Television
Millions of tourists still flock to its ancient ruins and lovely beaches, but Greece is a troubled country.
He has the boyish good looks of a young Brian Cox (the science one, not the actor) and the calm demeanour of a hostage negotiator. He’s been around the world so many times, there’s a possibility he will be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and meet himself coming down.
But how is Simon Reeve going to make one of the most visited countries on Earth seem new again? What’s left of the cradle of Western civilisation after everyone from Joanna Lumley to Rick Stein has had a go?
Well, Reeve didn’t get where he is today by going the safe tourist route. In
1998, he was the first guy to warn about the threat of al Qaeda in his book The New Jackals and he has visited some of the most dangerous areas of the world in series such as Places That Don’t Exist and Equator.
So in Greece with Simon Reeve (Prime, Sunday, 7.30pm), he’s immediately into the first topic of conversation when it comes to Greece: its economy.
There’s no doubt about it: Greece is gorgeous. Around 25 million tourists visit every year, more than twice the native population. Tourism is 20% of the national economy, but on small islands like Kos, where Reeve begins his journey, it’s 60%. Many islanders have had to leave to find work on the mainland. In summer, the population of tiny Pserimos swells, but the winter population is estimated to be about 30 people.
On Lesbos, he watches the arrival of boat after boat carrying refugees across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. There are women and children; Reeve is in tears talking to a family and then watches as the refugees walk into a tourist village where wealthy visitors are taking selfies.
On Crete, however, there is a gun-toting priest who believes the economic crisis is being orchestrated by Germany. The German invasion in World
War II and the execution of the townsfolk of Anogeia still loom large, and Reeve spends an evening with the priest and some shepherds, who sing songs about that period in between firing WWII-era pistols in the air.
The real problem was the massive amount of money lent to Greece by Europe after it joined the European Union. In Athens, he finds a vast disparity between rich and poor. Athens now even has a shanty town. “On planet Earth, I have seen worse, but not, frankly, in Europe.”