Farrier delivers

Having survived the foibles of Paul Henry and the murky world of extreme competitive tickling, Kiwi documentarian David Farrier takes on his greatest challenge yet with the eight-part Netflix series Dark Tourist, which debuted on the global streaming service yesterday.

In each of the 40-minute episodes the intrepid New Zealander investigates alternative tourism ‘‘hot spots’’ – grisly and offbeat destinations ‘‘celebrating’’ where bad things have happened and where awful things could happen to you.

During the series, we’re promised a graphical recreation of a US border crossing, a chat with real vampires in New Orleans, a tour around a Cypriot ghost city, and a visit to the birthplace of voodoo in Benin, West Africa.

First up though, this more kind and gentle antipodean Louis Theroux brings his keen observational skills and deliciously deadpan delivery to Japan.

Starting, most appropriately, by taking part in a Disaster Training Course, 35-year-old Farrier then joins an eclectic mix of sightseers for a spot of ‘‘nuclear tourism’’.

Their destination? The area first destroyed by the Fukushima earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011 and still potentially contaminated by fallout from the resulting ‘‘energy accident’’ at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

The Japanese Government has said that many of the surrounding towns and villages are safe for residents to return

Battleship Island was once the most densely populated place on the planet.