Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey

Joanna Lumley could probably sit at a desk and read a travel brochure for Greece and it would still be compelling thanks to her sultry, well-trained voice and irrepressible enthusiasm for discovery. Luckily, she’s the kind of hands-on travel show host who isn’t happy until she can make you feel the heat, smell the smells and hear the same sounds she does on her journeys. Lumley has a real gift for meeting people, which is a key to her travel shows. She may not be a great interviewer – you don’t really learn very much from the people she meets -- but she has a way of engaging people in everyday conversation that is far more enjoyable. She also has a self-deprecating sense of humor that gives the shows a special flair, like when she overcomes her fear of heights to climb some shaky scaffolding at the Parthenon just, as she tells us through the camera, because she loves us so much. The feeling is mutual.