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4 Episodes 2018 - 2018
Episode 1
59 mins
Simon Reeve embarks on the first leg of his epic four-part journey around the Mediterranean. His first stop if the beautiful island of Malta. Driven by a surge of tourists, modern-day Malta is booming. But beneath the picture-postcard image lies a country accused of being a haven for money laundering and organised crime, where journalists can be murdered by car bombs. Simon then takes a ferry to Calabria in southern Italy, he discovers a region in the grip of Europe's most powerful mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. With rare access to police and customs investigators, Simon follows an armed convoy carrying a ton of seized cocaine, joins a stakeout of a high-level suspect, and crawls through a huge underground warren of tunnels and bunkers built by fugitive mafia bosses. Travelling east along the southern tip of mainland Italy, Simon visits a turtle conservation centre, meeting Raoul, a loggerhead turtle rescued after swallowing huge quantities of plastic, a massive and increasing threat to Mediterranean wildlife. Simon helps release him back into the sea. Taking the overnight ferry from the heel of Italy, Simon arrives in one of the least-known but most beautiful corners of the Mediterranean, Albania. Under communist rule, Albania was isolated and shut off from most of the world. In a country now hoping for EU membership, Simon discovers an ancient culture of vendetta, where if an adult commits a crime, a child can be killed in revenge. Simon ends the first leg of his journey at a spectacular wildlife reserve where bird life is now recovering following the country's groundbreaking ban on hunting.
Episode 2
59 mins
Simon Reeve embarks on the second leg of his journey around the Mediterranean. Setting off from a snowy mountain ski resort in Cyprus, Simon finds an island and a capital city still deeply divided between Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south. Simon joins the UN troops who patrol the line that separates the two sides, one of the world's longest-running peacekeeping missions. From Cyprus, Simon heads to Lebanon exploring a country of breathtaking landscapes, with spectacular coastline, soaring mountains and a sacred valley known as the Qadisha, a holy site for Lebanese Christians. Staying overnight in an abandoned monastery carved into the rock face, Simon learns that in a Muslim-dominated Middle East, Christians are facing persecution and numbers are collapsing. Simon heads south into Israel, a country that perhaps more than any other depends on the Mediterranean for its survival. With few friends in the region, Israel has to transport most of its goods by sea. Simon joins the Israeli Navy who patrol the coast and protect the country's offshore oil reserves using the latest military weaponry and technology, including unmanned, combat-ready drone boats. Finally, Simon crosses one of the world's most heavily fortified borders to reach the Gaza Strip. Palestinians and Israelis have endured a seemingly endless cycle of violence and in Gaza the result has been devastating destruction. Many building materials are restricted by an Israeli blockade on Gaza, but Simon meets an inspiring young woman who has helped reconstruction efforts by inventing an ingenious method of making bricks from ash. It's a rare ray of hope in one of the most troubled regions of the Mediterranean.
Episode 3
59 mins
Simon Reeve begins the third leg of his journey in Libya - a country well off the tourist trail and torn apart by revolution, the so-called Islamic State and western air strikes. He visits the city of Sirte and sees some of the worst destruction he has ever seen, with whole neighbourhoods of the city completely flattened. He also visits the remains of the Roman city of Leptis Magna which many feared could fall into the hands of IS - and meets some of the young volunteers who risked their lives to protect the site. Simon travels to Tunisia and the spectacular fortress village of Chenini - where houses were carved into the mountain by the Amazigh - better known as the Berbers. Today Berbers are a small minority in Tunisia but Simon meets a man who is keeping the old traditions alive by harnessing camel power to make olive oil and excavating rock by hand to build new Berber homes. Simon then boards the overnight ferry from Tunisia to Sicily. In recent years, a government crackdown and public rebellion has substantially weakened the mafia's grip on the island, but in the countryside there are worrying signs of a comeback. The mafia is trying to take advantage of rural Sicily's population decline, but Simon soon discovers that migrants and refugees who have travelled across the Mediterranean to Europe are finding new homes in Italy's emptying villages. Simon meets three inspiring sisters who - despite constant intimidation, including the skinning of their much-loved dog - are making a defiant stand against the mafia.
Episode 4
59 mins
Simon Reeve embarks on the final leg of his journey around the Mediterranean taking a ferry across the Straits of Gibraltar to Ceuta, the Spanish exclave surrounded by Morocco. Ceuta, one of the few land borders between the European Union and Africa, has seen the number of migrants and refugees attempting to cross its fortress like border quadruple in recent years. Simon goes on patrol with the Spanish border police as they check vehicles for stowaways. Undaunted by the refusal of the Moroccan authorities to grant him a filming permit, Simon crosses the border as a tourist and tracks down a group of migrants hiding in the nearby forest. They have travelled 1000's of miles crossing the Sahara and now just a 20-foot razor wire fence separates them from their European dream. Simon crosses the Med to Spain discovering the huge numbers of dolphins and even giant whales that survive in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes by dodging the ferries, container ships and oil tankers. Travelling along the southern coast of Spain he takes to the air to witness the plastic greenhouses covering over a hundred square miles where much of our supermarket fruit and vegetables are grown. He learns how this industry relies upon an army of low paid migrant workers. Simon travels to the Costa Blanca and discovers why the resort town of Benidorm is being hailed as a model of sustainable development. He concludes his journey at a wildlife park in a western part of Corsica where the park manager takes him for a dive to see the benefits on the marine environment of actively discouraging tourists .