Flying to the Ends of the Earth

Former Royal Marine turned private pilot Arthur Williams discovers how people make a life in the world's most beautiful but remote places, as he tries to fly into the smallest, scariest airstrips on Earth. In this first episode of the second series, Arthur discovers how dangerous flying to the ends of the Earth can be when he faces a helicopter crash in one of the coldest regions on Earth: Siberia. First, Arthur flies over a giant hole, five times deeper than the white cliffs of Dover: a giant open-cast diamond mine in the town of Mirny. Arthur meets the miners who have toiled for years below ground. Then he flies out to the Oymyakon region, the coldest inhabited place on earth. Here, local boy made good Aleksandr Dolzhenkov is arranging a scientific expedition to a frozen lake.

This time, former marine Arthur Williams flies to the islands of the South Pacific. Flying into the luxury island retreat of Wadigi, part of the Fiji chain, Arthur meets Tracey Johnson, who has turned the island into a bolthole for celebrities and the super-rich. But she only leases the island from its traditional owners - Tia Ratubuli and his family. Tia takes Arthur hand-fishing, teaching him the art of catching leatherjacket fish by hand from the coral reef. Fiji was hit by a devastating cyclone just three weeks before Arthur arrived. He gets special permission to become the first civilian to fly into the island hardest hit by the storm: Koro. He meets Marianna, a local woman who was cooking lunch at home when the devastating waves and high winds lashed her village. Now she must rebuild her life on higher ground. Arthur flies on to the islands of Vanuatu, where he meets a flying doctor, Mark Turnball.

This time, former marine Arthur Williams flies into Peru, a country five times the size of Britain. He crosses desert, mountains and jungle in search of the people who live in a country boasting some of the most extreme landscapes on earth. First, Arthur takes to the skies over the Peruvian desert, investigating a new theory about the origins of the world-famous Nazca lines. Some people believe these 2000-year-old animal shapes and lines etched into the desert were created by aliens, but the latest theory is that the lines are a map showing the location of underground watercourses. Arthur meets local farmer Pablo, who is still making the desert bloom as the ancient Nazcans did, using these underground aqueducts. Next Arthur has been granted rare permission to enter a Peruvian goldmine in the Andes - but getting there means attempting one of the world's riskiest landings.