

From a council estate in East London, the son of Afro-Caribbean immigrants, BBC London’s Eddie Nestor talks Hackney hipsters, Windrush, tracing his African roots, hanging out with Idris Elba, getting accosted in a dark alley in Thailand and – in his own words ‘being the first black guy to do a Persil ad in South Africa’. Covering Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, Dominica, St Lucia, The Gambia. Ghana, Thailand, Goa, British Colonialism, racism, DNA tests, Brexit, football, why he won’t visit America and much more in Eddie’s wonderful dulcet tones.
On this episode we discuss:
Idris Elba
Growing up in Hackney
East London’s Jews, Huguenots and Bangladeshis
The Kingsland Estate and how no-one wanted to live there
The pros and cons of hipsters and gentrification
How his MBE led to ancestry discoveries
His family coming from Dominica in the Caribbean
The Windrush generation
How Africans are not indigenous to the Caribbean
His ancestors coming from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana
The difference between Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean culture
Playing country and western at his mum’s wedding in St Lucia
The music his parents played growing up – Jim Reeves, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Elvis
Growing up in relative poverty on a council estate but not feeling poor
Taking luxuries for granted
Strict Afro-Caribbean parents!
Feeling jealous of his loving mum
Wanting to spend proper time with his children
How younger people would rather go to an automatic cash register
His first trip abroad – in 1973/4.
The confusion about why people would go on holiday!
Lennox Lewis mum sending him from West Ham to Canada
How travel is an amazing thing
The arrogance of the British and Londoners
British Colonialism and Brexit
How tiny Britain is punching above its weight compared to Russia, France, Australia and more
The great expanse of America – why Americans don’t need to travel
Europeans being ‘more wordly’ than Americans
Having never been to America!
Loving the British Isles despite the weather
Thomas Cook’s profits being down due to the heatwave
Budget airlines being ‘interesting’
Getting married in Goa, hippies and beaches and ‘pretend India’
Not wanting to take the same precautions as he does in London
Thailand with his wife Lisa, dancing on bars
How cancer – Hodgkin’s Lymphoma changed his life
How facing death ‘almost made me a decent person’
Nipping down a back alley in Thailand got him in a serious situation
Racism when travelling and the reason he doesn’t want to go to America
Liking the idea of San Francisco, South Beach and Atlanta but not New York
How people see holidaymakers with money in the developing world
Finding a local guide or helper when away
Giving away his trainers in The Gambia
Jamaica, Tanzania
Climbing Kilimanjaro and not throwing his wife off
How his wife’s panic attack on the mountain saved his marriage
How travel has the power to change relationships
Eating, drinking and talkative people on holiday (is he talking directly to me here…?)
Raising £100,000 for a project in Ghana
Egypt and the Red Sea
Being the first black guy to do a Persil ad in South Africa
Linford Christie
Cape Town and the townships
Brexit meaning higher bills
The Spanish thinking we are mad for Brexit
How the EU can’t make it too attractive to leave
How Brexit and the weak pound might change travel
Swapping contact details for Idris Elba and Femi Oluwole
Filming Death In Paradise in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean
August Wilson and Roger Simmons
Guadeloupe having the Euro and everyone speaking French
Baywatch (yes, that one)
Being a Manchester United fan
Brighton and Hove Albion and football season tickets when you have a family
Researching his African roots and finding a great grandmother in 1880
The fascinating insight DNA tests give you
The prolific breeding of the Irish and Jewish
Fiji, Indentured Labour and slavery
How Indians have Melanesian blood
The BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are and the work that goes into it
How we need to send Eddie to America for a BBC series
The Trump Slump in tourism to the USA
Not looking forward to holidaying with his young children.
Looking forward to Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, the Maldives and any ‘Asian zen’
The joys of getting lost in bars abroad
Daily massages on the beach in Thailand
Trashing the studio as he reaches for his Bose headphones
Bob Marley on the beach in Jamaica is everything.