You might have noticed that the New Year showing of my Great Railway Journey programme
- Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon - didn't happen.

This was a last minute cancellation, the BBC deeming the programme "unsuitable for daytime viewing "
- it showed a chicken being killed during a Swahili ritual.

The cancellation was a shame, but I quite see that some people, especially children, might be a little shocked by that scene. It's always been a tricky tightrope to walk, for me - how to portray different cultures accurately, but without causing offense/misunderstanding back here, where cultures differ radically from our own. My policy is to try not to censor, but to show things as they are - because it would degrade the "humanness" of other peoples to show them on in a false "rosey" light. My ultimate goal is to show people not as "exotic" but simply as people.

However, I try to err on the side of being generous to the locals, who are, afterall, my hosts. Such a dilemma came up when producer John Hesling and I put together Icedogs, the series about my journey with dogs through Siberia, when we decided to downplay the drunkenness that the indigenous Chukchis (and the expedition) were beset with - a general problem they face as a result, I should say, of our (Russian and European) interference and culture... Anyway, the BBC hope to show the Great Railway Journey programme at another, more suitable, hour. Thanks to all those who apparently rang up to complain!