Kate Humble: Living With Nomads

Kate Humble’s new series leaves our reviewer cold
Ben-Felsenburg-colour-176We all have our blank spots. I’ve known people who don’t get The Beatles or James Bond. For me it’s Kate Humble. She may be on the official list of national treasures for sterling work gadding about the countryside, celebrating traditional cultures and being the indomitably cheerful school prefect of BBC presenters. But I’ve been left resolutely unsmitten by the golden locks, Lonely Planetgeneration outfits and permanently concerned expression. No doubt my loss, and I was determined to put aside preconceptions as I sat down to watch Kate Humble: Living With Nomads (Friday, BBC Two, 9pm). For this, her latest series, she’s quietly blending in (apart from the little matter of the film crew in tow) with peoples who have resisted the lure of modern civilisation, beginning with the Raute of Nepal. Fewer than 150 of them still live their nomadic existence, without education, agriculture or settled homes. At first the group treats our Kate as, in her words, ‘a human ATM’, demanding payment every time her eyes light on a wood carving. But then, wouldn’t you know it, as the days go by she builds up the sort of warm, trusting relationship that makes for the kind of anecdotes any traveller returning to Britain would be pleased to share at the dinner party. Cue, eventually, a dramatic scene of Kate as peacemaker between two local men who lack her God-given wisdom. If it’d lasted a second longer I’d have retched. Sorry Kate. I fear I’m still missing out.

NOT TO BE MISSED

TV-Jun05-02-590

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