks for clues to why Danes are happy. Trust seems to be the “secret sauce”. Danes also love to join clubs. Simon sings with an environmental-themed choir. For people from ‘non-western backgrounds’, it’s a different story. Mohammed, a taxi driver, points out the apartment from which the family were forcibly relocated for the “social experiment” of integration. Simon questions an MP about the country’s attitude to immigrants. Danish values are key, rather than multiculturalism. Simon concludes the series by saying that despite the problems in Scandinavian societies, they seem to work better than any he’s seen (worth noting he’s visited 130 countries…)

This is a very eye-opening and informative programme which gives an insight into modern Scandinavia.

Related posts: TV reviews of Russia, The Americas, Mediterranean, Incredible Journeys.

Firstly, we catch up with Don at the food bank in Camborne. Donations flooded in after he was shown on TV the first time around, and now they are busier than ever. Don shows us a room filled with boxes which will be delivered to families for Christmas. At Newquay, hotel owner Pete explains that he has had to shut the place for the winter and lay off staff, something he has never done during his 35 years there, due to soaring energy prices. A family with three children is being housed in a hotel room rented by the council. Their landlord had sold up and they couldn’t afford a home in the area. The hotel is also where a charity, DISC, run by Monique, helps the local community access supplies, housing and today, Christmas presents. While Simon is there, a homeless man arrives and the charity gives him a tent, coat and shoes, and makes a phone call to find him a place indoors. Monique says that this winter has seen a shocking 90% increase in demand for the charity’s services.

Next, it is the New Year. “It can be hard to square the beauty of the country with the stories I’d heard,” Simon says, on a sunny day. He wants to find out why there is such poverty in Cornwall. He heads to a farm, where it’s perfect weather for cauliflower, says farmer David. After having a go at harvesting cauliflower, Simon meets the workers, who are all from Tajikistan. They have no jobs there in the winter so come over to the farm on six month visas. David says that the local people aren’t interested because they would rather do less strenuous jobs, although he is offering good pay. Shipping workers in from overseas is clearly not going to solve the problems of housing and low pay in Cornwall.

Tourism and hospitality is a huge industry for Cornwall. Simon visits the grand Headland Hotel outside Newquay. Post-Brexit, they are employing local people rather than relying on EU workers. During the winter, they are training the staff and have adapted the employment conditions to be more inclusive. Ethan, who has disabilities, is learning to make barista coffee and is full of praise for his employment at the hotel, which has transformed his life. Moving on, we arrive at the Pendennis boatbuilders at Falmouth Harbour. They are a successful company building and repairing superyachts. The owner Mike is focused on hiring and training local people rather than expertise from abroad. Apprentices are a huge reason for the company’s success. Simon meets an apprentice, Millie, who says she was really pushed to go to university but apprenticeship was a better option. On a visit to Cornwall College, Simon has a tour of the campus and wonders why technical education loses out to the academic route, when the practical skills are needed.

Mousehole is the next location, a place that is rammed in the summer but in the winter is quite empty. Many houses in Cornwall are holiday lets, pricing local people out of the market. The solution could be to build more homes. Simon stands in a field where a planning application to build affordable homes for local people was turned down. He says that the government has a poor record on meeting their own targets for building houses. We are shown a row of solar house units built in a council car park. Each unit is ready for someone to move into, even with items such as oven gloves provided. This could be one solution to the housing crisis, especially as so many young people in particular can’t afford to rent.

Simon catches up with some people he first met. Monique says that homelessness has increased with the change of season, as people who rent in winter are told to vacate to prepare for the summer crowd. Meanwhile, the young family living in a hotel has still not been found accommodation. Simon ends the programme by saying that the housing crisis is hitting the next generation hard and eroding faith in the economy, going so far as to call it a self-inflicted wound.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for 1 year.

The first series was broadcast in 2019. It was to be followed quite soon by the second, but when the pandemic happened, putting the brakes on global travel, Simon made the Cornwall and Incredible Journeys series instead. Oh yes, and he wrote another autobiography.

As always, this programme is beautifully filmed with an interesting variety of landscapes, wildlife and people. The dominant themes, as usual, include climate change, conservation, human rights and migration. It really is an epic series which broadens your knowledge of the world and brings important issues to light.

Here’s my review of the first series, North and Central America, which I wrote in 2019 and had saved in my drafts up until now:

• Stunning icy shots of Alaska are the beginning of the first episode. Simon looks very cold but happy to be there. Climate change is seeing the ice recede, however. A quick venture into Canada sees Simon trying a traditional cocktail with a human toe in it and then witnessing the drug addiction crisis in Vancouver. There’s a safe place for users to go, so that if they overdose, help is there immediately.
• The North American bison is being reintroduced to the prairie, along with other iconic species. I love this idea of populating the landscape again with animals which were wiped out in previous times. Simon then visits a small town which has a legal cannabis factory selling any format and flavour of the drug you could want. In Colorado there’s a town with 11 prisons and we see how in one of them, inmates are being prepared for life outside with virtual reality.
• A whole episode is devoted to California. Giant redwood trees are fantastic. Simon, despite not being good with heights, climbs into the canopy. He’s even taken inside a redwood so old that, we are told, ‘this tree was 1000 years old when Jesus walked the earth’. Emerging from the forest, Simon drives through the ruined town of Paradise, which was the victim of a deadly wildfire in 2018. Then we’re on an operation with the elite firefighters to start controlled fires, clearing away brush and dead wood which would otherwise become fuel for larger fires. After a tour of the mega-rich neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, we get a sad glimpse of the thousands of people living on the streets.
• The US-Mexico border is a sad place to be. We see the fence (possibly to become a wall?) which separates the countries but it’s not all along the border. Thousands of migrants cross over and wait to be picked up by the patrols. On the other side, Reynosa is a violent city in the grip of the Gulf Cartel. Further south into Mexico, Simon enjoys eating some crickets and marvels at the ancient ruined Mayan city of Yaxchilan while thinking about the devastating impact of European invasion on the indigenous populations.
• Central America is a fascinating yet scary region, with wonderful wildlife under threat from deforestation. Simon is ‘hugged by a manatee’ at a rehabilitation centre for the rare creatures in Belize. In Guatemala, drought and unpredictable weather is causing poor harvests and an estimated half of the children are malnourished. We meet the volunteer paramedics in El Salvador who risk their lives helping the victims of gang violence. In contrast to the previous countries, Costa Rica is recovering its forests and treasuring the natural world.

The second series, titled ‘Simon Reeve’s South America’:

• On the stunning Mount Roraima, Venezuela, the landscape is incredibly ancient, a lost world. At the border with Brazil, a refugee crisis. It’s very upsetting to hear families talking about their reasons for leaving. Then to Eteringbang, Guyana, where payment at the bar / pharmacy / general store (it’s the same place) is in gold nuggets. In Suriname, Ronnie Brunswijk, a political figure and controversial character, shows us his environmentally devastating but lucrative gold mines in the jungle. We then meet sloths who have lost their homes, rehabilitated by Monique, who is passionate and knowledgeable about these creatures. At the European Space Agency in French Guiyana, the launch manager Hugh lets us into the control centre. Then we’re out on patrol with the French Foreign Legion on the hunt for illegal gold mining operations.
• Staying with the Waiapi tribe in the Amazon rainforest. They have been in contact with the outside for decades but still have their unique culture and are defending their territory. The filming resumes 20 months later due to the pandemic. When Simon returns, he sees the devastating effects that the virus has had on Brazil. He goes bat hunting, where the suburbs are on the edge of the jungle, looking for diseases which could cause the next pandemics. In Rio de Janeiro, an inspiring community leader, Ale, shows the amazing work she does to improve children’s lives in the favelas. The final adventure of episode 2 is seeing golden lion tamarins, primates which are being vaccinated against yellow fever.
• Exploring the Andes, beginning with the amazing Machu Picchu and staying the night in an aluminium cabin tethered to the side of a mountain. Down through Peru where he meets the farmers trapped into growing coca, then goes out with the police, where they blow up a cocaine lab in the jungle. It’s just a drop in the ocean, however. More than 3 miles above sea level, La Rinconada is a ramshackle Wild West gold mining town, a dangerous place to live and work. It’s so absolutely bleak that even Simon admits he can’t find any positives. Across the border to Bolivia, travelling around La Paz by cable car with Yolanda, who explains how things have changed for indigenous people.
• The strange landscape of the Bolivian salt flats, where a family are mining the salt. Underneath it is lithium, an extremely valuable resource. On to the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland, which is under threat from climate change. Simon stays with Rivaldo, a traditional farmer who has worked very hard to reclaim his land, then goes looking for jaguars. One is spotted almost straight away, having a rest in the road. Eco-tourism is now a thing around here, helping to conserve species and boost the economy. At night, they observe a beautiful mother jaguar and cub. A visit to a Mennonite community in Paraguay is very odd, isolated from the modern world.
• The final episode begins with stunning views of the Atacama Desert, seen from a paraglider’s perspective. On the ground, however, outside the city of Iquique there are thousands of tonnes of dumped clothes, the effects of ‘fast fashion’. Simon discovers some are posh labels, still with tags on. Exploring the cost of living crisis in Buenos Aires, including a visit to one woman’s soup kitchen, then to Chile where the actions of the Mapuche people are considered terrorism by some, while on the other hand the indigenous group want their land back. Simon’s journey ends at Tierra del Fuego and a marvellous colony of sea lions.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for over a year.

Image taken from BBC iPlayer.

There are heartbreaking moments, shockers and also a lot of humour. It’s very much a book about people, the amazing strength, kindness and resourcefulness of individuals, while the majority of people are simply trying to survive and humanity in general is having a terrible effect on wildlife and the environment. There are new things to learn, even if you’ve already seen all of Simon’s programmes, read his books and seen him on tour. If you’re a Simon fan then it’s a must-read, but it’s written and structured in a way that means you don’t need to have prior knowledge. Even the infamous ‘zebu penis soup’ anecdote gets another airing, in case you’ve somehow missed it before. Luckily it’s not included in the photo section this time. The photos are a mixture of family snaps and travel adventures.

In summary, a recommended read which will leave a lasting impression.

Published in 2021 by Hodder and Stoughton. This is the Waterstones signed edition which has an extra chapter about the Nile.

This is not merely a compilation of clips from Simon Reeve’s previous series. It’s a reflection and commentary on the issues encountered in his visits to over 130 countries, but at the heart of it are the people he met along the way. He discusses his most powerful memories from his travels, interspersed with some bits of personal history. Here are some of the highlights, with links to reviews of the series referred to, where I can identify them.

Episode 1:

• Jehangir, one of many child labourers whom we last saw at the age of ten, working in a glass factory, is now a grown man, married with a son. He’s a rickshaw taxi driver and wants an education for his son. Finally he sees the video clip taken of him back then. I challenge you to watch this segment and not shed a tear.
• Simon shows off one of his favourite souvenirs, his Somali diplomatic passport he bought from a man called Mr Big Beard. The segment is shown in which his friend Fatima takes a coachload of young lads to the coast, which was very exciting for them all.
• A look at some of the amazing guides and fixers from previous series, with the inevitable replay of the ‘zebu penis soup’ moment. And then there are the government minders or possible spies, such as the jolly mini-version of Colonel Gaddafi. He seems OK though.
• It can be very dangerous to be a journalist or campaigner. In Mexico, Simon met up with writer Javier Valdez who has since been murdered by a cartel. Then there is Cheery, who was on the wanted list in Burma but risked her life getting Simon’s crew over the border. Years later, Simon and Cheery had an emotional reunion.

Episode 2:

• Mogadishu, Somalia, is probably the most dangerous place Simon has visited. While reminiscing about his two visits there, he travels across Devon to meet up with Jonathan, his cameraman, to demonstrate some of their gear. This includes shrapnel-proof underwear (which he also brought along to his live tour a couple of years ago – I remember he said that it was lucky for the audience that they’d been washed!)
• Many people do not have the good fortune to escape terrible situations. We are reminded of Fatima, a bright young Somali woman who was stuck in a refugee camp. Simon often thinks about her and how an accident of birth can determine your privileges and the direction of your whole life. It’s not known what has happened to Fatima. Refugees and migration were a central theme of the Mediterranean series.
• Harassment by the authorities got in the way of making the series about Russia. The police took their drivers for questioning, they stopped the cameras filming, the crew were followed. These experiences gave Simon an insight into Putin’s Russia.
• Danger can take various forms, from the cameraman hanging out of the side of a Burmese train to get the perfect shot, to getting beaten up by wrestlers. Some situations are too dangerous even to be filmed covertly. We revisit the time when Simon went into the prison in Honduras with the bishop as his security, as the only man that all the gangs trusted.

Episode 3:

• Raising the issues affecting wildlife is an important aspect of the documentaries. Madagascar is considered to be a unique wildlife paradise but Simon was shocked to see vast plantations of sisal, rather than forest. The destruction of habitat and extinction of species is a recurring theme.
• He has met some ‘really heroic and often maverick conservationists’ who are striving to save wildlife, such as Amur tigers in Russia (some very bad news now – the government has approved gold mining on the land), cheetahs in Namibia, giant tortoises in the Seychelles.
• During this episode, he has been wandering around the Devon coast and gets a boat to Lundy Island, a haven for sea birds. Rats, an invasive species introduced via boats, were taking the birds’ eggs and have been eliminated from the island. Other invasive species include camels in Australia and lionfish on the coast of Barbados.
• It’s uncertain when and how people will be able to travel again. Simon weighs up the arguments for and against travel – there are definitely reasons to holiday in your own country, but many places rely on tourism to keep afloat. Responsible travel can help with conservation and allow wildlife to be protected.

Episode 4:

• Indigenous people have seen first-hand how their land is affected by climate change, such as the Kogi people in Colombia. Simon says that the biggest shock to him, since he started travelling extensively, has been indigenous people reporting the effects of climate change. ‘They didn’t need to be told about climate change. They were already experiencing it.’
• The city of Yakutsk in Siberia is built on permafrost (permanently frozen ground). Simon and guide Sergey lie on a bed made of a block of ice for a weird interview. However, we see the proof that the permafrost is melting. Vast craters in the permafrost are appearing across the Arctic.
• Simon is camping on Lundy Island. The weather is a bit grim, he wants a cup of tea and shows off his storm kettle. The Tuareg were amazed by it and offered him three camels in exchange: ‘I only turned them down because I wasn’t sure how to get them back through Customs.’
• We revisit the beautiful Maldives and find that although they look like paradise, the coral is dying out due to rising ocean temperature. There is an island which is a massive rubbish dump where the air is thick with flies and smoke, just a small part of the global ‘plastic crisis’. Simon ends the show by saying it’s not too late for us to take action and change the way we generate energy, farm and travel, and to plant trees to take the carbon out of the atmosphere.

Here are some of the books I spotted in Simon Reeve’s bookcase! Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, Collins guides to trees and wildflowers, the Complete Stratford Shakespeare, travel books on Cuba and Mexico, a book about Bob Dylan, Lustrum by Robert Harris, Atlas of Improbable Places, something by Carl Sagan, The Happy Campers, Lost Devon, and his own books.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for several months.

Here are some highlights:

Episode 1:

• The Taco Boys are a young business who sell tacos on the beach. They’re committed and enthusiastic but have little time to earn enough to keep them going through the winter. Later in the season they’re rushed off their feet. A final visit sees them moving out of the county, to open a restaurant in Exeter. Simon thinks that the lack of opportunities for young people is the real tragedy for Cornwall.
• Cornwall has a long history of mining and it still continues. Simon marvels at Littlejohns Pit, the biggest china clay mine in the world. The staff obviously love their work and enjoy blasting thousands of tonnes of rocks. However, many more people used to work in the mining industry.
• A really remarkable man, Don, points out all the industrial sites which used to pay the wages of people in Camborne, which is now a deprived area. 12 years ago, Don and his wife Jen set up Cornwall’s first independent food bank, which feeds up to 500 families a month. Simon then meets young parents who are working on allotments and building a shed. It’s helped them with their wellbeing but in terms of employment, there aren’t long-term jobs and there is the expectation that you have to leave the county to find a career.
• Exploratory drilling has started at the existing tunnels in South Crofty mine, now that tin is so important as solder in electrical items. If the mine were to reopen, it would create jobs and be more sustainable than mines overseas. They detonate explosives beneath Tesco in Camborne but don’t worry, it’s safe.

Episode 2:

• Seal-spotting off the coast of Newquay with seal expert and rescuer Sue reveals that each of these animals has a unique fur pattern so that individuals can be identified. Tourists need to keep their distance from seals to allow them to rest and digest food. The biggest threat to seals is extreme weather events.
• Flooding is increasingly common in Cornwall in particular, probably due to climate change. Farmer Chris has decided that beavers are the natural answer to the problem of flooding on his land. Beavers have engineered a series of dams, even creating a new ecosystem. Simon is very excited to see the beavers.
• An estimated 640,000 tonnes of lost fishing gear enter our oceans every years. A group of volunteer divers removes an extremely harmful ‘ghost net’ from the sea off the Cornish coast. Otherwise it will take an estimated 600 years to degrade. They are able to free a few creatures trapped in the net. On to the National Lobster Hatchery, where Simon helps release adorable tiny baby lobsters into the sea, which have been nurtured to help the survival rate and contribute to sustainable fishing.
• Tim Smit at the Eden Project has a vision for educating people about land and growing things, particularly for a change in attitude towards local agriculture. Musing upon these big ideas and the return to localism that the pandemic has highlighted, Simon attends a beaver release on to farmland, which is a rare and well-attended event. Everyone is awed as she finds her way to the river and swims away.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this series is available for a year.

Episode 1:

• The Dominican Republic looks like paradise but we see another side to it, as Simon goes on training with the police anti-narcotics squad. We see what they’re up against – the guns are so easy for the gangs to use and millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine finds its way out of the country and on to our streets. As Simon watches the police haul of cocaine go up in flames, he reflects that the Caribbean is the “victim” between the supplier countries and the markets. The Dominican Republic is also the world’s worst place to drive, exemplified when guide Carlos pulls up at a drive-thru bar. The drink-drive laws are not enforced and there are consequently a lot of accidents.
• Haiti has a “grim reputation” and has suffered a lot over the years. We hear some history of the country and then see a voodoo ceremony. Voodoo has a sinister connotation but guide Jean Daniel is actually a voodoo priest and he says that people fear what they don’t know. The ceremony is lively, colourful and welcoming. On to the capital Port-au-Prince, where mounds of rubble and makeshift camps are evidence of the massive earthquake in 2010. Jean Daniel gets emotional as he recounts his experiences. Charity worker Adeline explains her work with Restaveks, children whose parents can’t afford to keep them and then give them away. It’s modern slavery and the key is to educate the public about it.
• Puerto Rico is a territory of the USA. There are apparently more Puerto Ricans in the USA than in Puerto Rico now, as it’s an expensive place to live but the wages don’t match. Simon goes to the island of Vieques, where the USA tested weapons, while people were living there. The testing finally stopped in 2002. He goes diving in the water just off the coast, which he pronounces quite peaceful – “apart from the MASSIVE BOMB!” The seabed is littered with unexploded devices, which the USA needs to clean up. They claim to be cleaning up the site at the other end of the island, which is said to have more craters than the moon, but we’re not allowed to take a look.

Episode 2:

• Barbados is where the rich go for paradise beaches and the bluest sea. However, local people are priced out of the coastal areas, except for one man who has been offered $8 million but still won’t sell up. On the steep sides of the volcano on the island of St Vincent, people are secretly farming marijuana in the fertile volcanic soil. They can make more money than farming bananas. There isn’t any organised crime involved and the farmers are relaxed, especially as they are smoking the product of their farms. They don’t mind being filmed. Simon meets the Prime Minister, who is hoping that marijuana will be decriminalised. It would benefit the economy.
• Venezuela has a Caribbean coastline, although it’s not traditionally thought of as a Caribbean country. It’s one of the biggest oil producers and should be rich, but things are not looking good. In Caracas, Simon visits an abandoned skyscraper which is home to thousands of squatters. It’s not a safe place to live, but the people feel safer than out on the streets in the city. There’s a solid community in the tower and some people even run businesses. On the other hand, fuel is extremely cheap and subsidised by the government. Filling a tank at the petrol station for about a dollar, the cheapness of fuel (at the expense of other important areas) is “extra extra extra bonkers”.
• A quarter of the bananas consumed in the UK are from Colombia. Simon helps to harvest bananas and hears about the paramilitaries’ violence towards banana farmers in the recent past, and the links to the banana corporations. We follow the bananas to the port, where they are checked for smuggled cocaine. On to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the indigenous Kogi people live an isolated and gentle existence. There are inevitably some laughs about the height difference between Simon and the tribespeople. “I hate cockerels,” he groans, having had a noisy night’s stay. The Kogi are worried about the changes in nature they’ve observed and say that “Mother Earth is in pain”.

Episode 3:

• Nicaragua is about to be split by a canal project which will link the Pacific and the Caribbean, an endeavour attempted many times before. It was approved by the government without a public consultation and will have a huge impact on the environment and on traditional ways of life. Simon obtains varying views on the project. Some people claim it will bring wealth and employment, while others think it won’t benefit locals and will tear communities apart. On to the island of Roatan off the Honduran coast, where scientist Steve Box is studying parrotfish. Coral reefs are kept healthy by the presence of these fish. There is a “magical” night-time dive on the world’s second largest barrier reef to extract fish DNA.
• Honduras has a shocking murder rate. In San Pedro Sula, “the deadliest city on the planet”, Simon goes on patrol with the military police. There are abandoned houses, where gangs have forced people out of their homes. Later, on the scene of an assassination of two off-duty police officers, it’s revealed that over 50 police have been killed by the gangs in 5 years. By nine o’clock in the evening, there have been seven murders that day. A visit to a very scary prison then takes place, with Simon under protection of the bishop in the areas where the guards don’t go. The gangs pretty much run the inside of the prison, which is like a town. Simon is very relieved to get back outside.
• Our guide in Jamaica, Nick, is actually from Derby in the UK, but has moved back to his parents’ home country. He points out the disappearing beaches which the locals are hopelessly trying to stem with piles of rocks. Climate change has brought an increase in storms which are eroding the coast. Simon investigates the ‘brain drain’ of the educated workforce from Jamaica but on a more positive note there has been a reduction in crime rates. In Kingston he undergoes polygraphy, a technique mainly used on police officers to tackle corruption. They don’t just want 99.9% of the truth, they want 100%. This epic journey then ends, as it began, with a paradise beach. White sand, blue waves and palm trees.

Episode 1:

• Starting in the Red Centre, with fantastic views of the dusty rocky landscape, the first animal we see is… a camel. Herds were released into the outback, no longer needed as transport, and now wild camels are impacting on farms and the environment. Simon attends a madcap roundup of camels which will be sold to the Middle East for food, riding and, er, ‘beauty camels’.
• In the driest state of South Australia, Bill Hardy of the famous wine brand gives a lesson in winetasting. It turns out you don’t have to spit the wine out to appreciate its taste. The vines are irrigated by a lot of water. There’s a vast sea of white tanks in which the wine is fermenting, produced on a massive industrial scale to cheaply supply our tables.
• Port Lincoln is a city made rich by tuna farming. Hagen, one of the wealthiest, has invested in research to get southern bluefin tuna to breed. This would mean that wild tuna don’t have to be caught. Simon dives in a tuna ‘ranch’ to see the magnificent large fish, which is apparently ‘like being on the hard shoulder of the motorway’.
• The Indian Pacific Railway (2,700 miles long) traverses the epic landscape. Simon hops off at Kalgoorlie, a city with its origins in the gold rush. Prospectors are still bringing gold into the dealers. Our presenter gets ‘gold fever’ and heads for the hills, where a family show him how to look for the shiny stuff but he still ‘failed miserably’.
• Ninga Mia is an Aboriginal settlement, a gold nugget’s throw from the Kalgoorlie Super Pit, a mine which produces 7% of the world’s gold. Poverty and deprivation are evident and as Pastor Geoffrey explains, the community receives no benefit at all from the lucrative mining industry. Aboriginal people are deprived of their inheritance and birthright, he says.
• Perth, a booming city, has a population of which over 11% are British expats. Here, blue collar workers can live the good life too. We meet Steve, a former binman from Hull, who is now earning a great salary from instructing truck drivers, a skill much needed due to the resources boom. He gives a lesson to Simon. The controls look rather complicated. Finally, Simon visits Perth Airport and sees all of the workers who commute by plane to the remote mines every day.

Episode 2:

• Kakadu National Park is a wildlife paradise, but numbers are falling due to a notorious poisonous pest – cane toads. They were introduced from America in the 1930s with the intention that the toads would eat beetles, but now they’re out of control. After nightfall, the rangers go around picking up cane toads and putting them in a bag to be euthanised.
• At the Robertson Barracks, on the frontline of Asia, the boys are having fun testing out their toys – tanks. Simon goes on patrol with NORFORCE, surveillance and survival experts. He samples ‘green ant tea’, which is apparently citrusy and refreshing. Australia’s tough immigration policy is demonstrated when he visits one of five detention centres in Darwin, where asylum seekers and refugees tell their stories through the fence.
• There are many deadly creatures in the sea. At Weipa on the Cape York peninsula, the Stinger Research Unit are hunting for box jellyfish, the most venomous creature in the world. When they see one, it’s barely visible near the shoreline. Simon is invited to touch the creature (not the tentacles obviously), which feels ‘like hard jelly’. The scientists take a sample (the venom could provide new drugs) and then everyone gets back in the boat for fear of being spotted by crocodiles.
• Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef showcases the beauty and incredible diversity of marine life. However, something is eating the coral – the spiky crown-of-thorns starfish. Unsurprisingly, it’s toxic. It’s believed that chemicals from farming are to blame for the starfish plague. As with the cane toads, they have to be picked off to protect the native wildlife. Unbelievably, huge cargo ships filled with coal are allowed to cross the Reef, which is hazardous because one wrong move could damage the environment. A specialist pilot is flown by helicopter to one ship. This same helicopter lands Simon on a very narrow strip, a coral cay, in the middle of the ocean.

Episode 3:

• ‘Ah, the indignity of it’. Simon struggles to surf at Surfers Paradise, a resort on the Gold Coast. On returning to find his parking ticket expired, he finds there is nothing to worry about, as it has been topped up by the scantily clad Meter Maids. At night, he patrols the city, learning about the seedy underbelly and organised crime. He then meets an ‘outlaw motorcycle gang,’ the notorious Finks. Hugely muscled, tattooed and scary, the bikers feel that their rights are being infringed by the the government, who have designated them a criminal organisation.
• The koala is a national icon but it’s in crisis. Koala populations are decreasing and they are losing habitat. Simon sees a koala up close when a vet, Jon, captures one on the edge of suburbia for a health check. On to the Liverpool Plains, where the land is very productive, we meet Tommy and George, 80-something farmers of 12,000 acres. Coal has been discovered nearby and the state has the right to it, not the landowners. Tommy, George and their friends are involved in a campaign to keep the mining companies out of this area.
• From his high rise apartment, wealthy real estate developer ‘High Rise Harry’ Triguboff points out his buildings on the skyline. Many of his apartments are bought by the Chinese. Sydney is visibly a diverse city. Simon meets a female Muslim ‘Aussie rules football’ team who are proud Aussies from migrant backgrounds. However, there are still problems with racist attitudes and abuse towards many people.
• Bushfires are an increasing menace, linked to climate change. Simon is in a helicopter with firefighter Brett to take a closer look at a raging fire. It is predicted that fires will increase in frequency and severity [NB. Seven years later, we see the truth of this]. Arriving in Melbourne in time for the Australia Day celebrations, Simon concludes that, despite its chequered history and some vital issues which need to be addressed, he is ‘bowled over’ by how far the country has come.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for a couple of months.

• In Yangon, reunited with activist and former exile Cheery (who risked her life helping Simon cross into Burma in Tropic of Cancer), it is clear that while some things have changed since the end of the dictatorship, there are serious issues which people can’t really talk about. The Rohingya crisis is going on, but you wouldn’t know it in lively Yangon.
• A monastic school in Pakkoku is benefiting poor children and orphans. They also train Buddhist monks. Simon rises at 4.30am to follow the monks’ rituals and to collect breakfast from donation points. Monks had a role in the uprising which was crushed by the military. We also see a controversial group of monks, Ma Ba Tha, whose propaganda is fuelling the conflicts between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority in Burma.
• The human rights disaster that is the ‘genocide’ of the Rohingya is witnessed in Bangladesh, which has the biggest refugee camp in the world. Simon’s guide in Kutupalong camp has lived there for 26 years. Heartbreaking stories are heard from the people. The Unicef children’s centre is allowing the young victims to get their childhoods back.
• At the border, people are allowed to cross to grab their aid packages and that’s it. Simon’s crew takes an injured Rohingya man to the Red Cross hospital. He had gone back to check on his farm in Burma and was beaten by the military. ‘He’s lucky to be alive.’

• Along the Irrawaddy River to Mandalay, the second biggest city in Burma. People are bringing slabs of jade to the market, where the Chinese buyers give prices for these green rocks mined from the far north of the country in unknown conditions. Simon tries on a jade bangle with a £3000 price tag and worries it’ll get stuck on his wrist, so he’ll have to buy it. Apparently a BBC presenter’s salary doesn’t stretch that far.
• The Greenhill Valley Elephant Sanctuary is in the forested mountainous Shan state, which is home to elephants jobless since the reduction of logging in Burma. Simon feeds a stack of vegetables into an elephant’s mouth and helps to bathe her in the river. He plants a teak tree and names it after his son.
• Teams compete at a spectacular balloon festival. One of the balloons contains 70kg of homemade fireworks. Launching it could go ‘horribly wrong, because the balloon is made of paper… paper!’ and the crowd screams as another balloon showers rockets everywhere. Simon is hit by one and is relieved to have a BBC fire blanket at the ready.
• Crossing into the conflict zone via Thailand on foot, they sneak past an army base to visit the rebels who have been fighting the Burmese military for decades. On patrol with the soldiers, they’re also looking out for rival armed groups. Simon concludes that the biggest issue in Burma is that the military needs to be reformed and its power checked, otherwise the country can’t change for the better.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for another few months. Image taken from iPlayer.

• Starting with the Dodecanese Islands, which have the lovely tourist brochure views, Simon meets a fisherman who dives for sponges in the sea. This industry has declined since artificial sponges were invented, so it’s mainly tourism which is keeping the islands afloat. However, even that isn’t doing as well as previously in the current economic climate.
• The island of Lesvos, which looks out at Turkey, is at the forefront of the migration wave from Syria and beyond. Simon is stunned to witness inflatable boats loaded with refugees and economic migrants arriving, with no Greek authorities present. People are carrying maybe one bag each and their phones. Simon gives a lift to a refugee woman and her sister and children, but soon their menfolk order them out of the car to walk in the heat.
• On Crete, where people are known to be very tough, we meet gun-toting patriotic priest Father Andreas. At the shooting range, Simon comments that it feels ‘alien’ to Brits, as it’s not part of the culture, but that for those in Crete, guns are a way of life. Many of Father Andreas’ family were killed during the German occupation, where Cretans fought a courageous resistance.
• In Athens, we have a summary of how Greece got into financial trouble which led to the bail-out and austerity. This has led to many problems. Simon visits a giant landfill site, ‘driving up a mountain of waste’, where many tons of rubbish – some of it recyclable, some of it possibly toxic – are dumped every day. It’s shocking to see people, including children, picking through the dangerous waste in a European country.
• There’s an angry atmosphere on the streets of Athens. Simon meets up with an activist but then some men behave threateningly towards them. The crew manage to get away with the film intact. That night, there’s a protest march which turns violent, as young men throw petrol bombs and clash with police in riot gear. It’s noted that youth unemployment in the country is over 50%.

• The Peloponnese Peninsula is important agriculturally. However, the workers are often migrants with no legal rights, who are paid little and treated appallingly. Simon meets some Bangladeshi men who are basically stuck, hoping for work permits so they can move on to better things.
• In the north of Greece is Arcturos, a sanctuary which rescues so-called ‘dancing’ bears from lives of cruelty. There are wild bears too and the sanctuary trains Greek sheepdogs to protect flocks from bears and wolves. This seems a more harmonious way than trying to completely get rid of the predators.
• There’s an enormous coal mine which supplies fuel to major power stations. We are treated to a demonstration of the blasting process, which includes 4.2 tonnes of explosive being tipped down a hole, lighting the fuse with a match, and only 60 seconds to escape in the truck. Coal is of course very bad for the environment but problematically, Greece can’t afford to stop mining and burning it.
• Women are not allowed on Mount Athos. Simon and some other blokes travel there by boat, where the Greek Orthodox monasteries are like fortresses. One of the monasteries, Esphigmenou, is locked in a dispute with the church and the rebel monks are sealed off from the other communities. However, they have a can-do attitude and even brew their own alcohol, which at 55% ensures the monks are happy…
• After visiting the Muslim community in Western Thrace (a legacy of when the border to Turkey was changed in the past), we meet an entrepreneur olive oil producer who has actually come back to Greece instead of leaving with the rest of the ‘brain drain’. Simon concludes with a note of optimism despite admitting how ‘surprised’ and even ‘shocked’ he has been on this journey to see the evidence of how Greece’s economic crisis has affected the people.

If you have access to BBC iPlayer, this programme is available for a few months.