Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey

It is as if Greece is just a backdrop for the vacuous present's vanity in this program.

This is a really great documentary in which Joanna Lumley shows that she is not just a pretty face. She is also a very warm, intelligent & compassionate human being but after her campaigning on behalf of the Nepalese Gurkha soldiers rights, we already knew that. Her Greek Odyssey is both informative & hugely interesting. She starts her adventure by visiting the Acropolis in Athens where restoration work on the marble building is ongoing & will be for many years to come. Joanna informs us that the original marble is regarded as sacred & the restorers have to painstakingly shape the new marble to fit over the ancient marble eroded over the centuries. She next visits an ancient amphitheatre at Epidaurus which photographed from the air is breathtakingly beautiful. Here she meets Nana Mouskouri who agrees to sing for her to test out its acoustics. She is obviously genuinely very touched by this experience & so would be anyone watching it. She then travels to a remote mountainous region of Greece where she meets an old woman who lives a solitary life. She collects some asparagus growing wild in the region & prepares Joanna a meal from it adding some lemon juice. I cannot imagine it tasted that great but Ms Lumley fully appreciated the old woman's efforts & charmingly told her it tasted wonderful. She also visits Olympia which famously hosted the games in Ancient Greek times. She informed us that women were not allowed to watch them because the men participating performed nude which might get the ladies sexually excited. Lastly, but definitely not least, she visited Delphi the supposed centre of the world & home of the gods. Overlooked by Mount Parnassus it still is an awe-inspiring place visited by hordes of Greek tourists as well as foreigners. The original oracle resided there who was an elderly lady foretelling the future. Joanna informed us that she would breathe in volcanic sulphurous fumes, get as high as a kite & then spew out a lot of unintelligible tosh which would be interpreted by priests. Absolutely fascinating!!!. All this in the first episode & very much looking forward to the rest of her four-part, hour-long Greek Odyssey.

As a Greek, I have to congratulate Joanna and the production team for an amazingly well done piece on Greece, its history and its people. In my 45 years of age, this is the best piece I've seen, not because of its historical value (undoubtedly there) or its photography. Not because of its diversity of places visited or stories unfolded. Joanna does an amazing job in depicting the Greek soul, how it evolved through the years, what shaped it in becoming what it is today. As a foreigner, she captures and depicts it better than the most seasoned Greek anthropologist could, via short profiles of Greeks from all walks of life, from urban old ladies living a self-exiled life, to contemporary master mixologists and game-changing mayors. I watched it in awe with tears in my eyes often giving way to my sense of pride for the history and hope for the future of my country. If you are interested in understanding Greece and its people, I recommend starting here. Joanna, thank you. I can't say anything simpler nor powerful enough for your work.