RUSSIA - A JOURNEY WITH JONATHAN DIMBLEBY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Across seven time zones and through all extremes of weather, the writer and TV presenter Jonathan Dimbleby makes an epic journey through vast and varied landscapes of Russia, killing cliches and revelling in the unpredictable.This landmark BBC series opens with Dimbleby driving over the tundra inside the Arctic Circle. It is the short summer season - when the snow melts and the sun never sets. Ahead of him lies 10,000 miles of hard travelling, through a country that is not only the largest in the world but also, perhaps, the most awe-inspiring.Look through one window, and you see an authoritarian regime trying to modernise itself into an oil-rich economy. Look through another, and you see exuberant people enjoying new opportunities but struggling with old problems, the marker stones of their turbulent past painfully evident.Dimbleby's exhilarating journey by boat, train, truck and foot is heart-warming, entertaining and compelling viewing.