Ben Fogle: Lost Worlds

Ben Fogle heads to Slab City in the Sonora desert, California to explore a unique, off grid, alternative lifestyle community who live in the 'last free place in America'. An enigma, with a lawless reputation, Slab City takes its name from concrete slabs that remained after World War ll Marine training camp was torn down. Part artists' colony, part homeless city, this one-square-mile patch of desert is divided into unique neighbourhoods with different characteristics - from Pirate Camp to East Jesus Art collective and the LGBTQIA, Flamingo Camp.

Travelling by fishing trawler, Ben will sail over 650km to visit three extraordinary islands - Stroma, Swona and the world-famous St. Kilda. He will be joined, both on the boat, and the islands, by locals and experts who will tell the tale of these forgotten, mysterious and intriguing isles. All of whom have a different insight of what it means to become a Lost World.

On the tiny Caribbean Island of Montserrat, Earth's most powerful natural phenomenon gradually devasted large areas of the island when their long dormant volcano awoke in the 1990s. Within two years, most of the population had fled their homes more than once, either becoming refuges in the northern part of their island, or leaving Montserrat entirely. Ben will investigate what it was like living in the shadow of a violently explosive volcano as he uncovers unique stories of great heroism and loss.

A brutal war in the 1970s left Cyprus split in two and displaced a third of its population. Ben spends a week with the UN's Peacekeeping Force, who patrol the enormous buffer zone on the island, keeping the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities separated. Ben is on a mission to understand more about the so-called 'Cyprus Problem', visiting ghost towns left behind, learning how criminal gangs profit from the division and hearing often tragic stories from people on both sides whose lives have been devastated by the conflict.