“DO YOU think that would be allowed?”
Travel documentary maker Simon Reeve - who among his many programmes has brought Cornwall and the Lake District to our screens - ponders the idea of making a series about Yorkshire.
“I work with people from Yorkshire and the thought of taking on God’s own land - would a soft southerner be allowed to do that?” he laughs.
“We have talked about it, and given its historical and political history Yorkshire is in many ways the beating heart and soul of the country.”
He jokes: “Let’s check the comment section of this article and see what people say - if they hugely protest I’d say probably not, but I’d want to - I’m a massive fan of Yorkshire.”
Simon will soon be here, in our beloved county, appearing in both Halifax and Leeds, entertaining and inspiring and audiences with his UK theatre tour To The Ends Of The Earth.
Each show features behind-the-scenes footage and stunning imagery, as Simon talks about his life and travels.
Over the past 11 years Simon has written and presented multiple award-winning TV series, exploring destinations such as North America, South America, Russia, the Indian Ocean, the Equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Australia exposing both their natural beauty and exploitation.
He has journeyed to the most extreme landscapes on Earth, meeting the people who call those environments home.
When I spoke to him via Zoom at the Devon farmhouse he shares with his wife Anya and son Jake, the shelves behind him bore souvenirs from the 130 countries he has explored.
“That’s one of the newest pieces of Earth, from a volcano in Iceland, where we have been filming for a new series on Scandinavia,” he says, picking up a solidified piece of lava. “It’s got some very sharp edges.”
He reaches out for a brightly coloured model tuk tuk. “This was made in Bangladesh.”
His most recent series Wilderness took him to the world’s great wild areas, across Patagonian glaciers and Congolian rainforests.
“There is no dry run, no recce; we have a plan and know roughly where we are going. I do a lot of reading - shedloads - about a place before going,” he says.
There is no denying the sheer jaw-dropping splendour of the sights he sees on his travels, but, he stresses, the people he meets are the lifeblood of his programmes.
“If I was to be pigeonholed, my niche, it would be people. It is a great gig - you have TV presenters who do wildlife, and others who do landscapes and I get the most interesting creatures on the planet - human beings, with their loves, fears, emotions, tragedies: their lives.
“From the very beginning we have made it about the people.”
From child labourers in Bangladesh to the hunter gatherers of the Kalahari, the nomadic fishermen of Madagascar and the homeless community living rough in Los Angeles, they leave a lasting impression on him.
“It is like having about 1000 people jumping up and down inside my head - it is quite overwhelming.”
He talks of Fatima, a young Somali woman who was stuck in a refugee camp between Somalia and Kenya. “She fled the fighting and was then stuck and could not move more than one and half miles. She was so clever and so interesting yet she was trapped there."
Simon often thinks about her and how an accident of birth can determine your privileges and the direction of your whole life.
“We are very lucky to be able to travel as we do and it is such a tonic - I talk about that in the show,” he says.
Growing up in west London, holidays were mostly spent at home. “I would be out on my bike in the BMX gang tearing around Acton.”
He adds: “There were no fancy foreign trips - we went to Wareham in Dorset, year after year, to Studland beach. Dad had seen an advert in a church newspaper for a super cheap place rather like today’s Airbnb - it was so cheap we booked it years in advance.”
His first trip abroad was a camping holiday aged 15. “We drove to France and went on the ferry. It was very disappointing - there was no search of the vehicle or moustachioed gendarmes questioning us about our motives for entering.”
His childhood wasn’t easy. From his early teens, Simon suffered with depression and mental health issues, leaving school with no qualifications or ambitions. A job as a post-boy on The Sunday Times turned his fortunes around: he went on to become an investigative journalist.
It was in the latter role that he first flew, aged 18, taking a plane not abroad, but to Newcastle to follow up a lead.
“I didn’t know what I was doing but I made it look like I did,” he says.
He later became an author, writing about subjects including the then little-known terrorist group Al-Qaeda, published in 1998 before the 2001 attacks upon the United States.
“I wrote about Osama bin Laden - books nobody read - then 9/11 happened and I was appearing on TV. That led to talks with the BBC about making TV programmes. They thought ‘he’s been in some tricky situations’. There were not so many risk assessments then.”
Broadcast in 2003, his first series Meet the Stans Holidays in the Danger Zone took him to Central Asia, travelling across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan was widely praised.
Lush rainforests, barren deserts, wind-blown tundras and freezing glaciers have followed.
He loves coming home after a trip, but the next journey is never far away. “I try to pick my son up from school and then I tip all my stuff onto the floor, put the pants in the wash and quite quickly start prepping for the next one.”
He laughs: “I’m not just in constant travel mode, though - I play football with my son, and I don't forget I've got the recycling and DIY.”
His own family travels are mostly in the UK, with journeys to Denmark to visit Anya’s family.
The stage isn’t what Simon would call his natural habitat.
“But I honestly grow to love it more with every single show we do. And that is really the message I’m sharing on this tour – it’s all about stepping out of our comfort zones; trying new adventures, turning left instead of right and discovering what is out there to be seen and experienced, whether we’re close to home or enjoying far-flung travels.”
“We all need to be a bit more wild and get out into nature, for our hearts, our heads, our wellbeing and our memories.
“I really hope the stories and advice that I share on this tour inspire people to make new memories and have big adventures, wherever they are.”
To the Ends of the Earth is at the Victoria Theatre, Halifax on Thursday October 31, 2024, 7:30 pm and at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, on Monday December 9, 2024.
Tickets are available from nothird.co.uk/live-shows/simon-reeve/
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