Radio Times

Review by:

David Butcher

Why are prawns so cheap in supermarkets? Simon Reeve’s thoughtful travelogue likes to take on big questions, so here he goes out with Indian prawn fishermen (one of 30,000 trawlers in the state of Orissa) and catches barely anything in the empty seas. In Bangladesh we see the alternative – farming prawns on a vast scale, with dire consequences for local famers because once land is flooded with salt water, no one can grow crops. Reeve manages to make all this shockingly informative without turning into an episode of Unreported World.

About this programme

5/6. The adventurer reaches Sri Lanka, whose strategic location and tropical spices made it a target for invaders and colonisers for centuries. In the north he visits the scenes of vicious battles between the Tamil minority and the Sri Lankan army, traumatic events from which the population is still recovering. On his way to Bangladesh, he hitches a ride on a trawler, highlighting one of the Indian Ocean's fastest-growing industries - providing prawns for the West. But as he reveals, it comes at a price for the environment.

Cast and crew

Cast

Presenter

Simon Reeve

Crew

Director

Olly Bootle

Executive Producer

Sam Bagnall

Producer

Olly Bootle

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