I hear Terry G’s appearance in ‘On the Ropes’ with J. Humphrys trailed and though I start with it on in the background I end up listening through the whole half-hour, so good is TG’s storytelling of the ‘Munchausen’ and ‘Quixote’ fiascos. The great thing about TG is that he, as he admits, thrives on conflict and chaos, he likes to have his own war zone around him (which is why his working methods and aims are so diff erent from my own) and he keeps going back to ‘Quixote’ because he sees himself as Quixote. Well-told and revealing.

Drive over to Ace Editing to see first assembly of ‘Sahara with’. The location is the unprepossessing light-industrial side of the West Coast Main Line. I rather like the fact that our exotic African adventures are being put together in such unexotic surroundings. Bamako to Scrubs Lane.

Dakar is a bit of a mess. It’s shapeless and stutters along through a series of performances – the band at the club, the modelling display, the wrestling. But they all work in their own right. The train journey is fi ne (with damaged foggy stock shots removed).

After Bamako some strong sequences draw me in – Dogon, Djenné, the boat trip and right up to Timbuktu, this feels like the best of the old travel shows. No new tricks, no new gimmicks, just new people and new places well observed. I think this will be the heart of the series and I’m pleasantly reassured – no, to hell with it, fucking delighted.

We all follow Alex, our editor, in convoy through faceless streets at the back of Willesden Junction to the Grand Junction Pub beside the canal. ‘Hello Mike,’ says a man on a bar stool, cheerfully. ‘What you doing in ’ere? This is a sad place.’ Yes it is pretty rough, scrawny, scraggy faces, long hair, red eyes, no one chic or smart. I like it. Couldn’t think of a better place to be after a viewing like that. Back in the real world.