Watch Greek Island Odyssey

2020
1 Season

Greek Island Odyssey is a travel documentary series that premiered on Channel 5 in 2021. The program features the beautiful landscapes, vibrant culture, and distinct heritage of the Greek islands, exploring both the popular tourist destinations and lesser-known hidden gems of the Aegean Sea.

Hosted by Bettany Hughes, an award-winning historian and classicist, the show takes viewers on a journey across the Mediterranean, visiting 21 islands over 10 episodes. Each episode focuses on a different island, providing a comprehensive tour of its history, traditions, and natural beauty.

The series starts with the largest and best-known island, Crete, before moving on to the smaller and more remote islands such as Tilos, Amorgos, and Ikaria. Along the way, the viewers will also get to explore more prominent islands such as Corfu, Santorini, and Rhodes, and learn about their rich cultural heritage and historical significance.

The show depicts the diversity of the Greek islands, showing how each has its own unique character, culture, and natural environment. The viewers will be treated to breathtaking aerial views of the stunning coastline, hilltop towns, and ancient ruins, as well as lively street scenes featuring local festivals, markets, and traditional crafts.

One of the standout features of Greek Island Odyssey is its focus on the islanders themselves, who are seen as the guardians and protectors of their island's heritage and way of life. Bettany Hughes takes the time to interview many locals, including farmers, fishermen, artisans, and chefs, who share their stories and their connection to the land. Through their eyes, the viewers get a deeper understanding of what makes each island so special and why it is worth preserving.

Another highlight of the show is its historical depth, with each episode delving into the rich history of the island, from the ancient Greek myths to the Byzantine era to the Venetian and Ottoman occupation. The viewers will visit archeological sites and museums, learn about the famous battles and conquests that shaped the island's destiny, and discover the cultural roots of Greece's music, dance, and cuisine.

Overall, Greek Island Odyssey is a captivating and educational series that offers a rare glimpse into the real Greece, beyond the tourist clichÃ©s. It celebrates the spirit of the Greek islands, their natural beauty, and their people, who continue to thrive despite the challenges of modern life. Whether you are a seasoned traveler or an armchair adventurer, this show is sure to inspire you to put the Greek islands on your bucket list.

Greek Island Odyssey is a series that ran for 1 seasons (6 episodes) between June 12, 2020 and on Channel 5

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Seasons

6. Poseidon's Rage

July 17, 2020

The historian travels through the Corinth Canal - a feat of engineering that required the removal of 12 million cubic metres of earth - before heading for her penultimate stop of Corfu, where Count Flamburiari reveals the island's close connections to Britain. From there, Bettany sails to Ithaca, Odysseus's home island, finally completing her 1,700-mile voyage across the Greek Islands. However, there's a startling surprise in store when she is awoken in the night by an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale.

5. Warriors of Legend

July 10, 2020

The historian arrives in the Peloponnese, a peninsula regarded as home to some of ancient Greece's most legendary kings and vicious warriors. To understand the violent world in which the myths and legends are set, Bettany visits the bones of a 19-year-old-warrior who died more than 3,500 years ago. Healed sword marks and a large hole in his skull are a testament to his environment. In Sparta, the home town of Helen of Troy, Bettany discovers what made the region's warriors so feared before heading to Mycenae, likely home to the kings and queens that inspired the story of the Trojan War.Bettany is nearing the end of her odyssey from the battlegrounds of ancient Troy to Odysseus's home in Ithaca. The Peloponnese is home to one of the greatest Bronze Age civilizations--the Mycenaeans--as well as the mythic heroes Helen of Troy, Agamemnon, and Odysseus himself. Bettany explores this peninsula's prosperous and violent past and discovers, through its human remains and golden treasures, just how much the ancient Greek's legendary tales are rooted in fact.

4. Epiphany's Festivities

July 3, 2020

Arriving in Crete just as a storm hits, the historian is lucky to reach `the big island" before the seas become impassable and the annual Christian Epiphany festivities are hampered. She travels to the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos, synonymous with English archaeologist Arthur Evans who unearthed much of its palace over 100 years ago, beneath which the legendary King Minos is said to have kept a crazed half-man, half-bull - the Minotaur. Bettany meets Professor Stampolidis, whose ground-breaking archaeological discoveries prove links between ancient legend and historical reality.

3. Lover's Dance

June 26, 2020

The historian and classicist goes Greek island-hopping to explore their history from the time of the Ancients to the present day. In Santorini, she visits a Minoan city preserved in time by one of the most violent volcanic eruptions in history. Bettany's next port of call is Naxos, where in an abandoned marble quarry, she finds a genuinely monumental statue of the god that has lain there for thousands of years, before heading to a taverna to take part in some local festivities. The presenter later arrives in Sifnos, where long-distance communications were mastered millennia before telegrams or telephones.

2. Birthplace of the Gods

June 19, 2020

Bettany visits the sacred isle of Delos, where it has been forbidden for anyone to permanently reside since ancient times. Wandering the ruins, Bettany discovers a dark history to this incredible site as she explores how the Romans turned Delos into a marketplace for their slave trade. She then moves on to Ikaria, an island famous for its long-lived population, and gets a lesson in wine-making. As she moves on to Mykonos, Bettany's boat is caught in a storm reaching a 10 on the Beaufort scale.

1. The Hero's Voyage

June 12, 2020

The historian and classicist explores Greece from the time of the Ancients up to the present day. She begins by exploring a graveyard of ancient shipwrecks in the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, then enjoys the tradition of a warm welcome on the island of Chios. Next, Bettany heads to the island of Lesbos, visiting the ancient Greek Theatre of Mytilene and taking a dip in the island's thermal waters. Finally, Bettany stops on Samos, an island known for both its ancient naval power and its famous sixth-century BC resident, mathematician and philosopher - Pythagoras.

Description

Where to Watch Greek Island Odyssey

Greek Island Odyssey is available for streaming on the Channel 5 website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch Greek Island Odyssey on demand at Amazon Prime, Vudu and Apple TV.