Simon Reeve

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:44

My castaway this week is the broadcaster and writer Simon Reeve. You might know him as the intrepid on-screen adventurer who's dodged bullets on front lines, walked through minefields, trapped lions on foot, and been detained for spying by the KGB. But his media career began much earlier after he wrote one of the first books about al-Qaeda back in 1998. It was ignored when it came out, but three years later, in the wake of 9-11, he found himself on television screens across America. He circumnavigated the world three times and visited 120 countries, though perhaps the most dangerous journey he's taken was one he revealed only recently: his troubled path to adulthood. As a teenager, he suffered poor mental health, and by 17, he'd left school with one GCSE, no job, and facing an uncertain future. Getting hired as a postboy at the Sunday Times helped him turn things around, along with the advice from a kindly benefits clerk to quite literally keep putting one foot in front of the other. He says, I'm not travelling to film a holiday brochure. What I'm trying to do is get people to take an interest in our world. Simon Reeve, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Simon Reeve1:53

Thank you so much. It's an enormous honour.

Presenter1:56

Well, we're thrilled to have you. Your feet, Simon, must be incredibly itchy by now. COVID nineteen has obviously curbed your overseas trips, so instead you've been making programmes about the UK. I wonder what surprised you most about filming on Home Turf?

Simon Reeve2:11

I've learnt loads. That's been the biggest surprise.

Presenter2:13

What's been the biggest insight for you?

Presenter2:15

Uh

Simon Reeve2:15

Yeah. Goodness, it was probably about river re-wiggling because over centuries we've been straightening our rivers and it's one of those things when it's pointed out to you sort of go, oh yeah, they don't normally go like that, do they? And you start to see how we've shaped our landscape in profound and tiny ways for hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years. So I think hearing and seeing that in the lakes just off the top of the head was a big surprise. But it's what I love about... the journeys. It's not just about me trying to show people and teach them about the world. I'm learning all the time. That's why I absolutely love them every hour, every day.

Presenter2:54

Simon, your films can be hard-hitting and I've seen you in tears a few times when presenting very difficult stories about the effect of war and poverty on individuals and communities that you're connecting with.

Simon Reeve3:00

Yeah.

Presenter3:05

Why do you think it's important to show your emotions?

Simon Reeve3:08

I think I've always been affected by it. I think the team initially, when I first started working on these programs, and I think the team were like, oh, God, Simon's crying again. But more obviously, perhaps I do it with my wows and my, oh my goodness, this is amazing. You need almost a little bit of a jolt from me as the presenter to be reminded that what we're seeing is either extraordinary or upsetting or should be inspiring. It's partly why I repeat some things back at people because they'll say in a sort of monotone voice, you know, we fought a battle with a thousand people from the other community. And they'll say it very normally, and the translation comes back as though they're talking about having lunch the previous day. And I'll respond and perhaps with a bit too much emotion, say, you fought a battle. So I'll get a bit carried away with my response. And it is partly because I'm thinking of what to say next, but it is also really just to try and bring home to anybody watching that this matters.

Presenter4:03

It's time for your first disc. What have you chosen and why are you taking it with you today?

Simon Reeve4:08

Disc number one is taken from the album Ethiopiques 8 from Swinging Addis 1969 to 1974. It's the musician is Alemayuhu Ushite and the song is Asku Gezu Uberchi. And I think it's just, we just have to linger on the fact. It is from Ethiopia 1969 to 1974. And honestly, if we all ask ourselves what preconceptions and stereotypes we have of Ethiopia, I don't think it's that. So I love it for the music primarily, but I also love the story. I love where it's come from and I love what it says about the place and the deep, deep culture that exists there that challenges our sometimes simplistic preconceptions.

Simon Reeve4:54

Uh

Speaker 24:54

For the ten eight

Speaker 24:58

Come as canny all the woo

Speaker 25:02

Oh honey, yeah.

Simon Reeve5:04

Bundle.

Simon Reeve5:05

Uh

Speaker 25:07

Let me go. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 25:17

Oh honey.

Presenter5:18

Uskugezu Berchi by Alamahu Ushute.

Presenter5:22

So, Simon Reeve, many listeners will feel like they've traveled the world with you, but they might be surprised to learn that your family holidays weren't quite so adventurous when you were growing up.

Simon Reeve5:32

No, they weren't. It's true. They were lovely. They were warm. They were traditional in the sense that we would go down to the south coast year after year. My dad had seen an advert in a church magazine for a holiday rental cottage at a ludicrously cheap price. And it meant we were able to have an affordable family holiday down in Wareham, in Dorset, and then we'd go to Studlam Beach in Studlam Bay. We didn't go abroad. I didn't go on a plane until I was an adult. I think that's partly why I'm so grateful for the journeys I've been on since. I don't take them for granted as a result.

Presenter6:09

Home the rest of the year was Acton in West London, where you were born. Your dad, Alan, was a teacher. How would you describe your relationship?

Simon Reeve6:17

Ooh.

Simon Reeve6:18

Difficult is the word that springs to mind, but I feel a betrayal saying that. There was love, absolutely. It was loving, but it was definitely difficult. He was a tough teacher from a poor background, and he had a playbook, I suppose, which came from being a teacher in one of the toughest schools in the country at the time, at a time when discipline was challenging and physicality was acceptable from teachers, I think. And I think that was how he tried to parent. And those roles are different. It doesn't work quite that way when you're back at home. And I was trouble. I was a problem. And I was struggling to find my way. And we didn't have the natural connection that I hope I'll have with my lad when he reaches the same sort of early teens sort of age. But yes, there would have been things thrown, things smashed. I put my foot through the door, a wall. I had physical rows with my dad. There was a lot of screaming. But I was young. I was 10, 11, 12, 13. Those were troublesome times.

Presenter7:23

Yeah.

Presenter7:27

Tell me about your mum, Cindy.

Simon Reeve7:29

Oh, my mum Cindy is is a rock to the to this day. She saved my life literally multiple really times when I was a child when I had meningitis, then tonsillitis, then near death pneumonia, and I owe her I owe her almost everything.

Presenter7:49

You were close to your grandmother, Lucy. What did you enjoy about the time that you spent with her?

Simon Reeve7:54

She was the perfect grandmother in so many ways. She was warm and large and cuddly and she'd had polio when she was a child and she had a caliper on her leg as a result. But she could get out and about. I owe a lot to her because I think she really helped to spark a love of travel and adventure in my little heart and head because she would take James and I, my brother, out on what we called magical mystery tours in her adapted car. What did they involve? She would basically put us in the back, strapped in carefully, of course, and she would say, right, where should we go?

Presenter8:24

And what about what

Simon Reeve8:32

And James and I, sort of five, six, he was, I was seven, eight, maybe nine, ten years of age. We were allowed to say, go down there, grandma, what's down there? And we'd be allowed to say, go left, grandma, try to have a look down here. And she wouldn't quite do a handbrake turn, but she would react very, she was willing to do a hard turn if we wanted to explore really exotic places like Hounslow and Wembley Park Trading Estate. We were able to honestly learn a lot about West London, where we lived, and also just cultivate and develop that love of knowing what was around the corner, what was over the hill, as it were. Grandma helped to widen the horizons a bit.

Presenter9:17

It's time for more music, Simon. Second disc, what is it and why are you taking it with you?

Simon Reeve9:22

We didn't play loads of music at home when I was growing up because dad was coaching students at home, doing private coaching to earn them some more money. But then he would eventually come out and he might put a bit of opera on at the end of his very long 12, 14 hour day of work. And he'd often play this song, Vissi Date, from Tosca, and it might well make me shed a tear or two hearing it.

Speaker 29:59

On the bracing challenge

Speaker 210:04

You're me up again.

Speaker 210:13

Separate all the facing charm.

Speaker 210:40

If I case enough

Presenter10:52

Vici Darte from Pacini's Tosca performed by Dame Kiriti Canawa with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Pritchard. Simon Reeve, by the time you'd reached your early teens I think it's safe to say that you weren't exactly a model pupil. What were you and your friends getting up to?

Simon Reeve11:08

We were doing naughty stuff. I grew up in on the edge of inner city London. I don't come from uh the the leafy suburbs. Um I was carrying a knife by the time I was twelve, thir thirteen.

Presenter11:21

Right. But that's beyond naughty, isn't it?

Simon Reeve11:23

That is, but it wasn't abnormal for the time. And I think it's still not as abnormal as we would all want it to be.

Presenter11:34

You were lighting fires, you were as well as carrying knives, I think you were selling knives at one stage.

Simon Reeve11:40

Mm.

Presenter11:41

I mean, how do you look back at that now?

Simon Reeve11:43

Well, I can see how it happens. I can see the path, really. But, you know, you're right. On the page, it's not good. I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of things that I did or saw or people I knew were up to. You know, on some of the estates near where I grew up, people would light fires to get the firefighters on and then chuck petrol bombs at them. That's not something I am proud to have. I'm not proud to have known in some ways those people at all. It wasn't something I did, but I certainly sat in cars that didn't belong to the people who were driving them. And I knew what I was doing was wrong. I got away with a lot. And then my head health just went. I lost my confidence. I lost my way. And by the time it got to proper exams and schooling, I was in a terrible state. I hadn't been turning up to school. I hadn't been studying. I was just at home in bed a lot of the time. And I spiraled down.

Simon Reeve12:45

I'd been having counselling as well, in truth, during that time, because people, the doctor, could see I wasn't in the best of ways. And my mum was trying to get help for me. And so

Presenter12:55

So your mum could tell things weren't right.

Simon Reeve12:56

Mum could tell things were not right, definitely, and was trying to and encouraging me and leading me to help. But I would want to change if I could go back and talk to that lad now. I would want to try and help him find a path that would give him purpose and meaning, because I think that was what was lacking most in my existence then. And that was when my confidence started to really go and I started to panic about existence and spiral down.

Presenter12:56

Yeah.

Presenter13:26

Well, we'll find out what happened next in a minute. We've got to make some time for the music right now, though, Simon. What are we going to hear, and and why have you chosen it to day?

Presenter13:34

Number three.

Simon Reeve13:35

We're gonna hear It Takes Two by Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock. I remember my brother putting shouts out on pirate radio to me from friends who'd set up pirate radio stations on the top of tower blocks in South Acton Estate and this reminds me of that whole time and a whole world of music. It Takes Two.

Speaker 213:58

Yeah.

Presenter14:25

It takes two. Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock. Simon Reeve, you left school at sixteen with one GCSE and little prospect of getting a job. I know your mental health at the time was still fragile too. How do you look back at that time? How do you remember it now?

Simon Reeve14:41

I drank too much and I was in bed most of the time. And I didn't I couldn't face life. I couldn't face existence. And

Simon Reeve14:53

I found myself on the edge of a bridge.

Simon Reeve14:56

But I I stepped back in every possible sense. I was the wrong side of railings and I I I climbed back and I cannot fully explain why. I think partly it was fear of

Presenter15:01

Was the wrong side of

Simon Reeve15:11

ending more than fear of going on, but it wasn't the most conscious of decisions. It was it was close. And I bounced along the bottom for a long time.

Simon Reeve15:25

And eventually

Simon Reeve15:27

I say eventually it was maybe months, it wasn't years, but months. I went to my brother said, you've got to go and sign on. And I managed it. It was terrifying for me. But I went and signed on the dole. I went to a DSS office as it was then. And I tried to they wouldn't let me sign on for the dole. I was too young. I had to sign on for income support.

Simon Reeve15:49

And

Simon Reeve15:51

I listened to the advice I was given in there. The lady who signed me on, she was warm and caring, even though I was just another person in a sausage factory, really, in a place where the furniture was screwed down. But she listened and I said, I don't know what to do. I don't know. You know, kids, we're told, have a plan, have a five-year plan. I said, I can't get out of bed. And she said, just take things slowly.

Simon Reeve16:14

Just take everything step by step.

Simon Reeve16:17

And that that got me out and it did start to help.

Simon Reeve16:21

And we can

Presenter16:22

You took your first steps.

Simon Reeve16:23

I took my first steps and then

Simon Reeve16:26

Then I came up with this mad idea that I was going to go to Scotland.

Presenter16:30

Yeah, Glen Coe. Why Glen Coe specifically?

Simon Reeve16:34

It was legendary. You know, my world was small. I didn't have a connection to Scotland. It was really.

Simon Reeve16:43

It was really because I'd watched the movie Highlander.

Presenter16:45

Right. Okay, here we are.

Simon Reeve16:47

Yeah.

Presenter16:47

I'm sorry.

Simon Reeve16:47

I'm sorry.

Simon Reeve16:50

That the real reason

Presenter16:51

Then

Simon Reeve16:51

Ha! Uh

Presenter16:51

B

Simon Reeve16:51

And I loved the idea of going to Scotland and going into Glencoe. I just ambled around there initially, but then I decided I was going to try and see if I could go up for a walk up the hill, as it were, just to that bush over there initially. I can go to that bush. All right, what about that rock over there? Oh, I've made it to that rock. Did you have any of the kit or anything? I had no kit, no food. I had a sort of what you were in your trainers. I'm in my trainers. I've got my Adidas Kagul from Shepherd's Bush Market. And I'm going up this ridge to this top of this ridge in Glencoe, up to the Lost Valley in Glencoe. And people are coming back down, and it's the end of the day, and they're telling me, Turn around, you silly boy. And I'm saying, oh, no, I'm going to turn around any minute. But I go on. I'm like a walking advert for what can go wrong. But I made it to the top. And I did it all following the advice from this woman in the job centre of doing it all, putting one foot in front of the other, step by step. And it was a sense of physical achievement like I've never experienced since. It was astonishing.

Presenter17:15

Yeah.

Presenter17:20

Fuck it.

Presenter17:53

Yeah.

Simon Reeve17:53

I think we should have some music, Sam. Oh, I'd love to. We Will Rock You by Queen. Highlander was my gateway into Queen. There was a lot of the music in their music in the movie and We Will Rock You is one of my absolute faves.

Speaker 418:06

Buddy you're a boy, make a big noise train in the street, gonna be a big man someday you

Simon Reeve18:11

Got mud on your face, you big disgrace Kicking your can all over the place Singing

Speaker 418:24

We will, we will rock you.

Speaker 418:30

Buddy, you're a young man, hot man, shopping in the street gonna take

Presenter18:34

We Will Rock You by Queen. Simon Reeve, after a few false starts then, you got a job at the Sunday Times, starting out in the Post Room. Do you remember your first day?

Simon Reeve18:45

Oh God, yeah. I remember the first few days I was terrified. My mum came with me on the tube just to make sure I got there. I was sick, physically sick, for the first few days before going in. I couldn't eat. But I went. I did it. And I'm so proud of myself for going through that.

Simon Reeve19:05

But every day I was there my my confidence grew because it was brilliant, it was perfect for me. Nothing was really expected. I sorted the post, I'd put mail into pigeonholes, I'd go and photocopy things for people, and soon I was volunteering and I was asking people if they wanted any help with anything.

Simon Reeve19:24

And so when one of the senior was daft, I was sorting the post, one of the senior people came up to me, he says, Simon.

Simon Reeve19:32

I need you to go to Boston. There's two South African neo-Nazi terrorists on the run, and I need you to go and find them.

Presenter19:41

And that was your first assignment.

Simon Reeve19:42

My big break. But I was in a complete state, of course. Boston? I'd never been in a plane. I didn't have a passport. I didn't tell him, but I went round everyone saying, What am I going to do? And they said, Calm down. It's okay. It's Boston in Lincolnshire.

Simon Reeve19:56

It'll be okay And I started working on other investigations into organized crime, terrorism, nuclear smuggling. By the time I was nineteen, I was working undercover on some things. I felt that uh I could do this.

Presenter20:15

It's time for some more music. What's next, Simon? What are we going to hear?

Simon Reeve20:20

I think we're going to hear the killers. We're going to hear Mr. Brightside. Why is he killing it?

Presenter20:23

Why is he chestnut?

Simon Reeve20:25

Well, I remember very vividly driving around Mogadishu in Somalia at a tricky time in the story and history of that country. I was in the cab of what's called a technical, which is a like a poor man's tank, a pickup truck with an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back. We drove around a corner, came up against a gang from another warlord's mercenaries, and were confronted with looking down the barrel of the opposition's weapons. I had to have a sense of acceptance about the situation and hope that wiser heads prevailed. Fortunately, they did, and the screaming went down a notch to shouting, and then it went down to another notch to just swearing. And then the other guys went first, and we drove on as if nothing had happened. Mr. Brightside was playing very loudly, and it's a tune I love and still play. I can never listen to it without thinking back about avoiding death and how lucky I've been.

Speaker 421:28

Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine. Gotta gotta be damn

Speaker 221:39

But so many kids

Simon Reeve21:41

Now I'm falling asleep, and she's calling a cab while he's having a smoke, and she's taking a drag. Now they're going to bed, and my stomach.

Speaker 221:50

It's that game. And it's overhead, but she's touching his chest now.

Presenter21:56

Mr. Brightside, the Killers. Simon Reeve, in 1993 there was a bomb attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the attackers had links to al-Qaeda. You researched the story for the Sunday Times and then wrote a book about what you referred to as the new terrorism and its links to Osama bin Laden. How did you approach this complex subject?

Simon Reeve22:19

I was living the life of somebody in their early twenties, living in flat shares in North London, going to parties, having a social life, and then being on the phone and meeting people from Pakistani intelligence and the American Joint Terrorist Task Force. It was completely surreal. And I was so young, but nobody else was really talking to these people. So they were willing to even talk to me, this young Brit, I think because they... were worried. They sensed that there was a threat growing that other people weren't listening to in the corridors of power when they were trying to warn about this new menace of a more apocalyptic type of terrorist. And people didn't realize what was coming at us.

Presenter23:06

Your work was published in 1998 and honestly didn't cause much of a ripple at the time, but then.

Presenter23:12

Nine-eleven happened.

Presenter23:14

And everything changed for you. What do you remember of the early days after the attack?

Simon Reeve23:20

And life changed for all of us and for other people in so much more profound ways than me. But of course, I'd spent time in the towers. I knew people who were there. I'd spent years researching the first attack on the World Trade Center. So I felt very connected to those images that I saw. I was appalled and horrified. I swayed. I remember almost feeling this is almost too much to take in.

Simon Reeve23:51

But by the time the second tower had been hit my my phone was ringing.

Simon Reeve23:56

And it just didn't stop. I'd written really the only book.

Simon Reeve24:01

in the world on

Simon Reeve24:03

The group responsible, inevitably.

Simon Reeve24:06

The media were at my door within a couple of hours. Quite literally at your door. Quite literally. Satellite trucks outside. And I was really just being shuttled from

Simon Reeve24:19

New studio to new studio as a as a pundit, I suppose.

Presenter24:24

You were twenty-nine.

Simon Reeve24:25

I was, yeah. Whatever age you are, how does one deal with a situation like that? I just did the best I could.

Presenter24:34

It's time for your next track, Simon. What's it gonna be?

Simon Reeve24:37

Well, I owe a big debt to Stormzy because having Stormzy on and working at a stand-up desk and drinking a lot of tea has helped me do quite a fair bit of my work, I have to be honest. So thank you, Stormzy, and next choice is going to be Wiley Flow.

Speaker 224:53

If you can't do 10k for a sweet, then I don't wanna hear no chat about numbers. You man are my youngers, all blacks out like drundas. Tens and twenties and hundreds. Tens and twenties and thousands. I can't ever just loud them. On my everest shouting, soon go back to the mountains. Third album, where I bless the beat with smoke. And my day one bros, they kept me close. Then I sit in my tech, they take a tour. They're trying to get me on the ropes. I ain't broke on the specialty in this call. So please, man, let's just be adults. And don't be flexing in my goal. You can't test me, I'm the go

Presenter25:23

Stormzy and Wily Flo. Simon Reeve, after all the attention died down, you caught the eye of the BBC and you started making documentaries, traveling to places we don't often see on screen. You once said a little bit of danger is good for us, we should embrace it when it comes. What did you mean by that?

Presenter25:40

Say yes.

Simon Reeve25:42

Do you want to go out in the middle of the night and try and see bears in the forest? Yes, of course I do. Do you want to go and cross this border and try and meet the embattled, endangered Chin people in western Burma? Yes, yes, we should do that. Think about the risks, mitigate them of course, but embrace life and take chances on planet Earth because it's the way to feel alive.

Presenter26:06

On screen, Simon, you've got what seems like a very unscripted, unrehearsed presenting style, and for the viewer it sometimes feels like anything could happen. To what extent do you feel responsible for the crew, the production crew, who are with you? Because they're following you around, and in effect you dictate where everyone goes.

Simon Reeve26:23

I'd like to think I'm not dictating, but I know what you mean.

Presenter26:25

But you're making it up as we go along

Simon Reeve26:26

We're making it up as we go along and in there is a moment, yes, and there have been times where I felt afterwards, flip a neck, that was dangerous. I was in a South African township and we were trying to find out where, what was the source of a strange new drug and somebody said, you need to go and talk to the crazy man who lives down the road. And I thought, that sounds like a good idea. And we went down and walked in. And as we're going in, I realized, oh my goodness, we're stepping into a gang's drug den here. And the guys, I was with two colleagues filming me, trying not to trip over me. And I was the point man with the eyes out front. And that was a point then and since that I've thought I should have taken a few more precautions and thought it through a bit more. So I do feel a sense of responsibility in that sense. But I work with people who I trust and I hope trust me. We're alert to risk and danger, probably more than more than most people. And we try and mitigate and design that out wherever possible.

Presenter27:23

Simon, you've spoken very passionately about how important it is to look after the environment. How do you juggle the needs of your programmes with your own carbon footprint?

Simon Reeve27:33

It's a tricky one.

Simon Reeve27:34

And I obviously feel many a time like a hypocrite.

Simon Reeve27:39

Personally, I would like to think there is some tiny value in the programmes I make and I hope that mitigates in some ways the enormous footprint that I have and we have making these journeys. We've tried to incorporate from the beginning true, honest stories about what's happening to our planet and ultimately the only way we're going to know what's happening out there is by going out there and faithfully capturing it and bringing it back for people to see and be shocked by. I'm not sure we entirely get it right, but I think there is a value and importance to doing it.

Presenter28:17

Let's go with the music, Simon. It's your seventh choice. Why are you taking it with you to the island?

Simon Reeve28:21

This is my wife Anya and my song. I think it was on a road trip to Denmark many, many years ago. We heard You're Lovely to Me, and I knew that I was looking at the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with: this incredible woman who inspires, guides, and leads, and shares, and partners with me, and makes me laugh. And You're Lovely to Me is my and our soppy, lovely song. You're lovely to me, yes, you are.

Simon Reeve28:56

We've traveled together, we've traveled so far Your tongue is white and there's love in your eyes deep and blue

Presenter29:09

Yeah.

Simon Reeve29:09

You're lovely to me, yes you are.

Simon Reeve29:14

Venus ascending is surely your star I've seen how you shine, but I can't make you mine. It is true.

Presenter29:24

You're Lovely To Me by Lucky Jim. Simon Reeve, your dad, Alan, passed away in two thousand and one and as we've heard, you didn't always see eye to eye with him when you were growing up.

Presenter29:35

Were you able to settle your differences by the time of his death?

Simon Reeve29:39

We were. We had uh

Simon Reeve29:43

Not just by the time of his death even, but years before things had got dramatically better. And we had some lovely family times, some gorgeous moments. Going to the cinema, I remember with my dad and my brother and I in our twenties and we had to park a distance away and we were running down the road with our dad and I remember looking at him. He had such a

Simon Reeve30:08

beautiful, huge smile of joy on his face as he was running along to get to the cinema with his two big sons. He was happy at that point and we were properly back together and much more understanding of each other.

Presenter30:24

You and your wife, Anya, have a ten year old son of your own now, Jake, and you've also talked very openly about the difficulties you had conceiving him. How has becoming a father changed you?

Simon Reeve30:28

Yeah.

Simon Reeve30:38

We did have enormous difficulties, yes. I mean, to the point where I was told at one point that I was infertile and it would be impossible for me to have a child. So, how has it changed me? It's here's like nothing I have ever experienced before. No adventure, no encounter, no experience I have had anywhere on planet Earth. And in truth, I have had quite a few. Nothing comes close to the emotion and the joy and the purpose and meaning that I've had from that little lad popping out and then attempting to raise him the best possible way. He's

Simon Reeve31:21

He's absolutely everything to me.

Presenter31:24

Simon, you've been to so many inhospitable areas of the world that I'm quite sure our desert island will hold no fears for you. But I do wonder how you'll get on all alone there, because as you said, travel for you is all about the people, it's all about the encounters.

Simon Reeve31:37

I think I'll handle it pretty badly actually. I'm not going to be sitting back and enjoying my splendid isolation and a chance to get away from emails. No, I'm going to be missing my son. I'm going to be missing my wife. I'm going to be missing our dogs, my family, my friends, home, life, existence. I'm always happy to come home from my journeys. But so, no, I'm going to be working my way off Lawrence Desert Island. Sorry.

Presenter31:59

Oh, well, before we get there, then, I think we should hear your final disc.

Simon Reeve32:03

Well, if I do get stuck and I can't get off the island, right, then I think this final track will really help me because it it always has me singing up to the stars whenever I hear it. It fills my heart and soul and makes me makes the old chest swell as I'm singing, it really does. It's Elton and Rocket Man.

Simon Reeve32:23

Uh

Speaker 432:23

Uh

Simon Reeve32:23

Uh Uh

Speaker 432:23

Uh Uh

Simon Reeve32:23

Gonna be a long, long time To touch down, brings me round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home

Speaker 432:33

Oh, no, no, no.

Speaker 432:35

Our right now

Speaker 432:40

Good morning.

Speaker 432:42

You the well

Presenter32:50

Elton John and Rocketman. So, Simon Reeve, the time has come. I'm going to send you away to the island. I'm giving you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You can also take a book of your own choice. What will that be?

Simon Reeve33:02

I would like a beginner's or muppet's guide to making your own moonshine.

Presenter33:08

Oh, okay.

Simon Reeve33:09

One of the soundtracks to our upbringing was Dad trying to make not the most magnificent, it has to be said, fruit wine in these demi johns that would sit on every available space and they would constantly be being popping as the fruit wine would ferment and then we'd bottle it as chateau rive and give it away as as cheapy presents. Yeah, good enough for dad. I'm gonna have a bit of moonshine myself.

Presenter33:33

Simon, I can offer you moonshine for beginners. Will that do?

Simon Reeve33:36

Perfect.

Presenter33:37

You can also have a luxury item, what would you like?

Simon Reeve33:40

I'm going to go for a supply of bird seed. I think I'd need a few pets on a desert island, so I'm hoping that the the bird seed would draw em in.

Presenter33:48

Finally, which one of the eight tracks that you've shared with us today would you rush to save from the waves if you had to?

Simon Reeve33:53

Rocket Man. Uh, it would keep me going. It really would.

Presenter33:57

Simon Reeve, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Simon Reeve34:01

It's been such a pleasure and such an honour. Thank you.

Presenter34:18

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Simon. We'll leave him to experiment with his coconut moonshine. It might be an acquired taste. Now we've cast away many other travel broadcasters and writers, including Jan Morris, Michael Palin and Bill Bryson. You can find their episodes in our Desert Island Discs programme archive and of course through BBC Sounds. Next time my guest will be the writer Deborah Levy. I do hope you'll join us.

Simon Reeve34:54

Hello, I've got a story to tell you. It's called The Coming Storm, a new podcast series from BBC Radio 4 and the World Service.

Simon Reeve35:04

On January 6th, 2021, a mob stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC.

Simon Reeve35:11

It looked like a strange fantasy had gripped America. About how a cabal of satanic paedophiles had stolen an election.

Speaker 435:19

All of this is black magic leave.

Simon Reeve35:20

I'm Gabriel Gatehouse and I've been looking for the origins of this twisted tale.

Speaker 435:25

It was a puzzle, and it kind of compiled a story.

Simon Reeve35:29

But what began as a quest to understand a conspiracy theory known as QAnon turned into something else.

Simon Reeve35:36

Something bigger.

Simon Reeve35:38

It is remarkable where we've ended, and we haven't ended, have we? Subscribe to The Coming Storm on BBC Sound.