Joanna Lumley's Silk Road Adventure - Season 1

In episode one, Joanna starts her adventure in Venice, the European terminus of the Silk Road where she discovers how the Silk Road helped the merchants of Venice and the city state itself grow rich and powerful. Joanna witnesses first hand evidence of Marco Polo's silk road booty, and sees how that all-important commodity, silk, cemented Venice's reputation as a centre of luxury and conspicuous wealth.

In episode two, Joanna continues her adventure following the ancient Silk Road from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, across the rapidly changing post-Soviet states of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Joanna kicks off her journey in the brash, booming seaside resort of Batumi, where post-Soviet era new money has seen casinos and high-rise hotels built alongside old Soviet tenement blocks. It's a huge change from when it was a small backwater and the border to Turkey was closed.

In episode three, Joanna continues her adventure following the ancient Silk Road across the Islamic Republic of Iran, home to one of the oldest civilizations on earth. A land of incredible diversity and phenomenal beauty, Iran was once the thriving heart of the mighty Persian Empire, but nowadays it's little visited by Westerners, and somewhat misunderstood.

As Joanna's Silk Road Adventure draws to a close, she travels across the stunning yet little-known Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Starting in the Kyzl-Kum desert she explores the Silk Road citadel of Khiva, a town infamous for its history of slavery. In the capital, Tashkent, she marvels at the splendid Soviet-built Metro system and attends a high society wedding as the guest of a famous pop star.