Burma's Secret Jungle War With Joe Simpson

BY ARROW PICTURES
RELEASED: 2017
RUNTIME: 60 min
EPISODES: 2
BROADCASTER: BBC Two
DISTRIBUTOR: Fremantle
CATEGORY: Series, Documentary, History

Renowned mountaineer, Joe Simpson, who told his story of near-death in the Andes in Touching the Void, travels to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to retrace the steps of his father, who served with the Chindits, special forces who fought a guerrilla war behind Japanese lines in 1944.

Accompanied by explorer, Ed Stafford, the first man to walk the length of the Amazon, and using the secret diary his father wrote, Joe experiences the challenging jungle conditions which made this one of the toughest campaigns of WWII. Half way through his journey events in modern-day Myanmar threaten to derail Joe’s plans. Given special permission to travel in a part of Myanmar closed to tourists, Joe suddenly finds that the first free elections since 1990 trigger hostilities that may thwart his 30 year-old dream of re-connecting with his father’s experiences, but give him unexpected insight into modern life in a little-known country.