14 months without work, not a sniff, and then out of the blue 5 months of insanity. I am not complaining because that year and a bit of no work I confess I loved every minute of it… Now what did I [...]]]> YES… It’s true, you wait for one for hour then 3 come at once...

14 months without work, not a sniff, and then out of the blue 5 months of insanity. I am not complaining because that year and a bit of no work I confess I loved every minute of it… Now what did I do… Oh  yeah.. painted a lot and me and my wife make gallons and gallons of home-made WINE. You name it we made it.. Rosehip, Raspberry, Parsnip, Plum, Clove, Nettle, Blackberry, etc.plus Apple and Pear cider 100s of bottles. We can’t actally remember much of that year but it was heaven!

Now it all is CRAZY again. 6x 1-hour shows for Discovery Asia, 3x half-hours for Norway and a tourist film, a 10-day pudlicity tour of Asia, 2x half-hours in India all in 5 mouths. Just when I thought it was curtains for me, it all starts again…

Yippie!

We have just started filming ‘ Invite Mr Wright’ for Discovery Asia /Roast Beef production… Its great. I get a chance the stay with a family or a person’s home to explore their lives and country.  The first show was with a wonderfully family in Singapore with Venetta, a Radio DJ. They opened my eyes to how fantastic Singapore is. Then it was off to Mumbai and Goa , India with a top Bollywood star Arshad Wassi, who was to helped train me up as a Bollywood super-star. What a giggle we had. In two days its Sri Lanka , on tour with Stigmarta a Death metal rock band….. Rock On.

1.  Dear Ian: Me and my partner love watching your travel programmes more than any other show . We live in America and are thinking of getting married in the our garden, next Fall. Will you marry us ? Also when we are on our Honeymoon you can stay in [...]]]> These are my 3 favourite fan mail letters…

1.  Dear Ian: Me and my partner love watching your travel programmes more than any other show . We live in America and are thinking of getting married in the our garden, next Fall. Will you marry us ? Also when we are on our Honeymoon you can stay in our house for the two weeks and use the car… The surrounding area is lush grass and swampland with loads of wild life which I think would make a great programme. What do you think ?

Trust me, you don’t want me in your house when you’re not there …

2. This was a letter for a 14 year old boy that was 25 pages, the bit below is just a small snippet to show you what the tone of the letter was like all the way through;

Dear Ian, Do you work out or go to the gym on a regular basic ???  Because I notice that you where getting a bit fat in the Mongolia programme… Come on , whats happening ???

3.  Dear Ian. I love watching you on the Travel Channel every night, I love the way you present the show , I would love to meet you, because I know that we would get on like ‘a house on fire’. I don’t know if you are married or have a girlfriend and quite frankly I don’t care… Meet me at Derby station on Sunday 24th at 2 pm. Come on dimples, if you don’t risk anything in your life, you’ll never know…

There are some things in life that you don’t have to risk because you do know…. Cuckoo… Cuckoo.  Also if you are sending a picture of yourself to impress someone as a rule send the best one ??? Not one where you have been caught by the flash and you look like your from the Village of  The Damned. I sold the letter to a friend for a tenner 2 years ago have seen him since.

Best YouTube comment:  How on earth did Ian Wright get the job as a travel presenter??? He has to know people in high places but he is really annoying. I want to kick him up the arse , really hard…

Now it just gets plain scary…

This is me on my way to see HAWKWIND, in Ipswich, aged 14. I thought that I looked [...]]]> What went Wrong ? This is my first ever school photo aged 5. There’s even a map of the world in backdrop, now that has to be a bit of travel destiny….. spookie.

Now it just gets plain scary…

This is me on my way to see HAWKWIND, in Ipswich, aged 14. I thought that I looked the bollocks. It was my Lord of the Rings and multi-coloured tank top faze.. hey.. you have to go through these things because if you can’t go back to old photo’s and take pride in the fact that you looked like a complete twat then somethings wrong !

P.S. Don’t ever dye your hair green because it just looks MOULDY.

I think that Damascus is one of best city destinations you can [...]]]> Welcome to one of the oldest saunas in Damascus, Syria! It’s an all male affair as soon as you entered that doorway at the back, in the middle of the old city souk market dating back to the 15th century.

I think that Damascus is one of best city destinations you can visit.

My first impression of the Orland area was flying into Trondheim and seeing from the window what seemed like steam rising up from the depths of the sea…. What a bizarre sight. I didn’t understand it until I arrived in Orland via the ferry. Here the phenomena was even more out [...]]]>

My first impression of the Orland area was flying into Trondheim and seeing from the window what seemed like steam rising up from the depths of the sea…. What a bizarre sight. I didn’t understand it until I arrived in Orland via the ferry. Here the phenomena was even more out of this world. Wow… I have to admit that I have travelled a bit in my time but did not seen this lunar-type landscape where clouds rear up out of the old dark sea. Its like the water is boiling in a giant kettle.

Although its just a boring case of the sea being warmer than the air above it and that’s what creates the steam. But forget the boring answer, its looks like
something from Mars, or more like a scene form Lord of the Rings, where Gollum retired too after someone stole his ring.

Its looks even more dramatic from Orland ground level… powerful and a bit spookie. Remindered me of the old film, The Incredible Shrinking Man when the boat passes through the mist and he gets bits on his chest and then starts to srink, something I could do without but its a great film.

What’s better that stepping of the ferry straight in to your hotel, not even having to go outside into the -25 sunshine, I like – and the bars right next to the reception .

Orland was hosting one of the four National Eurovision Song Contests and I that is why I was here, to find out why Norway have become the darlings of Europe and England are so crap now??? I was a spy…

Everyone that was involved was staying at the hotel so it was party time at the bar… great fun but £12.00 for a single measure of Aquavits is wrong. I wasn’t even paying and it still killed me.

AQUAVITS: A unique Norwegin moon-shine spirit drink with a herby taste. I love it but don’t get it on you clothes.

WHY DO YOU THINK NO-ONE COMES TO NORWAY BECAUSE NO ONE CAN BLOODY AFFORD IT.

I staggered off to me bedroom about 2.30 totally forgetting all the ESC secrets I had learnt that night, someone had poIsioned me with a bottle of Aquavits.

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We’re just finished filming in Siberia for the last two and a half weeks… Ooh yeah… and I loved every [...]]]> The one question that I’m always asked more than any other is: “Where in the world would you like to visit that you have not been to yet?” And the answer is always: SIBERIA.

We’re just finished filming in Siberia for the last two and a half weeks… Ooh yeah… and I loved every minute of it. It also reminded me of how much I adore this kind of landscape more that any other place on earth. There’s something about the snowy mountain wilderness, the isolation and that final frontier feeling that makes me go do-lally. The people that live in these extreme conditions are as tough as old boots, they have to be because the environment is so harsh and their history is so brutal, its like they’ve been chiselled out of raw granite, but once you chip away at that persona they are the warmest and most hospitable people you are ever likely to meet.

Anywhere around the Arctic Circle I feel at home. Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska, Norway and at last Siberia. Fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to visit these places but if I lived there I probably wouldn’t last 5 minutes…. -47 IS WRONG.

That old boring saying that everyone keeps saying: “Ian, there’s no such thing as bad weather… its just bad clothing…” Annoying, but it’s TRUE! That’s why is takes 4 hours to get ready in the morning because you have to put so many layers on… and then – as soon as you’re in the middle of nowhere – 20 minutes later YOU WILL WANT TO GO TO THE TOILET… It’s sod’s law… It’s then that you feel the real -47 bite.

TRAVEL TIP: For the good of the environment, always take your dirty do-do’s back with you in a plastic bag.. I’ve still got 60 full bags back home in my freezer… keep your eye on eBay, they’re going like hot cakes!

Talk about isolated, we started our journey in Petropavlovs-Kamchatskiy which is in KAMCHATKA, the nutty piece of land that pokes out from the far eastern of Russia, north of Japan. Where its -30 and completely caked in snow, BEAUTIFUL. Although even I had to check it out on the map before I left, I’d never heard of it. But if you play the board game RISK then you knew that it is the land used as a spring-board to invade America. Sadly I was playing Dungeons & Dragons at the time… so hey… I know where Mordor and Fangorn Forest is… don’t judge me, I did have green hair at the time…

7 hours drive north from the capital P-K is the small village of ESSO, right In the middle of this icey desert and it was here that they where hosting the annual Reindeer Festival.

TRAVEL TIP: Remember, If you just happen to stumble across a herd of reindeer 500 strong and want to be accepted by the whole pack, just piss onto the snow, near the herd and you’ll all be friends for life. I did and it works.

The highlights of the festival were, reindeer racing, jumping the sledge, running with a large stick, singing, dancing and of course topless male snow wrestling. I entered the wrestling event, quietly confident that I would kick some Siberian arse, until I saw my opponent who was the 6 foot human triangle with crab claws instead of arms which seemed a bit unfair. 20 seconds later I was putting my top back on, spitting out a month full of snow while the crowd laughed… I feel that, not only did I let my country down, but I let myself down too.

6 time zones later we were in real Siberia, at the small town of KYZYL in the province of TUVA, right near the Mongolia boarder. More wonderful snowy isolation. This time we we’re recording amazing throat singing, a traditional Tuva dance and hanging out on a sheep & cattle farm with the local shaman… Ahh… the delights of home-made vodka. I’ll swear I lost a whole day!!!

Then its was 24 hours on the most evocative and romantic railway journey in the world… The TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS. As train rides go, It doesn’t get better than this. Everyone has to do it once in their live time. Sadly our trip was TOO short. Once we’d had the caviar, bread, vodka and gone to sleep, it was all over. But I have promised my BEAUTIFUL wife that we will do the whole 7 days to BEIJING via Mongolia… Wow, I can’t wait already!

From NOVOSIBIRSK to TOMSK was another 7 hour road trip. Tomsk is a beauty, some of the wooden buildings are over 400 years old.. here my body was thrashed with sticks in the sauna, I joined a Siberian super-model agency, had a cat-fight on the cat-walk and interviewed a man who had survived the Gulag death camps for 10 years, at 85 years old, he was an amazing person….

That was my trip my trip to Siberia and I loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

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Mushie peas, corn soup, fish & chips, roast beef and spotted dick… plus me chatting non-stop with a slide show… Wow… now [...]]]> Just back from Abu Dhabi… I had to spread the word about the joy of British food and how great it is, at the An Evening with Ian Wright Abu Dhabi World Gourmet Week.

Mushie peas, corn soup, fish & chips, roast beef and spotted dick… plus me chatting non-stop with a slide show… Wow… now thats a good night out! But it was lucky for the people that turned up, as it was a free bar, because no-one could have been expected to survive an evening like that without lots of alcohol.

Wierd being in a city that is only 32 years old, before that it was just desert… Now it’s a large shopping mall in a desert.

View Abu Dhabi in a larger map

I’m filming a new series called Ian Wright Out of Bounds, for the Travel Channel, which will air in America around April/May time, so don’t miss it! And it’s the same time as my birthday [...]]]> Just returned from Siberia, Russia. One of the places I have always dreamed of travelling to, and I did not disappoint……

I’m filming a new series called Ian Wright Out of Bounds, for the Travel Channel, which will air in America around April/May time, so don’t miss it! And it’s the same time as my birthday so I will be expecting a BIG present this year…. oh yeah.

Two years ago I started up my own company called Roast Beef Productions, with Martin Herring and Mike Learner. Martin is a world class director and cameraman, Mike’s the top kick arse producer, company director and soundman, and me is a presenter. For me it’s been a great and freeing way to work. i.e. – while they do all the work, I sit on my lazy butt… Yippee!

Just last week we won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Director (Havanna Marking) and Best Film chosen by the audience, for a film documentary called Afghan Star, which was produced by Roast Beef Productions and Tolo TV, an Afghan TV production company. Now it will be shown in a few cinemas in the UK and the U.S.

The film follows four contestants in Afghanistan’s very own X-Factor . Through their incredible story the whole of modern Afghanistan life is unveiled and – considering that singing and dancing were completely illegal up until four years ago – it makes this film even more extraordinary.

I’m off to Abu Dhabi in a week for a Food Gourmet Night. Talking about all those lovely dishes from all over the planet that I’ve been eating over the years – cockroach in Cambodia, rancid shark from Iceland, and of course the good old sheep’s eye ball in Kirghizia which I can still taste 10 years on… nice!

I will also be telling people why English food is the best and will take over the world like the Daleks did back in the 1950s.

I’ll try to update this site as often as possible, with comments, news, 100s of new photos and sketches, Oooh!

But first I’ll have to learn how to use this bloody computer and spell proper. So bear with me because my finger is beginning to hurt already…