Overview: Adventurer and broadcaster Simon Reeve heads to beautiful and troubled Burma - or Myanmar as it is now officially called - for a new two-part series. Cut off for decades under military rule, the country now has a democratically elected government led by world-famous Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But in August 2017, the world was left stunned when a brutal military operation drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from their homes.
In this first episode, Simon travels to Burma to find out the roots of this crisis - as well as heading to Bangladesh to witness the drama that is still unfolding. He begins his journey in the biggest city in the country, Yangon, and drives north into Burma's Buddhist heartlands and the stunning ancient capital of Bagan - a sight that rivals the great wonders of the world. He meets the monks who supported the people through the darkest days of dictatorship. And he is granted an audience with some of the most contentious figures in the country - ultranationalist monks preaching hate against the country's Muslim Rohingya.
Stopped from visiting the scene of the military crackdown against the Rohingya, Simon travels to Bangladesh to meet the refugees traumatised by the violence. In what is now the biggest refugee settlement in the world, he learns about a crisis that has been brewing for decades, with no sign of ending, and potentially grave consequences for the wider region.
