Arthur Smith (I)

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

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.

First released: Thursday 14th July 2022