. Not the Taj Mahal again. And the Lake Palace in Udaipur, with obligatory reference to the fact it was featured in Octopussy. And the Golden Temple at Amritsar, our presenter treading in the footsteps of every other presenter by visiting the community kitchen where Sikh volunteers serve up to 100,000 people a day, free of charge. All we needed for a full house was an elephant and a visit to Mumbai's railway station. Do travel shows have to take us to the same places every time? But I was pleasantly surprised by the programme (and cognisant of the fact that I've been to India more times than I've had hot dinners, so perhaps was being unfair). Despite the ubiquity of the chosen locations, Hughes did endeavour to come at things from a new perspective. For one thing, there were no scenes of teeming traffic – Hughes travelled in the early mornings, when the roads were uncharacteristically empty, and was even brave enough to drive herself around. At the Taj Mahal, she dodged the much-photographed Princess Diana bench and instead showed us around the lesser-visited gardens. Nor did she point out that India is a country of contrasts, where the very rich pass unthinkingly by the desperately poor, which other shows tend to emphasise. Putting 'treasures' in the title implied that we would be looking at artefacts, but instead Hughes showed us buildings – including the fabulously well-preserved Mughal fort city of Fatehpur Sikri, whose Mughal ruler wished to learn from all faiths – and places with religious significance, such as the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. At times it was a personal pilgrimage: Hughes recently lost her mother, and took part in a Hindu ceremony to honour the deceased. This was respectful stuff – the days when presenters could tour a place making off-the-cuff comments are long gone. But too little time was spent on each topic – a brief trip to a Sufi shrine){kind=link}
Rather than heading straight for tourist traps the Taj Mahal or Lake Palace, Hughes tries to dig deeper – but there’s simply too much to see
My heart sank when I read the blurb for Exploring India’s Treasures with Bettany Hughes (Channel 4). Not the Taj Mahal again. And the Lake Palace in Udaipur, with obligatory reference to the fact it was featured in Octopussy.
And the Golden Temple at Amritsar, our presenter treading in the footsteps of every other presenter by visiting the community kitchen where Sikh volunteers serve up to 100,000 people a day, free of charge. All we needed for a full house was an elephant and a visit to Mumbai’s railway station. Do travel shows have to take us to the same places every time?
But I was pleasantly surprised by the programme (and cognisant of the fact that I’ve been to India more times than I’ve had hot dinners, so perhaps was being unfair). Despite the ubiquity of the chosen locations, Hughes did endeavour to come at things from a new perspective.
For one thing, there were no scenes of teeming traffic – Hughes travelled in the early mornings, when the roads were uncharacteristically empty, and was even brave enough to drive herself around. At the Taj Mahal, she dodged the much-photographed Princess Diana bench and instead showed us around the lesser-visited gardens. Nor did she point out that India is a country of contrasts, where the very rich pass unthinkingly by the desperately poor, which other shows tend to emphasise.