Over the last two and a half years, Chris Tarrant has travelled, literally, all around the world filming Extreme Railway Journeys for Channel 5. The hugely successful TV series is already being repeated, and broadcast rights have been, and continue to be, picked up in other countries, while it is also being released on DVD. Chris's journeys have taken him to the Congo, India, Australia, Bolivia (twice), Japan, Siberia, Myanmar, Canada and Cuba, and the latest programmes see the completion of filming in Alaska, Argentina, Azerbaijan, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railway Journeys brings to life beautifully not only the romance of travelling by train, but also the sights, sounds and smells of the countries and places visited, while also illuminating the customs and attitudes of the people the author encountered along the way. But, as he says, 'I should have known what I was in for and what the word "extreme" means, when the very first show saw us filming in the Congo - where the train was six DAYS late.'
Beautifully illustrated with exclusive colour photographs, Extreme Railway Journeys is not only a record of remarkable journeys in extraordinary places by one of our shrewdest commentators. It is also a demonstration of the principle that 'to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.'
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ISBN-13
978-1-78606-366-3 (9781786063663)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Chris Tarrant, OBE, is a radio and TV presenter whose many achievements include hosting the children's television series Tiswas and the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, as well as being a popular host on Capital Radio for ten years. Of Extreme Railway Journeys, he writes:
'I've always, always, loved railways, even as a little boy. My granddad, whose own father had been a railwayman, bought me the Big Book of Railways for my eighth Christmas, and I read it cover to cover and marvelled at its pictures for years. I loved the stories of how the old pioneers built the railways through often seemingly impossible terrain, dense jungle, baking deserts and icy mountain ranges, all around the world.
'I was never a train spotter, even though we lived close to the old Great Western line, in the heyday of steam trains. It was not the trains, but the actual railways that fascinated me, particularly in remote countries far away with exotic sounding names like Russia, Alaska, India and Japan. Often, in wild areas of the planet where there were simply no roads, the railways were the only real link for whole populations. I just loved all the old stories of the men who had the vision to build the first railways where no one thought it possible.
'So when Channel 5 offered me an initial four programmes of Extreme Railway Journeys around the world, I was very excited and jumped at the chance.'
