Joanna Lumley’s Spice Trail Adventure: The Actor Talks About New ITV Series
In this brand new four-part ITV series of exploration, premiering on Wednesday 5 July, Joanna Lumley travels to Indonesia, Zanzibar, India, and Madagascar to learn more about the centuries-old spice trade.
Here Joanna tells us all about the series.
How did the idea for the Spice Trail Adventure come about?
The original idea was to follow the story of spices, because in this country we can now get every spice under the sun and we revel in them. But we used to only have salt and pepper and mustard and that was about it. For this trip we thought, let’s see where all these astonishing spices came from and how they came to be in this country and the history of that. We had done the silk road adventure and so we called this series the spice trail, because there is something about spices, that they are usually ground into powder when we get them, that had a gorgeous sense of following a trail of them.
Where did this journey take you?
We started in Indonesia with nutmeg, then Southern India for ginger, black pepper and turmeric, Madagascar of course for vanilla, which incredibly we learned is pollinated by hand, and then to Zanzibar, which became the great trading station on to the ships and out to sea to Jordan, which was our final destination. It was a fascinating journey across the world to many places I had never visited before. Following that trail took us far, far away to such remote places, like the beautiful Banda islands in Indonesia, where the only nutmeg trees in the world were grown.
Did you do a lot of research into the history of the spice trade in preparation?
I always try to do a lot of research and I always keep notebooks and diaries so that I have a reference of everything. My house is like a treasure trove of travel memories that I collect – stones, huge feathers and shells and so on. I just love all those things. But beforehand, no matter how much research you do, you learn a lot more along the way. I’m very pro-travel because you can only learn so much from paper. You need to learn from people. And the kindness and generosity of strangers never fails to touch me when I travel. We are all the same. That love and trust in human nature is reinforced every time I go abroad.
Did anything surprise you about the value of some of the spices?
With nutmeg, the Banda islands used to trade with the Chinese, Indians and Arabs and the Europeans were late to the game – the Dutch, Portugese and then the English were all desperate to get hold of this incredible spice. Which at the time was even believed to be able to cure the plague, so it was truly fought over. They say that from one sack of nutmeg, you were set up for about 10 years, it was so valuable. Sailors crossed the entire world to get to these islands, like the real-life treasure island, it was quite bewitching.
What did you discover about the darker side of the spice trade?
There is a very dark side to this story, we all know about colonialism which has been going on since time began. Somebody going somewhere else and saying, ‘I like what you’ve got, I’ll take it’. In those days people were killed and treated abominably as slaves. It was very violent and a dreadful time and seeing paintings depicting that on this trip broke my heart. But it was in every country of the world. It was important for us to acknowledge that in this series.
What did you take away from this trip?
Ultimately, how lucky we are to have access to these thrilling spices and the ability to cook with them, the range of different cuisines and the influences we have because of them. I now treat spices with such respect, knowing what goes into harvesting and caring for them. I have so much respect for the people who grow them. It’s pure magic.
Joanna Lumley’s Spice Trail Adventure starts on Wednesday 5 July 2023 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
