Travelling man
Renowned adventurer Simon Reeve is sharing his tales with theatre audiences in Cardiff
Q: What inspired the idea of doing this new live show?
A: I’ve had some magnificent adventures and met some of the most inspiring people on the planet.
So obviously I’ve got lots of tales from my travels, and this show is a tremendous opportunity to share them with audiences across the UK.
There’s a lot that I see and film that never makes it into the programmes, so there’s also behind-the-scenes stories to tell and footage to show.
I also like doing things that are a bit challenging and nerve-racking – and performing a live show is certainly a challenge that should get the ticker going.
I like that adrenaline rush.
Q: Do you hope this show might inspire people?
A: Definitely. I want to entertain people, but I also want to inspire them.
I hope the show might prompt them to go on their own adventures and encourage them to get out of their comfort zone in life.
I also want to remind people that starting from nothing doesn’t need to stop you from achieving your dreams. Everyone seems to think that to be on TV you need to have got straight As at public school, but I don’t come from a media family or a wealthy, travelling background, and I left my local comprehensive with basically nothing and went on the dole. I started work in a mailroom.
I never went to university. Don’t tell anyone!
Q: Are you looking forward to meeting your audience face to face and doing a Q and A with them?
A: Definitely. It’s wonderful to get feedback. In a strange way I really like being put on the spot and I love probing questions.
On stage, I hope I can get across my enthusiasm for the idea of pushing yourself in life.
Q: Was adventure part of your upbringing?
A: No. I definitely wasn’t born into it. When I was a kid, we only went abroad once when we took the ferry to France to go camping.
I didn’t get on a plane till I was working. When I was growing up, people didn’t travel in the way they do now. People have forgotten that.
I remember the first Spanish and Greek restaurants opening in London during the late 1970s.
That was the result of British people taking Freddie Laker-type flights abroad. I only came to travel and adventure as an adult.
Q: What was your childhood like, then?
A: I grew up in tropical Acton in West London. My adventures were restricted to riding my BMX and my grandmother’s magical mystery tours.
She would take my brother and me in her car when we were very little to explore exotic, unknown places like Hounslow. Sometimes we even got as far as Chiswick!
I never stowed away on a plane. I never imagined I’d live the life I have today. My aspirations and dreams were very limited.
Q: How were your school days?
A: I didn’t get on with school. I spiralled down in a bad way and came quite close to deciding whether or not I would end it all.
I was at a very low point. I flunked an exam, walked out and never went back.
I left school with basically no qualifications.
Q: What happened next?
A: I was on the dole for a long while. Then I got a few jobs. I ran some charity shops, but organising people of a certain age into a roster was a very tricky art.
I worked in a jewellery shop for a day and at the Ministry of Defence for half a day.
After I walked out, Special Branch came looking for me because I had worked in a secret department.
I got turned down for a job as a white van driver, even though no one else applied for it. I was lost.
Q: How did you turn things around?
A: I got a job as a post boy on the Sunday Times, and my world began to open up.
I owe my career to Andrew Neil – I’m sure you’ve rarely heard that sentence before! I was very lucky.
His idea was to give the post boys an opportunity to have a crack at working on the paper.
Everyone else on the paper was Oxbridge, and I was very London.
I was pretty unusual, but I was keen and eager and they gave me a chance.
Q: How did your career progress from there?
A: I was this pathetic kid suddenly thrown into an environment where people were doing very exciting things and working on serious investigations.
I carved out my own niche – and that was the making of me.
First I became an expert in fixing these vital big photocopying machines they had, so they couldn’t sack me.
Then I fell into investigating terrorism, as you do. I started researching the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, and eventually wrote the first book on al Qaeda, which came out in 1998. Nobody read it.
Then I wrote some other books and worked on hardcore investigations where I spent time undercover.
Q: What changed things for you?
A: 9/11 happened, and suddenly I was chucked into the world of TV. I’d written the only book in the world about the biggest story of the time.
I also knew people who died as the Towers came down – I’d met them when I was researching my first book.
Q: What did that lead to?
A: The BBC wanted me to make a series for them. The first ideas were a bit daft.
They included wanting me to infiltrate al Qaeda.
I didn’t think that was a very good idea. In the end we settled on the idea of going on adventures in parts of the world that weren’t often on the TV,
and into which we would try and work light and shade, both adventure and issues.
The first BBC series I did in 2003 was called Holidays in the Danger Zone: Meet the Stans, and it was all about my journeys in the Stan countries to the north of Afghanistan, including Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
I loved it from the first day of filming. It was very well received, which was a surprise to me as the presenter.
So the BBC had me back, and since then I’ve made more than 100 programmes around the world.
Q: Do you think you’ll ever get bored of travelling?
A: Absolutely not! What telly presenter would say, “I think I’ve seen enough now”?
As long as I’m allowed, I’ll be out there.
When I’m travelling, my senses are not just tingled but rattled every minute of every hour.