Original subtitles

'Travelling can seem pretty daunting.

You're bombarded with the new...'

That's extraordinary!

'.. sights, sounds, language, smells,

tastes, food, drink, colour and commotion,

or tranquillity and peace.

And people. Meeting new faces and learning new customs.

And afterwards, you can't quite believe,

"Yes, I did do that! I did see that."'

It's not like The Archers, do you know what I mean?

'Happily, I've got all sorts of records of my adventures.

So I can choose my favourite moments

and package them up into postcards, albeit Special Delivery.'

Nowadays we take it for granted that, when ever you want to,

you can jump on a plane and follow the sun.

But if you have reached a certain stage of... fabulousness,

like me, you can remember back to the '50s and '60s,

when foreign travel was very exotic, even jumping on a plane to Spain.

As a teenage model in the Swinging '60s,

I visited and worked in most of the countries in Europe.

But I'd never been to Greece. And I longed to go there,

to visit all those islands dappled around in a glittering blue sea.

But of course, to Greek people,

the sea is much more than just a glittering surround.

It is their source of food, trade, of transport.

The locals in Greece jump on ferries and boats, as we do buses.

But actually, why take a bus when you can take a helicopter?

'The island of Spetses is half a day by sea from Athens.

One of Greece's famous shipping magnates has flown us,

at his expense, to his luxury yacht,

so that I may talk to him about what it is

to be a Greek islander and seafarer.'

- Kalimera. - Joanna Lumley. Captain Sarkos.

Captain Sarkos, how lovely to meet you.

Lovely to see you too. Happy to have you onboard.

'Captain Sarkos is a self-made man, with the sea in his blood.'

'His family started as maritime traders and over the centuries,

they've conquered the world's shipping routes.'

'The success of Captain Sarkos' family, and others like him,

was born from necessity.

Centuries ago, island life was poor

and was difficult to eke out a living.

So they took to the sea to seek their fortunes.

Can't do the Poros Canal.

Well, where we are going. We are gonna be surprised.

'The Poros Canal is a narrow stretch of water

which passes the tiny island of Poros.

Which, coincidentally, is where my affection for Greece began 40 years ago.'

I was sharing a flat in London

and we decided to save up our money and come to Greece. This was 1966.

And I'd been told to go to an island, which I thought was Poros.

We bought our tickets and we came. And we were brought by ferry

to this enchanting little town.

And we found two rooms in villager's houses and stayed there.

And it was only later, actually during the trip,

when somebody said, "Why did you come to Poros?"

I said I think that's where we were told to go, Poros and Naxos.

And they said, "Not Poros, it's Paros and Naxos."

Paros, another big island much further out.

And you came to Poros.

But by that time, we'd fallen in love.

We had the best holiday you can imagine.

And that is where my love affair with Greece started.

It was just enchanting.

When I was at boarding school,

a lot of our dormitories were named after letters in the Greek alphabet.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Piu, Mu, Phi, Sigma.

But unfortunately I never learned to speak Greek.

I would have loved it.

So when I went there I learnt to say, "Parakalo", please.

"Efcharisto", thank you.

I learnt to say, "Kalispera" and, "Kalimera",

good evening and and good morning. But that's about as far as I got.

There was one language which I couldn't even say anything in.

It was fabulously difficult. I had a go but what a failure!

'My guide, Petros, is taking me to the isolated corner of Evia,

the second largest island in Greece.

Here, the hills have echoed to the sound of an astonishing language.

We arrive at the village of Antia.'

- Up here? - I think so.

~

~

~

We can sit here.

Can she understand?

I was only making it up. I don't know.

~

She says that, "She doesn't say something."

I didn't say anything.

She's found me out. I was just whistling.

I'm sorry. I still sound like The Clangers.

I never made myself heard. I did have a crack at it though.

The sound is actually like people who can whistle for taxis,

which I can't do because my whistling is...

I've been trying to practice...

Jennifer Saunders can do it, I can't.

I can't make a sound. I just dribble.

Do our ladies know where the tradition of whistling came from?

~

'I'm just glad it wasn't my job.'

It would be as if I was dumb, being up here.

~

One for the dogs. Look, the dogs. We've suddenly got a mass of dogs.

~

There's a goat on the roof over there.

They've called the goats, who are climbing over the roofs toward us.

It's extraordinary. The nearest thing to Dr Doolittle I've seen.

They just whistle and the goats answer back.

Then you shout at them and they've got it. Absolutely.

~

This is to ward off the evil eye.

It's my Matiasma. The Egyptians used it.

It appears in the Jewish tradition.

The Old Testament and the Koran.

But it all originated in ancient Greece.

They believe that it fended off bad thoughts.

Babies are very susceptible, women are very susceptible.

So I love and treasure this.

When I went to Kos, however, I learnt about a Greek islander

who dismissed all this superstitious rubbish.

And his name was Hippocrates.

'Kos was the centre of healing in ancient Greece.

It was the home of Hippocrates. The father of modern medicine.'

He believed in clinical observation,

logical analysis and the healing power of nature.

He believed in putting the patient at the centre of the diagnosis.

He believed in diet, he believed in a healthy environment.

And above all, he managed to tell people that it wasn't their fault that they were ill.

It wasn't a punishment from the gods.

It was simply because the body was sick.

So he managed to separate completely, religion and medicine,

for the first time ever.

'They say Hippocrates, though mortal,

is descended from the god of healing -- Asclepius.

Manolis, a local historian, is taking me to the Asklepieion,

a sort of health spa and healing sanctuary.

There were hundreds of Asklepieions in ancient Greece.

But now, looking at these abandoned ruins,

it's quite difficult to imagine them buzzing with life.'

There should be more than one terraces.

So in most cases, there would be three.

- Is this the first terrace here? - Yes, this is the first terrace,

which was devoted to the body.

The second one would be devoted to the soul.

And the third one to the spirit.

Body, soul, spirit.

- And here, we would have the rooms for the patients. - Mm-hm.

All surrounding the first terrace.

- So like a great, sort of, hospital laid out here. - Yes.

- Exactly. Exactly. - Also, they've chosen the most beautiful position.

It was a prerequisite to have a unique location.

- And presumably a prerequisite to have water? - Yes.

Exactly.

Very interesting statue is up at the top.

- It looks like Pan or something? - Exactly.

The small God of the woods. Half a goat, half a human.

He was like the Green Man, we have the Green Man in England,

who's very like pan. He lived in the woods.

He had no, sort of, morals, as we have them.

- Everything was fine. - All right. - All animals were good,

this was good, you take that, it is yours, it doesn't matter, I have it.

I'll leave you, I love you, I leave you.

- He had no morals. - Something like the '70s?

Something like the '70's, actually,

with panpipes and letting the hair go.

'Above the hospitals stood the temples,

so that patients could worship their gods and show their gratitude.

But the ancient Greeks realised they couldn't be healed through worship alone.

So through incredible foresight,

they also built a medical school inside the grounds of the temple

to teach the science of Hippocrates.'

Here, it would be something like a podium.

The teacher would be here, teaching them the lesson.

Hippocrates went so far that, until the 19th century,

his books were still being studied worldwide.

So here, we are at the third terrace.

'Just like today, sadly not all illnesses could be healed.

So on the third terrace was a temple

where those about to die could give their soul and spirit to the gods.'

- Yes. - And what did it look like?

It looked like something that you wouldn't want to miss

- and something that would make you feel so humble, so small... - Yeah.

.. that by giving your soul to the God,

you were sure that you would be healed.

- This was majestic, enormous. - Exactly.

- Dominating this hillside. - Exactly.

More postcards are on their way,

from frisky sheep to generous Greeks bearing gifts.

And James Bond turns up again.

He follows me round the world, I swear it.

Any chance to visit a volcano is not to be turned down.

So when I had this opportunity to walk in the crater,

of a now extinct volcano, I was just thrilled to bits.

They said, "You'll burn your feet", and I thought, "Will it be as hot as that?"

They didn't mean burning from heat, they meant burning from sulphur.

It stank.

'In Greek mythology, Poseidon is the tempestuous god of the sea,

who was seen to throw a huge rock at an escaping Titan.

As it crashed into the water,

that rock became the volcanic island of Nisyros.

And every time the volcano erupts,

people believe it is the pinned down Titan trying to escape.

The last eruption was in 1888.'

'The volcano, with its five craters,

covers almost half the surface area of the entire island.

Stephanos is the biggest of the five craters.'

The smell! It's sort of sulphurous but it's got even...

- .. another smell on the back of it as well. - Yes.

And what is really unique, you notice that he is alive.

He is changing all the time, depending on the weather,

depending on the wind, if it is rain. It is never the same.

And the fumaroles, how close to them can we get?

Not really close because as close as we get, the crust is thinner.

- Yeah. - Because the steam that comes out from the fumaroles

is up to 100 degrees Celsius.

Look at these fantastic colours. There is sour yellow and baked.

- This must have been from, what? Rain and then drying out? - Exactly.

- If you listen, you can actually hear it bubbling. - Yes.

This is not good to touch?

Not good to touch. One of the nicknames is Akolos.

- Akolos? Kolos is... - Bum. Exactly.

Akolos? Bumless.

So if you sit, you're going to burn.

- Phe-e-e-w. - It's acid.

They don't suddenly just go blip, like that, do they?

- Sometimes. - Oh. Well. OK. - Sometimes.

- That's why you should never go... - I'm honestly not gonna do that.

I think I'll just not do that.

This feels almost as if we are on another planet here.

Yeah. Some say it resembles the moon.

How the moon would be looking like.

That's why Moonraker was shot here.

- Moonraker? - Yes. - The Bond film? - Yes.

- Roger Moore? - Exactly. Some shots of the moon,

they were just exactly where we are right now.

'I can't actually remember Roger rocking up on the moon,

but, you know, it's a good story.'

Of course, you could spend a lifetime island hopping in Greece trying to visit them all.

But there was one I particularly wanted to set my feet on.

Because it was so important in ancient Greece and in modern times.

Far behind me is mainland Greece and Athens.

Far in front of me is Libya.

But this island that we are coming into is Crete,

the largest of all the Greek islands.

This is its capital, Heraklion.

Now, it was incredibly important, both to the ancient Greeks

and the Minoans and all the people before that,

because of its position.

It was sitting bang in the middle of the ocean.

Everybody who traded had to come past.

It's fabulously beautiful.

'In 1941, Hitler, realising the importance of Crete's position,

ordered its invasion.

It was the first time in the war,

that the Nazis encountered mass resistance

from the local population.'

'Eleni Fanariotou, my translator, has brought me to this small town

which was at the centre of the Cretan resistance,

during the German occupation.'

Look at this.

"Order by the German General Commander of the garrison of Crete.

Because the town of Anogia is the centre of the English intelligence on Crete...

.. we order it's complete destruction

and the execution of every male person of Anogia,

who would happen to be within the village, and around it,

within a distance of one kilometre."

'Elani took me to meet Nikolas, who narrowly escaped execution by the Nazis.'

~

- Nikolas. - Ah, Nikolas.

How long has he been a cobbler?

~

So he was making shoes during the war.

He must have seen the terrible reprisals on this village.

I read that it was razed to the ground?

~

Did you lose friends?

Personal, close friends from this village, during the reprisals?

~

'Many villagers fled to the mountains and survived,

as did the Cretan resistance,

with the help of the local shepherds,

who made their homes in hillside caves.

The descendants of the shepherds live there still.'

~

- Ah, thank you. - ~

'This way of life hasn't changed much for centuries.

Cretan resistance fighters would have had to live much like these shepherds do today,

on a basic diet of meat and cheese.'

~

- Can I feel? - Yes, yes.

So it actually feels, at the moment, just like milk.

But presumably, with this heat underneath it,

it's kind of thickening up like custard.

I see. Women's task. Men sitting watching meat

and women actually stirring, I see.

'When the fighters weren't disrupting the Germans,

they would have had to chip in with the work in the fields.'

Will you forgive me for not having a go at milking?

Because the thing is, is that if it was one sheep, very tame sheep,

and it was very calm and there was nothing much happening,

I could have a go at it and get it badly wrong, cos it's quite a skill.

With a hairy avalanche waiting,

you can sense there's quite an expectation here

that it's gonna be done and done properly. And I'd mess it up.

Know what I mean?

Ooh, a lovely jump there.

We just can't tell which ones are gonna jump and which ones aren't.

You see one and think that's a jumper and then you think this one isn't. But it is!

Fantastic.

And this is a little sheep's bell,

which we found lodged in one of those stone walls,

near where the shepherds were. Isn't that lovely?

So, having met the sheep who provided the milk,

who made the cheese, which made Greece famous,

it only seems right that we should sample a little bit more of Cretan hospitality.

A little bit of drinking. No plate smashing, that's terribly out now.

And I'm afraid, a bit of cringe-making dancing.

'The favourite drink in Greece is raki.

They drink ouzo and retsina but raki is the local tipple.

Stelios Petrakis has the biggest raki making still,

allowed for personal consumption in the region.'

~

Thank you. Yassas.

Smells beautiful.

Wonderful.

It's wonderful!

I can't think how to say wonderful.

~

You don't get hangovers from things like this

because there's nothing added. It's completely pure.

Once the first woody alcohol is taken off,

you've just got this extraordinarily clean, pure stuff.

So it just takes two hours to make this dancing mixture.

It's unbelievable. And quite a large quantity of it too.

I'll just taste it again to make sure, you know...

Do you know, it tastes better with every sip.

You become slightly less articulate

but more appreciative with every sip.

'Several times a year, family and friends get together

for prolonged raki making sessions.

Tastings are an excuse for a huge feast.

The traditional music played in part on a Greek lyre,

is accompanied by equally traditional Greek dancing.

Under the influence of the raki and against my better judgement,

I'm persuaded by Stelios' friends to take part.'

This is why utter hell is being made to do dancing

without any tuition.

Then pretending that it's completely normal.

~

I've got a lunatic on my right, who thinks he's leading the dance.

Cheese, salad, raki, the food of the gods.

That's my final postcard from my Greek odyssey.

But I'll be back soon with more.