I’ve always admired Kirsty Wark’s work and the recent programmes on BBC4 are no different. Last week it was Barcelona, this week it was Greece, a place I know little about.

This programme uncovered so many interesting people and so many stories.

Yiannis Boutaris and his brother worked in the vineyards their Grandfather started until in 1996 he left to start his own winery, Kir-Yiann specialising in select wines and, it seems, he left to some success.

KIR YIANNI

“His ‘97 Ramnista is intoxicating with fruit and spice, a heady experience, and this is the first commercial release.”

That in itself would be an achievement except that Yiannis is a recovered alcoholic who cannot drink what he produces. Suprised ? Well, that suprise is compounded by the fact that Time awarded him their European Hero 2003 Award for his work establishing a sanctuary for rescued dancing bears.

“‘What are you going to do?’ they would say. ‘Drop your grapes to save the bears?’” and that, in effect he did.

“We’ve been pioneers,” says Boutaris, 60, “not because we’ve done something unique, but because we altered people’s attitudes about the environment here.” Better yet, he adds, “we did so without hysterics.”

Aris Georgiou, founder of the Thessaloniki Photosynkyria festival and the first director of the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography was a name I really didn’t know but his photography amazed me. Stark, amazing images like this one.

Perhaps the last thing you would want to put in front of your children is a book by a Professor of Criminolgy but Eugene Trivzas’s book The Last Black Cat captured me from the small extract which was read.

WHSmith: Welcome: The Last Black Cat: Trivizas, Eugene

Our hero, the black cat, has only ever worried about stealing fish and wooing the beautiful Graziella, until the fateful night when he witnesses a fellow cat being kidnapped. It’s just the beginning; horrific abductions of cats are taking place all over the island, and soon, not only black cats, but all cats are being pursued. A sinister society has corrupted the government and plans to make a fortune selling mousetraps once the cats are gone. They come close to succeeding and it looks as though only one black cat remains. But with help from his friends, the last black cat foils the horrible plan - and finds there’s last female black cat still around too!

It’s an allegory about prejudice and superstition, where black cats are marked for elimination by a secret sect that considers them bad luck. You can see why he’s so successful, with over 100 titles to his name and why children and adults alike both enjoy his work.

The final revelation for me of this program was rembetiko, a Greek form of urban blues performed in lowclass joints where the social misfits of the twenties known as “rembetes” gathered. There’s a few samples, courtesy of Amazon, here.

All in all an amazing programme.

Kalinihta ! [1]

¹ Good night in Greek…