1 00:00:01,327 --> 00:00:05,320 There are lots of times when I feel the last thing I want to do 2 00:00:05,487 --> 00:00:11,483 is to get up in the morning and go anywhere and get in a bus or on a boat or fly anywhere. 3 00:00:11,647 --> 00:00:16,038 Just want to sit around. Basically, I am quite lazy, I think. 4 00:00:16,207 --> 00:00:20,405 But the travelling kind of energises me, 5 00:00:20,567 --> 00:00:25,322 keeps me... keeps the brain ticking over, keeps the body tested. 6 00:00:25,487 --> 00:00:30,038 I think my family are sort of aware now that it's better to have... 7 00:00:31,687 --> 00:00:36,556 ...have a husband or father who's fulfilled rather than frustrated. 8 00:00:36,727 --> 00:00:39,036 And, as I do enjoy the journeys, 9 00:00:39,207 --> 00:00:43,917 they accept that I'm away for a certain period of time, that's what I do. 10 00:00:44,087 --> 00:00:48,239 When I come back... Well, I'm usually flaked out for a long time. 11 00:00:48,407 --> 00:00:52,116 But I'm much happier than if I had to do something else 12 00:00:52,287 --> 00:00:54,596 which my heart wasn't really in. 13 00:00:54,767 --> 00:00:58,521 So, on balance, the family are really good about it. 14 00:00:58,687 --> 00:01:02,521 I... I... I find that... 15 00:01:02,687 --> 00:01:06,646 ...having done the journey, I then have quite a long period at home 16 00:01:06,807 --> 00:01:09,002 writing the book or the commentary. 17 00:01:09,167 --> 00:01:11,158 I probably, over a long period, 18 00:01:11,327 --> 00:01:15,525 spend more time at home than most people with a nine-to-five job. 19 00:01:15,687 --> 00:01:19,157 So it kind of balances out, but... um... 20 00:01:20,127 --> 00:01:21,924 ...I am restless, 21 00:01:22,087 --> 00:01:27,241 but I do enjoy the sheer pleasure of sitting at a table staring into the middle distance 22 00:01:27,407 --> 00:01:31,400 with a glass of beer and not having to think about anything. 23 00:01:31,567 --> 00:01:36,925 When I started "Around The World In 80 Days", I took lots of phrase books with me 24 00:01:37,087 --> 00:01:41,524 and tried to make sure that I had a few phrases for each country. 25 00:01:41,687 --> 00:01:43,678 It does make it much easier. 26 00:01:43,847 --> 00:01:47,123 I found it quite difficult 'cause I got phrases muddled up. 27 00:01:47,287 --> 00:01:50,996 We'd be in Greece, then in Egypt. You'd have to have another one. 28 00:01:51,167 --> 00:01:55,638 Then you're in Dubai or something like that, and then you're in India. 29 00:01:55,807 --> 00:02:00,164 Um... and what I do now 30 00:02:00,327 --> 00:02:04,923 is I try to just have a phrase 31 00:02:05,087 --> 00:02:08,682 for, "Good morning", "Hello", "I'm English", "Sorry", 32 00:02:08,847 --> 00:02:11,315 which are all you really need to say, 33 00:02:11,487 --> 00:02:18,325 rather than attempt to really learn the language or give a full frontal assault on the language. 34 00:02:18,487 --> 00:02:22,958 Because that's really quite tricky and you can get very easily tripped up. 35 00:02:23,127 --> 00:02:27,245 I do think it's important to be able to say, "Hello" and "Thank you". 36 00:02:27,407 --> 00:02:29,398 "Thank you" is a good one. 37 00:02:29,567 --> 00:02:33,606 And, if possible, something like, "You live in a very beautiful country." 38 00:02:33,767 --> 00:02:37,965 Something disarming like that. But I don't usually get as far as that. 39 00:02:38,127 --> 00:02:40,163 ...when I was so little. 40 00:02:42,767 --> 00:02:47,124 It is comedy! Anyway, I've got to walk on the boat. See you later. 41 00:02:47,287 --> 00:02:51,838 For the programmes we're making... 42 00:02:52,007 --> 00:02:57,798 ...to have a lot of... a lot of a foreign language 43 00:02:57,967 --> 00:03:00,162 means subtitles and translation. 44 00:03:00,327 --> 00:03:05,321 I think that puts a barrier between myself, the person I'm interviewing and the viewer. 45 00:03:05,487 --> 00:03:11,244 So that's why we tend to interview people who have a certain amount of English 46 00:03:11,407 --> 00:03:15,366 or interview people who I can understand a certain amount of, 47 00:03:15,527 --> 00:03:17,518 so I can translate it myself. 48 00:03:17,687 --> 00:03:21,123 We try to avoid long subtitles. It's just easier. 49 00:03:21,847 --> 00:03:26,841 "Full Circle", I think, was gastronomically the most challenging of all the journeys. 50 00:03:27,007 --> 00:03:31,205 We did have some very strange things to eat. 51 00:03:31,367 --> 00:03:34,359 Maggots in Mexico City, 52 00:03:34,527 --> 00:03:39,760 and this very, very strong, smelly fruit called durian. 53 00:03:39,927 --> 00:03:45,206 I think it's a delicacy in Java, I think. 54 00:03:47,167 --> 00:03:52,161 Anyway, it smells absolutely foul. Apparently, they don't allow it on airlines for that reason. 55 00:03:52,327 --> 00:03:57,321 One bite of durian and the whole plane just sort of stinks for weeks. 56 00:03:57,487 --> 00:04:01,480 I had to experiment eating that, and it's fine once you eat it. 57 00:04:01,647 --> 00:04:03,638 It's a bit like, I suppose... 58 00:04:03,807 --> 00:04:06,640 ...the Chinese and certainly the Japanese, 59 00:04:06,807 --> 00:04:11,005 whose standards of food are absolutely so high 60 00:04:11,167 --> 00:04:18,198 that you rarely have anything bad to eat there, but cheese, they don't know about at all. 61 00:04:18,367 --> 00:04:21,564 So I suppose, to them, a slab of Stilton 62 00:04:21,727 --> 00:04:25,720 would be what durian is to us - something absolutely foul. 63 00:04:25,887 --> 00:04:28,879 But, actually, once you eat it, it's OK. 64 00:04:29,047 --> 00:04:33,837 Soft like banana. Well, this is a first. You don't see durian-tasting often. 65 00:04:34,007 --> 00:04:36,157 Are you going to have some, as well? 66 00:04:36,327 --> 00:04:39,000 I'll 'ave some if you 'ave some, Eko. 67 00:04:40,127 --> 00:04:42,595 - Here we go. - One, two, three. 68 00:04:46,287 --> 00:04:49,484 - Yummy. - Mm. Oh, God. 69 00:04:50,767 --> 00:04:53,759 That is a very strange taste, isn't it? 70 00:04:53,927 --> 00:04:57,715 I think probably the most unlikely thing I ever took 71 00:04:57,887 --> 00:05:00,606 was a drink in Peru, 72 00:05:00,767 --> 00:05:04,476 in a village on the Urubamba River. 73 00:05:04,647 --> 00:05:07,639 And we never really quite captured it on film. 74 00:05:07,807 --> 00:05:12,801 We filmed there, but almost as soon as we'd landed... Everything was very unfamiliar. 75 00:05:12,967 --> 00:05:16,403 This is a small Machiguenga Indian village. 76 00:05:16,567 --> 00:05:18,762 And almost as soon as we landed, 77 00:05:18,927 --> 00:05:24,126 this old lady came up with a gourd full of pink liquid - it looked like yogurt - 78 00:05:24,287 --> 00:05:27,324 and handed it to me and said, "Oh, please." 79 00:05:27,487 --> 00:05:33,084 It would have been rude to turn it down, so I said, "Thank you very much." 80 00:05:33,247 --> 00:05:38,037 And she looked at me with great gratitude and pleasure. 81 00:05:38,207 --> 00:05:43,679 Then I asked what it was and someone said, "Well, they make this as a special palm wine. 82 00:05:43,847 --> 00:05:48,637 "It's quite strong. They make it for a festival, the festival of St John. 83 00:05:48,807 --> 00:05:55,440 "And very often they cut down almost the entire sugar crop around a village to ferment this, 84 00:05:55,607 --> 00:05:58,724 "it's so important to make this strong drink." 85 00:05:58,887 --> 00:06:03,677 So I was smiling and the old lady was looking at me, and then the guide added, 86 00:06:04,647 --> 00:06:10,404 "In places where there isn't any sugar growing, it's fermented by the saliva from the old ladies. 87 00:06:10,567 --> 00:06:12,717 "They spit into it." 88 00:06:12,887 --> 00:06:16,482 There was a pause. I realised why she was smiling at me. 89 00:06:16,647 --> 00:06:20,845 I said to the guide, "Is there much sugar grown around this area?" 90 00:06:21,007 --> 00:06:23,157 Bit of a pause. "No." 91 00:06:23,327 --> 00:06:25,522 - I'm game for anything. - Cheers. 92 00:06:25,687 --> 00:06:28,884 Here you are, Nigel. Looks lovely, doesn't it? 93 00:06:33,927 --> 00:06:39,763 I don't think I'd have drunk it if someone'd said, "Here's some palm wine with saliva. Try it." 94 00:06:39,927 --> 00:06:45,604 I don't think I would, but I did, and that's part of the enjoyment of these journeys. 95 00:06:45,767 --> 00:06:51,558 You have to sometimes forget about your inhibitions 96 00:06:51,727 --> 00:06:53,718 and throw caution to the winds. 97 00:06:53,887 --> 00:06:57,880 The rewards sometimes are quite extraordinary. 98 00:06:58,047 --> 00:07:01,517 Mayumi Nobetsu was one of the earliest fans I ever had. 99 00:07:01,687 --> 00:07:05,077 Not just for the travel shows. Right back to Python. 100 00:07:05,247 --> 00:07:09,240 It was wonderful to get this Japanese girl sending these beautiful letters 101 00:07:09,407 --> 00:07:15,596 with little drawings of the knights of the Holy Grail and all that. 102 00:07:15,767 --> 00:07:18,964 And so, when we were going to Tokyo, 103 00:07:19,127 --> 00:07:24,599 the director said, "It's a big city. How on earth will we deal with it? We don't know anybody." 104 00:07:24,767 --> 00:07:26,837 I said, "I could call Mayumi." 105 00:07:27,007 --> 00:07:31,797 And I called her, and, as you will see, she is absolutely superb. 106 00:07:31,967 --> 00:07:35,960 Without Mayumi there, Tokyo just wouldn't have worked. 107 00:07:36,127 --> 00:07:40,245 Very bright, lively, funny, and we got on very well. 108 00:07:40,407 --> 00:07:46,437 It wasn't awkward, as it might be between a fan and the person she idolised, I suppose. 109 00:07:46,607 --> 00:07:51,203 I have to say, since we've done the programme, I haven't heard from her at all. 110 00:07:51,367 --> 00:07:56,157 Maybe I was a terrible disappointment but, anyway, if you do see this, Mayumi, 111 00:07:56,327 --> 00:07:59,319 write and tell me if you enjoyed it or not. 112 00:07:59,487 --> 00:08:02,479 The psychic surgery in the Philippines 113 00:08:02,647 --> 00:08:06,242 was one of the more bizarre things I've been involved in filming. 114 00:08:06,407 --> 00:08:12,243 Basically, there are these healers in a certain part of the Philippines, 115 00:08:12,407 --> 00:08:16,798 traditional healers, so, presumably, whatever techniques or skills they have 116 00:08:16,967 --> 00:08:19,765 have been handed down over generations. 117 00:08:19,927 --> 00:08:22,919 So, you know, they're highly regarded 118 00:08:23,087 --> 00:08:27,638 and... people do believe that they can actually... 119 00:08:27,807 --> 00:08:32,961 ...um... take out bits of your body without cutting the skin in any way. 120 00:08:33,127 --> 00:08:35,721 And this is what we witnessed. 121 00:08:36,687 --> 00:08:39,997 And we went along and saw... 122 00:08:40,167 --> 00:08:43,716 They were very happy for us to film fairly close... 123 00:08:43,887 --> 00:08:50,076 ...his hands working on someone's skin, and a bit of blood appears to come through the skin. 124 00:08:50,247 --> 00:08:54,399 He appears to take some small... organism out. 125 00:08:54,567 --> 00:08:59,357 Nothing very big, but like a sort of bit of tissue and that's then thrown away. 126 00:08:59,527 --> 00:09:04,920 I have to say, the first man we went to, I really didn't believe it. 127 00:09:05,087 --> 00:09:09,080 There was something about him which seemed... 128 00:09:09,247 --> 00:09:12,842 ...almost too unlikely that he could do this. 129 00:09:13,007 --> 00:09:16,966 The second man we went to was less of a showman. 130 00:09:17,127 --> 00:09:22,724 Much quieter, more reserved, very, very soft-spoken and intelligent. 131 00:09:22,887 --> 00:09:26,323 He believed this and he showed us what he could do, 132 00:09:26,487 --> 00:09:30,162 and people get up and they feel better and off they go. 133 00:09:30,327 --> 00:09:34,923 I happen to think, on balance, it's probably a hoax, 134 00:09:35,087 --> 00:09:39,797 because I can't see how you can take out some part of someone's body 135 00:09:39,967 --> 00:09:44,165 without there being an incision on the skin. 136 00:09:44,327 --> 00:09:47,000 You can't just do it with your hands. 137 00:09:47,167 --> 00:09:53,356 And I have to say that we never saw any identifiable body part removed. 138 00:09:53,527 --> 00:09:58,726 On the other hand, people must... feel better after it. 139 00:09:58,887 --> 00:10:04,280 People must, in some cases, be healed, or these people wouldn't be in business. 140 00:10:04,447 --> 00:10:07,757 I think this is something we don't understand much about. 141 00:10:07,927 --> 00:10:13,081 In our Western ways, we believe there has to be a rational explanation for everything. 142 00:10:13,247 --> 00:10:18,719 When you travel around the world, in a lot of communities, there just isn't that explanation. 143 00:10:18,887 --> 00:10:22,800 It's all to do with faith and belief. 144 00:10:22,967 --> 00:10:29,315 One of the things that I suppose you could say made this journey different from the others - 145 00:10:29,487 --> 00:10:32,524 or one of the many things - but a particular difference 146 00:10:32,687 --> 00:10:36,885 was that there was an emergency for me to deal with at home. 147 00:10:37,047 --> 00:10:42,883 I tend to just go and, you know, I ring home whenever I can 148 00:10:43,047 --> 00:10:48,804 and, generally, it's me talking on about, "Oh, I've seen a volcano!" 149 00:10:48,967 --> 00:10:54,166 or, "I've been... white-water rafting" or something like that. 150 00:10:54,327 --> 00:10:58,115 And my wife has had to deal with... the plumber, 151 00:10:58,287 --> 00:11:00,801 or the fridge has broken down. 152 00:11:00,967 --> 00:11:05,165 She'll be talking about something fairly basic. 153 00:11:05,327 --> 00:11:08,683 We were in Kuching in Sarawak, 154 00:11:08,847 --> 00:11:14,683 after about four days filming head-hunters upriver... 155 00:11:14,847 --> 00:11:20,046 They're not head-hunters now, but they were Iban people who were head-hunters before. 156 00:11:20,207 --> 00:11:26,885 We got back to Kuching, got back to the hotel, and I was given a message as I checked in... 157 00:11:27,047 --> 00:11:30,437 I remember at the time, we were dirty, sweaty. 158 00:11:30,607 --> 00:11:37,319 We'd been living fairly rough for three or four days. We just all wanted a bath and to crash out. 159 00:11:37,487 --> 00:11:41,685 And there was a message from Helen. It's rare that she rings me. 160 00:11:41,847 --> 00:11:46,841 Usually because it's much easier for me to ring her. She doesn't know where I am. 161 00:11:47,007 --> 00:11:49,202 In this case, a message from Helen, 162 00:11:49,367 --> 00:11:52,564 and also there was a message 163 00:11:52,727 --> 00:11:57,039 for our assistant cameraman, Stephen Robinson. 164 00:11:57,207 --> 00:12:00,802 We all disappeared and I threw my gear down on the floor, 165 00:12:00,967 --> 00:12:06,166 picked up the phone and Helen told me that she'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour. 166 00:12:06,327 --> 00:12:10,923 A benign brain tumour. She kept saying the word "benign". 167 00:12:11,087 --> 00:12:18,038 And I'd never... Well, we'd never had to deal with anything like that before in the family, 168 00:12:18,207 --> 00:12:22,405 and we'd never... I'd never had to deal with it at such a distance. 169 00:12:22,567 --> 00:12:25,559 I suddenly felt completely helpless. 170 00:12:25,727 --> 00:12:32,439 We talked and, fortunately, she had family. Sisters, my children were at home. 171 00:12:32,607 --> 00:12:35,599 Everything was OK. She'd been to the hospital. 172 00:12:35,767 --> 00:12:39,806 The surgeon planned to operate within two or three days. 173 00:12:39,967 --> 00:12:47,157 He'd given instructions for me to ring him at any time and he'd tell me what he was going to do. 174 00:12:47,327 --> 00:12:51,764 There was the tiniest risk, but, basically, it was straightforward brain surgery. 175 00:12:51,927 --> 00:12:58,924 Still, the words "brain surgery" and "tumour" frightened me a lot and I was stunned by that. 176 00:12:59,087 --> 00:13:01,681 I went downstairs... 177 00:13:01,847 --> 00:13:08,002 ...and Stephen's call had been because his daughter, who was only a few months old, 178 00:13:08,167 --> 00:13:11,159 had fallen from a first-floor window. 179 00:13:11,327 --> 00:13:16,117 And she, it turns out in the end, hadn't been too badly hurt, 180 00:13:16,287 --> 00:13:19,245 but she'd been quite, you know, knocked about. 181 00:13:19,407 --> 00:13:24,527 So these two double blows had happened out of the blue like that, 182 00:13:24,687 --> 00:13:31,286 and, you know... you feel completely shaken, 183 00:13:31,447 --> 00:13:37,158 'cause your natural instinct is to want to be with your wife or your daughter or whatever, 184 00:13:37,327 --> 00:13:42,720 and yet, obviously, to get home would have been probably two days' travelling. 185 00:13:43,687 --> 00:13:47,475 What helped me was partly 'cause Helen said, "Look, don't rush back. 186 00:13:47,647 --> 00:13:52,357 "You'll get in a terrible panic. I'd rather you waited. I'm being well looked after. 187 00:13:52,527 --> 00:13:56,725 "Come back when it's over and I've had the operation." 188 00:13:56,887 --> 00:14:02,280 Um... and the surgeon who operated on Helen was absolutely brilliant. 189 00:14:02,447 --> 00:14:07,646 I rang him up, as he'd said, two or three times, usually from completely remote places. 190 00:14:07,807 --> 00:14:12,801 And, one time, we were in a place called Yogyakarta in Java. 191 00:14:12,967 --> 00:14:18,166 I rang him up and he said what would happen and it was fine and he talked about it. 192 00:14:18,327 --> 00:14:21,603 He said the operation would be tomorrow. 193 00:14:21,767 --> 00:14:28,479 And I said, "I'm sorry. I've got to go now 'cause we're filming a gamelan orchestra." 194 00:14:28,647 --> 00:14:33,846 I went on to say, "It's a special kind of music." He said, "Gamelan?" and I said, "Yes." 195 00:14:34,007 --> 00:14:38,398 "I'm one of the few people in England who's part of a gamelan orchestra." 196 00:14:38,567 --> 00:14:43,277 By extraordinary coincidence, the surgeon actually played in a gamelan orchestra 197 00:14:43,447 --> 00:14:48,840 in Potters Bar or somewhere like that, so that sort of made me feel closer to him. 198 00:14:49,007 --> 00:14:54,798 And, in the end, both the operations were absolutely fine. 199 00:14:54,967 --> 00:15:00,837 Helen came through it, and Stephen and I went back when we'd finished the filming in Java. 200 00:15:01,007 --> 00:15:07,196 We went back home for about four days, and then flew back out to carry on filming in Australia. 201 00:15:07,367 --> 00:15:11,076 Unfortunately, as soon as I got back home, as often happens, 202 00:15:11,247 --> 00:15:14,717 I'd contracted some cold, probably from the aircraft. 203 00:15:14,887 --> 00:15:19,358 Anyway, I got back home and Helen was virtually nursing me for four days. 204 00:15:19,527 --> 00:15:24,476 She'd had this tumour removed and I'm coughing and spluttering 205 00:15:24,647 --> 00:15:27,923 and sneezing all over the place. 206 00:15:28,087 --> 00:15:31,682 She's never forgotten. She said, "You could have stayed there." 207 00:15:31,847 --> 00:15:36,443 The Pacific Rim, like anywhere else, really, that we've filmed in the world, 208 00:15:36,607 --> 00:15:42,443 does have this contrast between very rich, rich people and poor people, 209 00:15:42,607 --> 00:15:45,440 big cities and tiny villages. 210 00:15:45,607 --> 00:15:49,805 Um... now, I always find that usually the poorer people 211 00:15:49,967 --> 00:15:55,917 are the people who are much more... hospitable and welcoming 212 00:15:56,087 --> 00:16:00,160 and more willing to share with you. 213 00:16:00,327 --> 00:16:05,321 The richer the people you encounter, the more guarded they are, the more careful, 214 00:16:05,487 --> 00:16:09,639 the more likely to ask you where this will go out and will they be shown up? 215 00:16:09,807 --> 00:16:12,799 I remember very much in the Philippines... 216 00:16:14,287 --> 00:16:20,078 It was a small Muslim village on stilts above the water in Zamboanga, 217 00:16:20,247 --> 00:16:23,045 and they had the tin mosque painted. 218 00:16:23,207 --> 00:16:28,918 You know, children going off to school with their bags over their shoulders. 219 00:16:29,087 --> 00:16:32,477 They were living in houses that had no sanitary... 220 00:16:32,647 --> 00:16:38,597 Very basic sort of hygiene. Very basic in terms of electrical supply. 221 00:16:38,767 --> 00:16:42,601 Just a dim lamp. Most of it was just candles and all that. 222 00:16:42,767 --> 00:16:46,362 So they didn't have much, but they had a great strength. 223 00:16:46,527 --> 00:16:51,999 Some of the older villages - like in China - had been unchanged for many years. 224 00:16:52,167 --> 00:16:56,558 Put them beside the big cities in China and these places had no money at all, 225 00:16:56,727 --> 00:16:59,799 yet they were very strong communities. 226 00:16:59,967 --> 00:17:03,164 They've learnt to live together and help each other out, 227 00:17:03,327 --> 00:17:07,115 and that very often happens with the poorest people. 228 00:17:07,287 --> 00:17:10,882 I suppose, in certain areas, I don't know why... 229 00:17:11,047 --> 00:17:14,244 ...in Colombia and South America, for instance, 230 00:17:14,407 --> 00:17:16,762 I found the poverty there... 231 00:17:16,927 --> 00:17:24,720 ...really... hard to deal with because there was no real comeback from people. 232 00:17:24,887 --> 00:17:28,482 These were people, literally, at the bottom of the pile. 233 00:17:28,647 --> 00:17:30,956 We were filming an emerald mine. 234 00:17:31,127 --> 00:17:34,324 The emerald mine was run by people with guns. 235 00:17:34,487 --> 00:17:40,278 It was a place for thugs and bullies, I think. All right, they were producing these emeralds. 236 00:17:40,447 --> 00:17:43,041 And at the very end, 237 00:17:43,207 --> 00:17:49,919 where the stream with the emeralds ran out into the river, there was a fence. 238 00:17:50,087 --> 00:17:54,558 The poor were allowed up to this fence to see if they could find any residue. 239 00:17:54,727 --> 00:18:00,518 I can just remember seeing people scrabbling in the dirt there, 240 00:18:00,687 --> 00:18:04,999 trying to extract something that would be worth selling, 241 00:18:05,167 --> 00:18:09,604 something that might make them as rich as the people up above. 242 00:18:09,767 --> 00:18:12,964 The contrast between rich and poor was so strong. 243 00:18:13,127 --> 00:18:15,436 If you just had one small emerald, 244 00:18:15,607 --> 00:18:18,917 it would make you richer than these people could ever be. 245 00:18:19,087 --> 00:18:22,124 Somehow the continuity of their lives had been ruptured. 246 00:18:22,287 --> 00:18:26,280 They were there with no hope. The communities had broken down. 247 00:18:26,447 --> 00:18:29,439 Similarly, in Bogotá, 248 00:18:29,607 --> 00:18:33,156 with the quite serious problem with drug addiction there. 249 00:18:33,327 --> 00:18:36,319 There were people there, you know, 250 00:18:36,487 --> 00:18:41,686 who were poor and desperate at the same time. 251 00:18:41,847 --> 00:18:47,046 But I think there is a danger of using words like "the poor" or "poverty" 252 00:18:47,207 --> 00:18:50,119 and you just forget it covers not only... 253 00:18:50,287 --> 00:18:54,599 Over half the world is beneath what we call the poverty line. 254 00:18:54,767 --> 00:18:58,316 The exception is wealth, not poverty. 255 00:18:58,487 --> 00:19:00,682 It covers many different people. 256 00:19:00,847 --> 00:19:04,044 Many of the finest and most inspiring people I've met 257 00:19:04,207 --> 00:19:09,645 have been very poor and managing to bring up their families and survive. 258 00:19:10,607 --> 00:19:14,441 I was pleased to get to Bogotá. I know it has a reputation. 259 00:19:14,607 --> 00:19:19,601 But we'd been in the jungle and on the Amazon for a couple of weeks 260 00:19:19,767 --> 00:19:24,363 and we hadn't had a decent bath or a cold beer for a long, long time. 261 00:19:24,527 --> 00:19:27,360 Suddenly we flew from Leticia, 262 00:19:27,527 --> 00:19:32,043 which is right on the Amazon, in the heart of the jungle. 263 00:19:32,207 --> 00:19:35,597 We flew to Bogotá and found ourselves in a wonderful hotel. 264 00:19:35,767 --> 00:19:41,763 In many ways, Bogotá is a very civilised, modern city with a strong middle class. 265 00:19:41,927 --> 00:19:46,842 They've got bookshops and coffee stalls and all that sort of thing. 266 00:19:47,007 --> 00:19:52,400 So, in one way, I felt fairly comfortable there, but it does have a reputation for gangsterism. 267 00:19:52,567 --> 00:19:58,517 There has been a problem with law and order there for a long time, corruption and all that. 268 00:19:58,687 --> 00:20:02,475 I must say that on occasions I was a little alarmed. 269 00:20:02,647 --> 00:20:07,038 On a Sunday morning, I walked round our local neighbourhood. 270 00:20:07,207 --> 00:20:12,201 I've never seen so many security men and dogs prowling around houses. 271 00:20:12,367 --> 00:20:15,359 Clearly, there's a feeling of paranoia there. 272 00:20:15,527 --> 00:20:19,122 We did deliberately target 273 00:20:19,287 --> 00:20:26,682 the really hard drug-taking area - Calle Cartouche, Bullet Street - 274 00:20:26,847 --> 00:20:31,238 with a journalist from "The Guardian" who'd been there a long time. 275 00:20:31,407 --> 00:20:38,006 We'd not seen anywhere like this nor had we been able to find someone to interpret it for us. 276 00:20:38,167 --> 00:20:43,958 He'd lived in Colombia a long time, knew and liked the Colombians, so he showed us this area. 277 00:20:44,127 --> 00:20:48,723 That was one of the few places where we've had rocks thrown at the car 278 00:20:48,887 --> 00:20:51,606 and, at one point, there was a gunshot heard. 279 00:20:51,767 --> 00:20:54,486 So we got out of there fairly quickly. 280 00:20:54,647 --> 00:20:59,038 Then on the last day, we went to interview Don Fabio, who... 281 00:20:59,207 --> 00:21:01,198 I think he was the father 282 00:21:01,367 --> 00:21:05,758 of two of the biggest sort of gang leaders 283 00:21:05,927 --> 00:21:11,320 and drug barons in... Colombia. 284 00:21:11,487 --> 00:21:13,921 They had a fearsome reputation. 285 00:21:14,087 --> 00:21:17,238 There'd never been anything associated with HIM, 286 00:21:17,407 --> 00:21:22,356 other than two of his children had been in prison for quite long periods. 287 00:21:22,527 --> 00:21:28,204 However, there was a definite feeling, when you go along there, that he's the Godfather. 288 00:21:28,367 --> 00:21:31,962 Just a sort of figure, a rather striking figure. 289 00:21:32,127 --> 00:21:37,565 And, basically, we were just really filming this restaurant of his, 290 00:21:37,727 --> 00:21:43,916 which was sort of dedicated to the equine... equestrian arts. 291 00:21:44,087 --> 00:21:47,875 There were horses everywhere and waiters would come to your tables. 292 00:21:48,047 --> 00:21:52,040 They wouldn't serve you from a horse, but they'd nearly get knocked over. 293 00:21:52,207 --> 00:21:57,679 So you'd eat your meal while horses were going along. People cleared up the droppings. 294 00:21:57,847 --> 00:22:00,042 It was a curious place to be. 295 00:22:00,207 --> 00:22:04,200 Suddenly someone said, "Don Fabio has agreed to be interviewed." 296 00:22:04,367 --> 00:22:06,801 So I was suddenly thrust in there 297 00:22:06,967 --> 00:22:11,802 and I was given a few phrases in Spanish to ask him. 298 00:22:11,967 --> 00:22:16,961 And there he was - the great... this great figure, 299 00:22:17,127 --> 00:22:24,556 this man, this extraordinary sort of powerful, notorious character in Colombia. 300 00:22:24,727 --> 00:22:28,925 There I was bleating out my questions about whatever we asked him. 301 00:22:29,087 --> 00:22:32,875 Anyway, he turned out to be quite charming. 302 00:22:33,047 --> 00:22:37,802 Halfway through, he suddenly said, "Would you like to see me ride my horse?" 303 00:22:37,967 --> 00:22:41,277 People don't often say that in mid-interview. 304 00:22:41,447 --> 00:22:46,202 "Like me to get on a horse?" "Well, stay sitting there." So we said yes. 305 00:22:46,367 --> 00:22:48,562 This had obviously been planned, 306 00:22:48,727 --> 00:22:54,324 but he was a big man and he wasn't well and he couldn't get onto the horse unaided, 307 00:22:54,487 --> 00:22:59,845 so about 20 of his henchmen rush around and hoist him onto the horse. 308 00:23:00,007 --> 00:23:04,398 Here was this great sort of Godfather being lifted on, 309 00:23:04,567 --> 00:23:07,957 and he goes slightly the other side, and someone steadies him. 310 00:23:08,127 --> 00:23:13,884 I thought, this is just so embarrassing, really, that someone should be reduced to this. 311 00:23:14,047 --> 00:23:17,756 He was in his seventies, something like that. 312 00:23:17,927 --> 00:23:22,398 Then, when he was on the horse, everything was fine and he was in control 313 00:23:22,567 --> 00:23:25,161 and he galloped off and that was that. 314 00:23:26,527 --> 00:23:31,555 The "Home And Away" sequence was shot in Sydney. 315 00:23:31,727 --> 00:23:36,881 What a pleasure to shoot. A really lovely day's filming. They were such a nice cast. 316 00:23:37,047 --> 00:23:42,246 They obviously thought it was a great laugh to have somebody like me around, 317 00:23:42,407 --> 00:23:44,398 coming into their programme. 318 00:23:44,567 --> 00:23:48,037 They'd written a part specially for me with the surfboard, 319 00:23:48,207 --> 00:23:50,926 and it was indeed transmitted. 320 00:23:51,087 --> 00:23:54,921 It turned out to be unexpectedly good for my reputation 321 00:23:55,087 --> 00:23:59,638 because my daughter, at that time, was at 0xford University, 322 00:23:59,807 --> 00:24:03,880 and, evidently, "Home and Away" was cult viewing there. 323 00:24:04,047 --> 00:24:09,440 Forget "Panorama". Forget all the serious arts programmes they should have been watching. 324 00:24:09,607 --> 00:24:14,601 "Home And Away" was the big cult programme for Oxford undergraduates then. 325 00:24:14,767 --> 00:24:17,804 And so the fact that I was actually in it, 326 00:24:17,967 --> 00:24:23,564 playing to a packed house in the college bar, 327 00:24:23,727 --> 00:24:26,560 really, I think, added to my reputation. 328 00:24:26,727 --> 00:24:30,197 She said, "Yeah, that wasn't embarrassing, Dad." 329 00:24:30,367 --> 00:24:35,157 Quite rare for my daughter to say that. She thinks most of my career is embarrassing. 330 00:24:35,887 --> 00:24:39,675 There seems to be something... 331 00:24:39,847 --> 00:24:43,237 that goes wrong for us at the end of journeys. 332 00:24:43,407 --> 00:24:49,357 It happened on "Around The World In 80 Days" when we got back to London feeling triumphant. 333 00:24:49,527 --> 00:24:53,076 Within 17 hours of the 80-day limit, we'd got back. 334 00:24:53,247 --> 00:24:57,957 Nobody would speak to us and everyone was generally very disagreeable. 335 00:24:58,127 --> 00:25:02,325 Finally, the Reform Club, where we'd started, wouldn't let us back in again. 336 00:25:02,487 --> 00:25:05,206 They had some function on that day. 337 00:25:05,367 --> 00:25:09,440 And then "Pole To Pole" - we nearly got to the end. 338 00:25:09,607 --> 00:25:15,557 The great climax was going to be this ship across the southern oceans. Suddenly it had no places. 339 00:25:15,727 --> 00:25:19,322 Something seemed to go wrong as we got towards the end. 340 00:25:19,487 --> 00:25:27,280 I felt that, as we made our way up the coast of America, and the last programme, 341 00:25:27,447 --> 00:25:30,917 everything seemed to be going very smoothly, be very easy. 342 00:25:31,087 --> 00:25:36,241 You were in Canada where everything works and the train takes you along, 343 00:25:36,407 --> 00:25:39,604 and the last part of the journey 344 00:25:39,767 --> 00:25:44,761 seemed to be... as easy as it possibly could be. 345 00:25:44,927 --> 00:25:49,125 We'd be taken on an American Coast Guard cutter to the island of Diomede. 346 00:25:49,287 --> 00:25:53,485 Not in a rowing boat, not in a walrus boat like we'd set out on. 347 00:25:53,647 --> 00:26:00,041 This was a... whatever it was - a 12,000-ton, fully equipped American Coast Guard cutter. 348 00:26:00,207 --> 00:26:02,960 And then the weather came down 349 00:26:03,127 --> 00:26:09,316 and... even this ship couldn't get close. 350 00:26:09,487 --> 00:26:14,845 And we had been filming on the coast and got cut off. The weather came down very quickly. 351 00:26:15,007 --> 00:26:20,798 People did say in the Bering Strait the weather can change very quickly, and it did. 352 00:26:20,967 --> 00:26:26,166 We were marooned for a while on the mainland... 353 00:26:26,887 --> 00:26:29,082 ...near a place called Wales. 354 00:26:29,247 --> 00:26:34,037 The helicopter from this Coast Guard cutter came and picked us up. 355 00:26:34,207 --> 00:26:38,678 That, I think, was one of the most alarming things 356 00:26:38,847 --> 00:26:41,156 I've ever known on any journey. 357 00:26:41,327 --> 00:26:45,878 This helicopter then had to land back on the cutter, 358 00:26:46,047 --> 00:26:48,766 and the boat was pitching and tossing. 359 00:26:48,927 --> 00:26:52,681 Incredible skill of the helicopter pilot to land it 360 00:26:52,847 --> 00:26:57,637 on the circular disk about sort of - I don't know - 50 feet across or something. 361 00:26:57,807 --> 00:26:59,798 Phew! So that was one thing. 362 00:26:59,967 --> 00:27:06,156 The captain's looked at his radar, his weather pictures and all that, and his GPS, and said 363 00:27:06,327 --> 00:27:09,717 "The weather's getting worse. I can't get you onto Diomede." 364 00:27:09,887 --> 00:27:15,325 I remembered, really, from the first time we'd been there, how sheer those cliff walls are. 365 00:27:15,487 --> 00:27:20,686 Diomede rises like a peak of a mountain out of the middle of the Bering Strait, 366 00:27:20,847 --> 00:27:24,237 so there's not a flat beach or anything like that. 367 00:27:24,407 --> 00:27:29,197 Somehow I felt, "That's the way it is. That's traditional for our programmes." 368 00:27:29,367 --> 00:27:33,155 The end doesn't quite... Something goes wrong at the end. 369 00:27:33,327 --> 00:27:38,526 But, touch wood, we'd been very fortunate at the beginning and the middle. 370 00:27:38,687 --> 00:27:44,159 If something goes wrong at the end, fair enough. We had most of the series there. 371 00:27:44,327 --> 00:27:49,924 Added to that, I think it gave an extra sense of sort of drama to the ending 372 00:27:50,087 --> 00:27:54,080 and showed just how dangerous and difficult the Bering Strait is. 373 00:27:54,247 --> 00:27:58,081 When we first went there, it was millpond calm. That happens very rarely. 374 00:27:58,247 --> 00:28:03,446 So, in the end, what we experienced on this Coast Guard cutter 375 00:28:03,607 --> 00:28:06,599 prevented us from completing the full circle, 376 00:28:06,767 --> 00:28:12,364 but it did show the full anger and wrath of the weather in that part of the world.