Please visit www.simonreeve.co.uk for more information.
Simon Reeve travels to a group of unrecognised nations -- countries so obscure they don't officially exist -- in this five-part
BBC TV series, shown on BBC2,
BBC World and by broadcasters in more than 40 countries.
On his journey he visits little-known parts of the world including
Somaliland,
Transniestria, Nagorno-Karabakh,
Ajaria,
South Ossetia,
Azerbaijan,
Armenia,
Somalia,
Moldova,
Taiwan, and the former
Soviet republic of Georgia.
In this series, Simon Reeve is taught to fish by the
President of Moldova, becomes an unofficial
Somali diplomat, and finds himself crammed into a lift with the
President of Georgia.
He visits a little-known country stuck in a
Soviet-era time-warp, and a mountainous state which claims to have the highest rate of longevity on the planet.
Simon also discovers abandoned missiles capable of destroying skyscrapers, al Qaeda terrorists in an African jail and the mass graves of children killed by soldiers.
Simon meets a blonde popstar who's a crackshot with an
AK-47, a mournful guitarist, and a
Taiwanese boy band. He climbs the world's tallest building, visits the site of the battle in
Black Hawk Down, is electrocuted in
Mogadishu, finds 5,
000 year old rock paintings, buys himself a new
Somali passport from a man called
Mr Big Beard, and is held as a spy by the Transniestrian
KGB.
Snake blood is on the menu in
Asia, rock-hard yoghurt in the Caucuses, camel milk in
Africa and two bottles of cognac when Simon is forced to celebrate independence with a Communist politician.
He meets a villager who sold a kidney to buy a cow, and children forced to live in freezing railway carriages.
Amid the minefields of Nagorno-Karabkh, Simon is pelted with snowballs by refugee children. But in the sweltering heat of Mogadishu he needs a dozen armed gunmen just to stay alive.
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Reviews of the series:
Daily Telegraph: An 'exemplary series
...riveting...eye-opening...remarkable...superb'
Evening Standard (
London): 'Compelling television, lifted way above a worthy travelogue by Reeve's obvious, sincere interest in the people and places he encounters'
Daily Mail: "
Unmissable...makes the blood boil...It would be good if this brave programme stirred a few consciences. Shaming."
The Times: A 'consistently informative series...Reeve is an ideal guide -- brave without being macho, amused without being frivolous and always informative'
Globe and Mail (
Canada): '
Places That Don't Exist is outstanding television. That's because Simon Reeve, the host/reporter, is endlessly curious and incredibly brave. When we last encountered Reeve he was showing us around "the Stans," countries such as
Kazakhstan, that few outsiders visit. It was an excellent series, exceptionally revealing of both the general and specific. Reeve is now one of the great TV figures. A smart and cheerful
Englishman, he's a combination of
Michael Palin and serious political reporter.'
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SIMON REEVE is an adventurer,
TV presenter and
New York Times bestselling author with a passion for travel, current affairs, history, conservation and the environment. He has been around the world three times for the
BBC series
Equator,
Tropic of Capricorn, and
Tropic of Cancer, and has travelled extensively in more than
100 countries. Simon's last journey around the Tropic of Cancer enthralled millions and was described by
The Times of London as: "a real gem...Reeve is in a class of his own". Readers of a leading travel magazine voted it their favourite
TV series. Simon, who is an ambassador for the nature conservation organisation
WWF, has been awarded a
One World Broadcasting Trust award for an "outstanding contribution to greater world understanding". His books include Tropic of Capricorn (published by BBC
Books), and
The New Jackals:
Ramzi Yousef,
Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, which warned of a new age of apocalyptic terrorism, and was the first in the world on bin Laden and al Qaeda.
Originally published in
1998 it has been a
New York Times bestseller. Simon has contributed to other studies into organised crime, terrorism, biological warfare and corruption. His book
One Day in September: the story of the
1972 Munich Olympics massacre was published in
2000. The film of the same name, narrated by the actor
Michael Douglas, won an
Oscar for best feature documentary.
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You can find out more information on Simon's journeys, and see more of Simon's films, at his website: www.simonreeve.co.uk or at www.youtube.com/shootandscribble
Thanks for watching!
- published: 14 Nov 2011
- views: 88709