Martin Clunes Islands of the Atlantic

Martin Clunes talks about his travels around the Pacific Islands

What made you want to return to the islands of the Pacific?

I remember just after we’d finished filming the final episode of the first series we were changing flights at Los Angeles airport and the arrivals hall which is usually rammed and horrid, yet we didn’t break stride. It was like tumbleweed blowing through, and the world was shutting behind us at the beginning of that year. So the second part of the series was a long time coming.

But it gave us that much more time to research. Making it, it felt we had gone to the next level after the first series, certainly in Papua New Guinea I felt very embedded and living with the people in the village of Tilakewa in the Trobriand islands I felt we got a little bit deeper, may be because the distances were so huge.

Was it always the plan to do more episodes?

The original plan was to do four episodes in the first series but because of Covid the world shut and we couldn’t make the fourth film. When we came out of hibernation we suggested to ITV we made the fourth episode one of three for a new series.

What were the highlights of this visit?

One of the highlights was living in the village of Tilakewa in the Trobriand Islands with the local people. There were no hotels on the island so the villagers built houses for us all.

It was here that you heard news of the death of the Queen. It must have been strange to be so far away from home when the news broke?

When we were in Papua New Guinea we had no internet or infrastructure. At night someone would switch on a generator and occasionally we’d get 3G coming through to enable us to pick up text messages. One night I got a text message from my daughter, Emily, to say the Queen had died.

The following morning I told the chief of our village and slowly throughout the day chiefs and elders from other villages came to pay their respects and offer their condolences which was really moving. That was the day we filmed with the schoolchildren at their school and they said prayers for the Queen and we sang the national anthem with them.

It really was a weird time to be away from home.  When you are doing those things you have little hubs of civilisation. You go to remote places and then you come back to a hotel where you can have a shower and a clean up  before going onto the next place.  In this hotel in Papua New Guinea they had huge televisions showing the Queen’s funeral, so it did feel weird being away.

You went onto Bang-an where you helped a family in the paddy fields to plant rice – but it wasn’t as easy as it looked? 

That was another highlight  – joining a family planting rice in the paddy fields in Bang-an in the Philippines. It was just the most beautiful spot, with that ancient terracing. I had always felt it was a mystery how rice grew. But it was great fun planting rice with these giggly ladies, and seeing everywhere we went there were tarpaulins by the roadside with rice drying.

I didn’t quite have the aplomb at planting rice that the ladies had. I think that was why they were giggling.

Palau was quite something. I had to swear a pledge to protect and preserve their land. The diving was amazing. We were diving off a second world war Japanese wreck. I have never seen corals like it. They had had two years of no tourists. And we got to see the Dugong. When we told people we were off to see the Dugong they said we hadn’t got a hope of seeing it, but we did.

Why did you choose to visit the Trobriand Islands?

The reason we went to the Trobriand Islands is because I am a big fan of the radio programme, From Our Own Correspondent, and I’d heard someone talking about playing cricket in the Trobriands, and its origins. So I said we have got to go there, and I got to play in a cricket match. It was massive. They settle tribal rows with cricket matches. It’s not like the MCC. I did manage to whack a few, but I got caught. I presented them with an English cricket bat and balls.

In the second episode you went to the Philippines – it seems you tried several modes of transport to explore Manila – a Jeepney, colourfully decorated  former military Jeeps, left by American forces at the end of World War II, and a bamboo bike ? 

The Jeepneys are very characterful and a great way to see Manila, rather than in an air conditioned mini bus. The bamboo bikes were great. I cycled through Manila at rush hour on one. That was a thing. It was down in the old town.

I really like the Philippines. Manila was crazy but really good too. I’d really like to go back. It’s stunningly beautiful. We also filmed the Chocolate Hills, that is a world heritage site in Bohol. They are a range of beautiful conical hills, and when the grass dies they go brown and they look like they are chocolate.

You ended your visit to the Philippines with an evening kayak ride along the Abatan River – what was that like?

It was really magical with the glow worms and fire flies. That was lovely.

Would you return to any of the places you visited?

I’d go back to the any of the islands. I planted a coconut tree on the Trobriand Islands so I’d like to go back and see how that is doing.

On the Trobriand Islands the white man is called Dim Dim. Because of Covid some of the young children had never seen a white man so they would run along side our car pointing and shouting Dim Dim. It was really something else. I had never been anywhere like that.

Where is your next adventure?

We are filming a new series for ITV in which we explore the islands of the Atlantic. I am flying out to tropical West Africa for the first part of filming in March.