Wed, Jan 20, 1971
What would you do if you had a Caribbean island all of your own? You probably wouldn't run it like a Scottish laird, giving pensions to all the islanders and a chunk of it to Princess Margaret - nor have Oliver Messel design everything. But the Honourable Colin Tennant did, as Alan Whicker discovers in Mustique - a paradise that may not be as perfect as it seems.
Mon, Apr 5, 1971
The Hon. Eric Matthew Gairy, Premier of Grenada, is seen by some as a budding Papa Doc; they fear his sudden and sinister deportations, hís extravagance and his power over an impecunious island where unemployment is high. Others admire his flair for publicity. Whicker meets this turbulent figure, and tries to discover what's going on behind the scenes in paradise.
Sun, Jul 25, 1971
Whicker visits Kourou, Guiana, the resting place of Blue Streak - intended to be Britain's first independent nuclear deterrent, but shelved in 1960. Meanwhile, France's desolate multi-million pound space station supports a new town where 6,000 scientists live on double salaries, gentle taxes and the hope of one day having something to launch.
Sun, Aug 15, 1971
Most of us have dreamed of getting away from it all and escaping to a palm-fringed island in the sun. But how many make the final break and go where the sun keeps shining? On a visit to Tortola in the British Virgin Isles, Whicker encounters a typist from Reading, an aviation pioneer from Bournemouth, a knight from Burnley, an accountant from Norfolk, and an American millionairess...
Sun, Aug 22, 1971
...so complains Ben Novak, sole owner of one of the world's most famous hotels. Novak's improbable palace, the Miami Beach Fontainebleau, is more like a stupendous movie set. Whicker probes the secrets of this American gold-plated Mecca - to discover that the owner can't wait to get away from the customers he can never please.
Sun, Dec 12, 1971
Harold Robbins knew he was the world's best writer from the moment he typed the first page of his first book. Robbins works hard, shuts himself away, and is remote, lonely and enigmatic. "Only Alan Whicker" he says, "has come this close to me." This programme reveals the writer at work in New York, at play in the South of France and talking about himself as never before.