The Road to Rio • 2012 • episode "3/4" • Brazil with Michael Palin

134:03

Information Alexander Armstrong's amazing journey into the extraordinary world that is South Korea. Chapter 1: Seoul Alexander journeys across South Korea, one of the most influential and successful countries on earth, known for its manufacturing strength and cultural exports. He arrives late at night in bustling downtown Seoul, and kicks off his epic Korean adventure in Gangnam, the fabled district immortalised by Psy's Gangnam Style video. Helping to keep modern Korea on the global map are its YouTube stars, and Alexander wolfs down noodles with Heebab, a record-breaking Mukhbang 'bulk-eater', and meets Korean Billy, whose English accent impersonations are an online sensation. Chapter 2: Ulsan Alexander continues his exploration of the bustling capital Seoul, where he marvels at the splendour of the 14th century Gyeongbokgung Palace and takes in the colourful changing of the guard ceremony, before heading to the famous Yangnyeongsi herbal medicine market. Later, he takes a quick detour away from Seoul to the country's industrial capital Ulsan, where visits the cultural museum to find out the origins of South Korea's international hit series, Squid Game. Chapter 3: Busan On the last leg of his South Korean adventure, Alexander heads to the bustling port of Busan, where South Korea's biggest fish market is to be found. Alexander gets to try some of the weirdest seafood he has ever seen, fresh from the sea, including a couple of sea creatures that are so fresh they are still moving as he bites into them. Later, travels 180 miles across the Korea Strait from Busan to the island of Jeju, where he embarks on an exhilarating climb up an extinct volcano known as Sunrise Peak.

2022 • 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.

2/2 • Burma with Simon Reeve • 2018 • Travel

58:46

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the nation's morning pick-me-up. While we drink millions of cups of the stuff each week, how many of us know where our coffee actually comes from? The surprising answer is that it is not Brazil, Columbia or Jamaica, but Vietnam. Eighty per cent of the coffee we drink in Britain isn't posh cappuccinos or lattes but instant coffee and Vietnam is the biggest supplier. From Hanoi in the north, Simon follows the coffee trail into the remote central highlands where he meets the people who grow, pick and pack our coffee. Millions of small scale famers, each working two or three acres, produce most of the coffee beans that go into well known instant coffee brands. Thirty years ago Vietnam only produced a tiny proportion of the world's coffee, but after the end of the Vietnam war there was a widescale plan to become a coffee growing nation and Vietnam is now the second biggest in the world. It has provided employment for millions, making some very rich indeed, and Simon meets Vietnam's biggest coffee billionaire. But Simon learns that their rapid success has come at a cost to both the local people and the environment.

2014 • Travel

51:00

Northern England: birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the Beatles, and a long list of mythical, historical, and literary legends. From Hadrian's Wall, the ancient stone boundary that stretches across the country, to the brooding Yorkshire Moors, the setting for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, this aerial tour explores the region's most dramatic natural and manmade landmarks.

2/4 • Aerial Britain • 2019 • Travel

44:54

The historian reaches the southernmost stretches of the Egyptian Nile, though her 900-mile journey is not quite over as she joins archaeologists as they extract a giant stone message board from the foundations of the temple of the crocodile god Sobek. Bettany also visits a hotel once frequented by Churchill and says farewell to her boat crew. After reaching Egypt's border with Sudan where Rameses the Great built an outrageous temple to himself, the presenter joins the crowds to witness the power of the rising sun.

4/4 • The Nile: Egypt's Great River with Bettany Hughes • 2019 • Travel

50:10

The final leg of James’s journey from north to south finds him in Shikoku and Kyushu - the largest of Japan’s Southern Islands and a stunning paradise of blue water and semi-tropical sandy beaches. Cycling, archery, noodle making, and motorbike manufacturing are all in store, plus James is preserved for eternity in a creepy scarecrow village.

6/6 • James May: Our Man in Japan • 2019 • Travel