Sentimental Journeys: Stories of personal travel

Summary

Arthur Smith takes a trip down memory lane with celebrities including Miriam Margolyes, Tony Benn and Jack Vettriano

'Charming' The Times

Comedian and broadcaster Arthur Smith plays tour guide to fifteen well-known personalities, as they visit places that are meaningful to them and remember pivotal moments in their lives. Through genial chat, humorous banter and gentle probing, he discovers just what made these locations so special and significant - and opens the floodgates to some amazing personal stories.

Revisiting their home towns, Jack Vettriano and Barbara Castle reminisce about their youth, while other guests travel further afield. Returning to Romania, Annie Nightingale recalls her 1990 visit, shortly after the revolution, and the tour she organised to bring Western music to the youth of Bucharest. Eric Newby goes back to Fontanello, where he was a prisoner of war from 1943 - and where he first met the beautiful blonde who was to become his wife. Meanwhile, Miriam Margolyes embarks on a quest to trace the history of her Jewish family in Belarus.

Among Arthur's other travelling companions are Hammer Horror actress Ingrid Pitt, who returns to Buenos Aires, where she lived in the 1970s with her racing-driver husband; Germaine Greer, who takes a nostalgic trip to southern Italy, where she spent the summer of 1967; and Imogen Stubbs, who retraces her steps to her alma mater, Oxford University's Exeter College - and to a rustic, romantic shack out in the woods...

Eclectic, entertaining, intriguing and surprising, this captivating collection will give you new insight into the extraordinary lives and experiences of some truly fascinating people.

Production credits
Presented by Arthur Smith
Produced by Sharon Banoff, Dilly Barlow, Sara-Jane Hall, Rebecca Moore and Vibeka Venema

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:

Barbara Castle 4 January 1998
Nick Hancock 11 January 1998
Simon Callow 18 January 1998
Eric Newby 12 February 1998
Miriam Margolyes 4 April 1999
Imogen Stubbs 11 April 1999
Robert Fisk 18 April 1999
Jack Vettriano 1 July 2006
Germaine Greer 8 July 2006
Tony Benn 29 July 2006
Ingrid Pitt 5 August 2006
Brendan Foster 12 August 2006
Shaparak Khorsandi 19 August 2006
Julian Lloyd Webber 26 August 2006
Annie Nightingale 9 September 2006

© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.