Moldavia • 2023 • episode "S2E2" • Flavours of Romania

22:14

How do people live in deserts? How do we make places with extreme climate conditions and limited resources like the desert inhabitable? Home to some of the world’s oldest human history, Doha, Qatar is a land of sweeping desert vistas, deep-rooted heritage, and now a modern, technologically-advanced metropolis on the Persian Gulf. From the 100+ year-old Souq Waqif to the futuristic cityscape, this episode will take viewers through Doha’s rich array of historic customs and traditions as well as into the ambitions for the next generation.

S1E5 • Crash Test World • 2021 • Travel

51:00

Wales: a region of dramatic coasts, enchanting parks, and more fortresses per square mile than anywhere else on the planet. Visit Offa's Dyke on the border of England, fly over the coastal island of Anglesey, and descend Mount Snowdon aboard one of the world's most remarkable steam locomotives. Celebrate the country's history, legends, and people, from the birth of Lawrence of Arabia to the magical stories of Roald Dahl.

S1E3 • Aerial Britain • 2019 • Travel

58:32

He explores how the artistic life of three Japanese cities shaped the country's attitudes to past and present, east and west, and helped forge the very idea of Japan itself. In Kyoto, James reveals how the flowering of classical culture produced many treasures of Japanese art, including The Tale of Genji, considered to be the first novel ever written. In Edo, where Tokyo now stands, a very different art form emerged, in the wood block prints of artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. James meets the artisans still creating these prints today, and discovers original works by a great master, Utamaro, who documented the so-called 'floating world'. In contemporary Tokyo, James discovers the darker side of Japan's urbanisation through the photographs of Daido Moriyama, and meets a founder of the Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata, whose film Grave of the Fireflies helped establish anime as a powerful and serious art form.

S1E2 • The Art of Japanese Life • 2017 • Travel

48:57

James begins his epic journey across Japan on the icy northern island of Hokkaido, throwing himself head first into the physical demands of dog sledding, snowball fighting and the baffling struggle of ordering noodles from a Japanese vending machine. Despite all that, there’s still time for octopus fishing and learning the art of samurai sword making.

S1E1 • James May: Our Man in Japan • 2019 • Travel

59:13

The second of a two-part series, in which adventurer and broadcaster Simon Reeve travels deeper into beautiful and troubled Burma. Simon journeys up the vast Irrawaddy River to the old royal capital of Mandalay, home to an exotic market for precious jade. In Burma's mountainous highlands, he experiences the country's vibrant ethnic heritage at an extraordinary and explosive fire-balloon festival, Burma is a melting pot of different ethnic groups, and having seen first-hand the suffering of the Rohingya people on the first leg of his journey, Simon now travels secretly into one of Burma's many other conflict zones to meet a huge rebel army who have been fighting the Burmese military for decades.

S1E2 • Burma with Simon Reeve • 2018 • Travel

198:47

James May charts the journeys of explorers through experiments and messing about in boats. Chapter 1: Christopher Columbus The host profiles famous explorers, beginning with Christopher Columbus. He may be celebrated as a national hero for 'discovering' the USA - but he never set foot there. James starts by travelling to south-west Spain, from where these world-changing voyages began. May takes the helm of his own sailboat to test the cutting-edge sail technology that allowed ships to travel further than ever - and the rudimentary navigation techniques that Columbus had to rely on. Chapter 2: Sir Walter Raleigh James follows Walter Raleigh's rise from rural Devon to London high-society. He meets top barrister Benet Brandreth KC at The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple to learn the techniques of persuasion that allowed Raleigh to talk his way to the top. James also explores the darker and more complex corners of Raleigh's legacy. Chapter 3: Captain Cook Captain James Cook was the last explorer in the age of sail - and one of the busiest, charting one third of the globe. His voyages brought huge advancements in navigation, biology, and geography, and in Britain he is generally thought of as a hero - but in other parts of the world, that's not the story. James May examines how this studious and serious son of a farmer broke through the class ceiling to become the greatest naval captain of his age.

2025 • Travel