The thinking woman’s crumpet

Forget Brian Cox and David Attenborough. Forget science documentaries about space and animals, for a little while at least. There’s a new generation of TV presenters giving us insights into big cities, old jazz clubs and sacred rivers and we are definitely digging it.

Dr James Fox, art historian and Cambridge Fellow, takes us through three of the cities that marked our popular culture. In the documentary Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds, Fox travels from 1908’s Vienna to 1928’s Paris and a little further to 1951’s New York.

Through a heterogeneous mix of interviews, original clips and walks through the places that inspired the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, Dr Fox illustrates some of the events that shaped the way we think. Greenwich Village and the Beat Poets’ apartments, surrealist cinemas in the Quartier Latin and Sigmund Freud’s office are all connected through a thread that, once explained, appears almost enlightened.

Fox’s commentary is entertaining and charming. In a slightly awkward, adorable manner, he paints the lives of Magritte, Klimt, Cole Porter and Kerouac. He is essentially being paid to go on the trip of a lifetime, living the life of a French intellectual while hobnobbing in New York’s best jazz clubs. And we envy him for it.

Sacred Rivers with Simon Reeve shows us another journey, one that is more adventurous and spiritual than Fox’s. The show is a discovery of different parts of the world and their essential connection to sacred rivers. The Yangtze, the Ganges and the Nile are some of the longest and largest rivers in the world, and to the people who live along their path they are a source of food, water, religion and community.

Along with the show, Simon Reeve is a revelation. Entertaining, sharp and always ready to get his hands dirty, he is a true modern day adventurer. Unlike many of his predecessors, his attitude to local costumes is one of awe and excitement and not of patronising judgement.

Whether it’s jumping the Nile or swimming across the Yangtze, Reeve is always ready for a laugh. This documentary is so good, it is impossible not to fall in love with some of these places. But more importantly, it is impossible not to fall in love with the presenter.