Part 1 • 2018 • episode "S1E1" • Burma with Simon Reeve

45:07

Bettany visits the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor where, for 500 years, the Ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings, among them the boy-king Tutankhamun. However, the historian crosses the local hills to the Workers' Village, where generations of skilled royal tomb-builders lived. As it turns out, they also dumped masses of domestic rubbish, which is now giving some insight into the highs, lows and preoccupations of ancient Egyptians. Bettany then heads south on the Nile's oldest steam ship SS Sudan, which inspired Agatha Christie to write Death on the Nile.

S1E3 • The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes • 2019 • Travel

58:51

his leg takes Ade to the east of the continent, from Tanzania, through Ethiopia and on to war-torn Somalia. Ade begins in Tanzania, in Selous Game Reserve – a game park the size of Switzerland. He is on the lookout for elephants. But the numbers in this park have fallen by 90 per cent over the last few decades. As well as poaching, one of the big problems is that elephants trample and eat crops – so the locals don't like them. But a new collaring programme is helping numbers to recover. Ade's next stop is Ethiopia's far north. He travels to the hottest place on the planet where he spends a night with some of the toughest people on earth - the Afar. He joins them doing what their ancestors have done for centuries – hacking blocks of salt from a dried-up salt lake and loading them onto camels. But change is finally coming to this place – thanks to another of its resources, the fertilizer potash. It is a sign of Ethiopia's development, which Ade sees more of in the capital, Addis Ababa. Having grown up with images of starving children in the famine-plagued 80s, Addis is nothing like Ade expected. The city is booming. And it is driving Ethiopia's economy - now one of the fastest-growing in the world. Ade gets a guided tour from perhaps the world's greatest-ever long distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie. Haile is now a businessman, with investments in coffee and construction. The real fuel in Ethiopia's boom is manufacturing. Asia is still the workshop of the world, but with wages there on the rise, Chinese companies are increasingly looking to countries like Ethiopia to set up factories – as Ade discovers on a visit to a shoe factory. Leaving Addis, Ade travels on Ethiopia's new high-speed Chinese built train, which whisks him all the way to neighbouring Djibouti, a vital port for Ethiopia's export-led economy. The final stop on this leg of Ade's trip is war-torn Somalia. He joins the African Union troops on a mission out of Mogadishu and discovers a country in ruins, thanks to decades of conflict with Islamist group al-Shabab. Even in areas ruled by the government conservative Islam dominates and women face restriction on their freedom. Back in Mogadishu, Ade shoots some hoops with a group of women defying the odds by playing basketball. His final encounter is with a female doctor who worked for the NHS for 30 years, and has now returned to Somalia to rebuild her country. She is prepared to give her life, if necessary, in her efforts to provide quality maternity care for new mothers.

S1E3 • Africa with Ade Adepitan • 2019 • Travel

59:01

Simon sets off on a journey through the continent, beginning in the remote and little-visited north-east. In Venezuela, Simon meets some of the thousands of migrants fleeing the economic collapse of their country, while he learns that neighbouring Guyana could be on the verge of its own oil boom. He also meets a gun-toting former warlord who is now one of Suriname's most successful businessmen, and ends his journey in French Guiana, where he goes to the launch site of the European Space Agency.

S1E1 • Simon Reeve's South America • 2022 • Travel

47:10

Five months into his journey, Levison Wood faces a 1,300-mile walk across the Sahara, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, to reach the Egyptian border. He's joined by a Sudanese guide, two nomads and three badly behaved camels. Together they encounter some of the most spectacular sights of the mission, camping among the ancient Meroe Pyramids. The explorer then tackles his toughest physical challenge - crossing the Bayuda volcanic field - where temperatures can reach 55C. Trekking 20 miles a day through blinding sandstorms, Lev soon starts to run out of water.

S1E3 • Walking the Nile with Levison Wood • 2015 • Travel

45:14

On board a timeless dahabiya cruise boat, the historian sets off on a 900-mile adventure up the Nile to Egypt's southern border, seeing the country as the ancient Egyptians once did. She arrives at Egypt's gateway to the world - the Nile's mouth - then meets the crew that will guide her upstream. A visit to the Cairo Museum and its collection of Egyptian mummies follows, before Bettany braves the underground tunnels of a collapsed pyramid.

S1E1 • The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes • 2019 • Travel

48:35

Experience Yosemite's incredible wonders with breathtaking cinematography, including such icons as the granite monoliths El Capitan and Half Dome, and the spectacular Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls. Learn about Yosemite's fascinating history as the first land set aside for preservation that inspired John Muir and photographer Ansel Adams and discover why Yosemite is one of America's Crown Jewels.

2020 • Travel