Jacob Bronowski TV - Serge Tigneres & The Roman Empire TV - Richard Miles TV - Elizabeth David - Oceans TV - Secrets of the Bible TV - Percy Bysshe Shelley - David Reynolds TV - Michael Scott TV - Mediterranean with Simon Reeve TV - Bettany Hughes TV - Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? TV -
In 1600 the Mediterranean was still the centre of the world, and Venice was the hub of the Mediterranean. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 6/13: The Starry Messenger, BBC 1973
The Romans dominated the whole of the Mediterranean basin. Serge Tigneres, The Roman Empire: Rome’s Legionnaires, France 5
By 500 B.C. Carthage was the richest metropolis the Mediterranean world had ever seen. Professor Richard Miles, Carthage – The Roman Holocaust, Channel 4 2012
Carthage was the lord of the western Mediterranean. ibid.
To eat figs off the tree in the very early morning, when they have been barely touched by the sun, is one of the exquisite pleasures of the Mediterranean. Elizabeth David, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine
A hundred million visitors each year. Western civilisation developed around these shores, but now human activity is threatening to ruin this sea. Oceans VII: Mediterranean Sea, BBC 2008
Sharks are crucial to the health of our oceans. ibid.
The Sixgill: one of the largest predatory sharks in the world. ibid.
The clearer the water the less plankton there is. ibid.
Pregnant and newborn Great Whites have been sighted. ibid.
Great Whites rarely attack humans. ibid.
Humankind is encroaching more and more on this sea. ibid.
1970 Mediterranean: the tubular core samples they pull up are what the scientists are here to study ... When the water returned, it happened amazingly fast ... From a dry desert basin to a sea kilometres deep in a geological instant. Secrets of the Bible s1e13: The Great Flood, 2015
O Wild West Wind, though breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing ...
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams ...
The triumph of the prophecy! O, Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, Ode to the West Wind
In 1940 the British army was kicked off the beaches of northern France. Instead of trying to get back there, it spent the next four years fighting around the Mediterranean. Professor David Reynolds, World War II: 1942 and Hitler’s Soft Underbelly, BBC 2012
Why did the British and Americans spend so much of the war paddling around the Mediterranean? ibid.
She’s been fought over and occupied by all the great powers of the Mediterranean … As much north African as it is European. Michael Scott, Sicily: Wonder of the Mediterranean I, BBC 2017
Sicily: the largest island in the Mediterranean. ibid.
In the 9th century the Arabs invaded Sicily … Then the Normans came to Sicily. ibid.
By the 3rd century B.C. freedom was in short supply … Greek rule of Sicily was fading. Carthage had risen again and Rome was the new power on the Mediterranean block. ibid.
I’m on a journey around the Mediterranean. It’s the sea that attracts around a third of world tourism. The birthplace of civilisations where extraordinary wealth meets shocking poverty. It’s a sea of wild extremes. The first leg of my journey takes me from Malta along the coast of southern Italy and on to Albania. Mediterranean with Simon Reeve I, BBC 2018
Mediterranean – the very name means Centre of the World. ibid.
Modern-day Malta is booming. Driven partly by a huge surge in tourists. The population is less than half a million. ibid.
These are dark times in Malta. There have actually been at least nineteen bomb attacks in Malta in recent years. ibid.
The ’Ndrangheta organisation uses murder, kidnapping and fear to control scores of villages like this … The ’Ndrangheta is actually growing in power, spreading internationally. ibid.
In the eastern Med, ancient cultures are struggling to survive in the face of daunting challenges. Mediterranean with Simon Reeve II
The Mediterranean is a place of such extremes. ibid.
Cyprus has sat at the crossroads of civilisations, cultures and great religions for centuries. ibid.
Something like 3% of all Cyprus is inside the buffer zone. ibid.
Turkish governments have encouraged hundreds of thousands of Turks to settle here, and many think they’re trying to link Turkish Cyprus more closely to Turkey. Settlers are now thought to be more than half the population. ibid.
There is no way of crossing here from Lebanon into Israel. ibid.
Israel relies on the Mediterranean for its survival. ibid.
Israel has become one of the most crowded countries in the world. ibid.
I’ll travel along the coast of north Africa from Libya to Tunisia and on to Sicily, the jewel of the Mediterranean. Mediterranean with Simon Reeve III
Look at the scale of the destruction … IS fighters were just a short drive away. ibid.
The Romans of course built the greatest Mediterranean empire of all, spanning the sea. ibid.
Libya: Stability for all and security for impoverished migrants in the country looks a long way away. ibid.
But visitor numbers to Tunisia have plummeted since two deadly terror attacks in 2015 in which 59 tourists were killed. ibid.
More than 80,000 fishing boats. Some fish face extinction. ibid.
Sicily is picture-postcard, a huge island, the largest in the Mediterranean. ibid.
Sicily’s rural population has been falling for decades. ibid.
On Europe’s only desert coast we discover how cheap food and holidays have transformed the landscape. Mediterranean with Simon Reeve IV
There’s unemployment and poverty in Morocco. And in the rest of the huge continent to the south, millions want to enter the EU. ibid.
It’s a beautiful country attracting more than 11 million tourists each year. Yet it’s an authoritarian undemocratic state. ibid.
More than 100,000 vessels pass through the Strait each year. ibid.
An estimated 730 tons of plastic waste is now entering the Mediterranean every day. ibid.