New adventure is a lot closer to home than usual

Romesh Ranganathan has previously travelled from the Sahara to Mongolia to the Arctic in his travel series.

But now the BBC has announced a new post-Covid episode of The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan  set much closer to home: the Scottish islands.

The comedian spent a week visiting the Hebridean islands of Skye, Harris and Lewis – as well as the remote island of St Kilda, which is four hours out across the open Atlantic 

Guiding him will be Donald MacSween, a crofter from  Lewis - a place that lies as far north as Greenland.

Ranganathan will try his hand at the Highlands Games, try to avoid feeling up a sheep’s testicles during a day spent on McSween’s farm, and spend a chaotic afternoon with local band Peat and Diesels.

The episode will be screened on BBC Two this Christmas.

Also airing over the festive season is the previously announced three-part travelogue Last Woman On Earth, in which Sara Pascoe, meet the last people doing dying crafts and jobs around the world.

In Cuba she meets a mattress magician, a cigar factory reader and a family who climb giant coconut trees to make a local sweet.

In Georgia she meets  a gunsmith, a polyphonic singer and a guide at the Stalin Museum.

And in Finland, she meets a forest cleaner, an ice carver and an elf in Santa’s an elf in Santa’s village.

When the show was announced last year, Pascoe said: ‘The world is changing and I’m going to find out what that means to people’s everyday lives. This is a chance for me to learn about the history, politics, and technology of these fascinating countries and pick up new skills just as they’re about to stop existing.  

‘I’m also going to do some Michael Palin and Joanna Lumley impressions and climb a really high tree even though the BBC has said they won’t insure me.’

Palin himself will return to BBC Two this December to revisit hit 2004 trip to the Himalayas in a new episode of Travels of a Lifetime. 

Published: 24 Nov 2020