Simon Reeve completes his travels around the Tropics
with his new 6x60min BBC TV series:
TROPIC
OF CANCER
Sunday
nights, BBC2 at 8pm
Simon Reeve embarks on his most ambitious journey yet, circling the world following the line that marks the northern border of the earth's tropical region. This epic trip completes Simon's trilogy of journeys exploring the tropics, after his acclaimed series Equator and Tropic of Capricorn, and is his toughest, longest and greatest challenge – a 6x60min journey around the extraordinary TROPIC OF CANCER.
Starting on the paradise beaches of Mexico's Pacific Coast, Simon follows the Tropic of Cancer almost 23,000 miles east on a journey blending travel with current affairs. It is a thrilling adventure with a clear purpose: to explore the northern edge of the Tropics, the most important, beautiful, turbulent, endangered and violent region of our world.
Simon heads east across the Caribbean, the Sahara, crossing borders in North Africa closed to foreigners for decades, and then on through the deserts of Arabia and the remote jungles of Asia, to finish in Hawaii. He visits 18 countries, meeting amazing people, witnessing bizarre and beautiful sights, and encountering spectacular and endangered wildlife.
In Mexico Simon is put through his paces by a masked female wrestler, while in the Bahamas he uncovers the suffering of Haitian refugees. North Africa is full of surprises, from a long forgotten civil war to a vast scheme to extract millions of gallons of water from underneath the desert. In the jungles of Burma he meets villagers struggling to survive under brutal oppression.
This new series has a strong current affairs theme, as Simon explores some of the huge challenges facing the Tropics, including poverty, the drugs trade, climate change, industrial pollution, and forgotten conflicts. But it's also a spectacular travelogue, taking Simon and viewers to some of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.
"Following the Tropic of Cancer, the northern border of the Tropics, was a unique opportunity to explore and witness a slice of life in the most interesting and important region of the world: the Tropics!" says Simon. "The whole point of the journey is that tracking the Tropic of Cancer took us off the beaten track, to places we wouldn't normally visit, and parts of the world that are rarely visited by foreigners, let alone TV crews. It was an extraordinary opportunity and a fantastically exciting journey that was also frightening, uplifting, exhausting, upsetting, challenging and surprising. I heard stories, saw sights, and ate food I'll be remembering and dreaming about till the end of my days."
Amazon are selling the Tropic of Cancer DVD with their usual lovely discount:
WATCH A TEASER FOR THE SERIES
AT
WWW.BBC.CO.UK/TROPICOFCANCER
Click here for a selection of
high-resolution publicity photographs available via
Flickr
Click
and connect...
BBC Press Pack for the
series
BBC Quiz (!) for the
series
PRESS REVIEWS:
Radio Times:
“Revelatory, moving and intriguing, it’s much
more than just a travelogue.”
The
Guardian: “beautifully
shot, and Reeve is an excellent host, bringing knowledge,
enthusiasm and a thirst for adventure to the mix.
It’s the kind of television that Sunday nights are
made for.”
The
Times: “Like
a one-man version of Unreported
World”
Total
TV Guide: “An
intense, exhilarating journey which, because of
Reeve’s intelligence and likeability, is probably the
best travel documentary you’ll see all year.”
Daily
Mail: “Reeve
is engaging and informative, with a fearless approach and a
good nose for a story.”
The
Times: “a
real gem. Our television screens are replete with intrepid
young men, but Reeve is in a class of his own… the
real deal in terms of intelligence and tenaciousness,
charming his way in and out of situations that would make
most ordinary people quake in their shoes. Reeve’s
great strength is that while he guides us along the Tropic
of Cancer, through some of the most beautiful yet demanding
places on the planet, he does so with a genuine sense of
curiosity and openness, never succumbing to cliché or
getting sidetracked by his own agenda. He allows the people
and situations to speak for themselves, and refrains from
patronising or hectoring the viewer.”
Daily
Mirror: “Amazing”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Simon started his Tropic of Cancer journey in Mexico, and
travelled to Cuba, the Bahamas, Western Sahara, Mauritania,
Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, India,
Bangladesh, NE India, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan, and
finished in Hawaii.
Programme
1: MEXICO, CUBA AND THE BAHAMAS
Programme 2: WESTERN SAHARA, MAURITANIA, ALGERIA, LIBYA
Programme 3: EGYPT, SAUDI ARABIA, UAE, OMAN
Programme 4: INDIA – GUJARAT, MADHYA PRADESH, W.
BENGAL
Programme 5: BANGLADESH, TRIPURA, MIZORAM, BURMA
Programme 6: LAOS, VIETNAM, TAIWAN, HAWAII
Transmission: 6 x 60 minutes on BBC2, Sunday nights, March
2010.
The series will be trailed on BBC TV. Planned simulcast on
BBC HD.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
In
TROPIC OF CANCER Simon
Reeve goes on a raid with a Mexican SWAT team fighting the
drug cartels, on patrol with the Indian Army as it battles
rebels, and on safari searching for tigers from the back of
an elephant.
Travelling along the Tropic of Cancer, Simon kite-surfs in
Western Sahara, takes a train across Arabia, a boat through
Bangladesh, a helicopter around Dubai, a ferry in Mexico,
and a 4WD across remote borders in North Africa. Along the
way he braves temperatures of 52C/130F in Oman, the monsoon
rains of India, sweatbox humidity in the rainforests of
East Asia, and a chilly night in John Wayne’s
film-set.
Simon eats grilled squirrel, caterpillars, fish head,
grilled goat, sand bread, and fish eyes. He meets a desert
tribesman called Ali the Lion, and fishermen who use otters
to increase their catch. He’s battered by a masked
female wrestler in Mexico, and bruised while playing the
national sport of Kabaddi in Bangladesh.
While following the Tropic of Cancer, Simon uncovers the
suffering of Haitian refugees in the tropical islands of
the Bahamas, has a close encounter with an alien invading
paradise, enters western Burma on a dangerous, covert
mission to visit the Chin people, meets a Prince saving a
rare Wild Ass, investigates violence in Gandhi’s
home-town, sees the future of motoring, hunts for octopus
in the Atlantic, and practises some wheel-spinning stunts
in a Porsche 911.
He witnesses the birth of rare baby turtles, evades the
Moroccan secret police, bathes an elephant, travels through
the world’s largest minefield, has a flutter in a
casino at the heart of the notorious Golden Triangle,
learns about an eccentric scheme to pump water from under
the deserts of North Africa, meets a tiny child labourer
working a full shift in a glass factory for the equivalent
of 30p, snorkels in the Red Sea, witnesses the reality of
climate change as villagers lose their homes to swollen
rivers, and takes a swim at the most beautiful desert oasis
on the planet.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Amazon are selling the Tropic of Cancer
DVD with their usual lovely
discount:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
THE
TROPICS:
TROPICAL
FACTS AND STATS:
-
this ‘adventure journalism’ series is the last
of a trilogy five years in the making.
- the Tropic of Cancer marks the northern border of the
Tropics region, because it’s the most northerly point
at which the sun can appear to be overhead.
- half the surface of the planet is in the Tropics, between
the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, a band of
life 3,222 miles wide.
- almost two thirds of the world’s population lives
in the Tropics, which is home to more than 120
countries.
- the most biodiverse region of the planet, the Tropics is
home to more than two thirds of our plants, animals and
insects.
- but the Tropics are also home to conflict and endless
suffering. Almost all (38) of the world’s 45 poorest
countries are in the Tropics, plus more than two thirds of
the most corrupt countries in the world.
- the Tropics are mercilessly exposed to the furnace at the
heart of our solar system, and the region receives a higher
dose of the Sun’s energy than the rest of the planet.
It is simultaneously the attraction of the Tropics to
outsiders, and the cause of much of the human suffering in
the region, largely due to colonialism, corruption and the
climate.
- the tropical conditions of the Tropics have expanded
towards the poles by more than 170 miles due to global
climate change. Scientists expected this, but only under an
“extreme” climate change scenario, and only by
2100.
- over a 41,000 year period the Tropic of Cancer crawls
around between roughly 22.5 and 24.5 degrees. Because the
Tropic moves by tiny amounts the length of the line also
varies. But it is approximately 36,749 km (22,835 miles)
long.
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