As a child, Joanna Lumley sailed the Red Sea with her military family. As the ship made its way from the Gulf of Aden to the Suez Canal, she’d look over her shoulder at the east coast of Africa thinking: “Somewhere over there is the Nile.” She couldn’t see it, but it fired her imagination.

Joanna Lumley Nile HighRes83031000003Nearly 50 years later, the “Absolutely Fabulous” actress finally achieved her dream, traveling the Nile from its Mediterranean mouth to its twin sources in the mountains of Ethiopia and Rwanda. The journey of more than 4,000 miles wasn’t entirely by boat — swamps, treacherous water and civil wars prohibited that — but it allowed Lumley to interact with people along the way and uncover traditions, customs and legends still largely unknown to the Western world. Those discoveries are captured in a three-hour, two-DVD set called Joanna Lumley’s Nile, available from Athena Learning/Acorn Online ($39.99) and Amazon.com.

Luckily, Lumley’s not an alcoholic like the iconic “AbFab” character she played, because she spends a long time in the Sudan, where it’s illegal to drink or even sell alcohol. Part of the fun of watching this journey, however, is seeing how much like “Patsy” Lumley actually is. While she’s half-heartedly, half-obsessively straightening crooked train curtains, trying to dislodge a bunk bed from its hiding place and playing with a tent zipper in the middle of the Nubian Desert, there are echoes of the gorgeous clown she played on the long-running British sitcom. But you don’t need to be a fan to enjoy exploring remote lands in the company of this glamorous, quirky, whip-smart and funny woman. Because of recent upheavals in the region, this video tour may be your only safe option to see it in the near future.

Joanna Lumley Nile HighRes83031000018 2Lumley’s curiosity about people and other cultures is a highlight of this series, which aired on public television in 2010. She’s nominally in pursuit of the beautiful and mysterious Nile but manages to uncover the beauty of everyone she meets, whether they’re recounting how they met the devil of the Nile, showing how they survived a crocodile attack, explaining their nomadic existence, practicing their catwalk for Sudan’s first postwar beauty pageant or training for the Olympics. Each episode leaves the viewer with a real sense of place as well as some insider knowledge.

Want to know the Sudan’s beauty secret? Lumley takes you shopping for the special wood and ceremonial chair and undergoes the cure herself (she says it’s “heavenly”). Wonder how immigrant workers travel out of Egypt? Want to see what happens on a touristy Nile cruise? What the furthest source of the Nile looks like or what’s so magical about the Mountain of the Gods? Travel with Lumley on this incredibly scenic, often hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking voyage, and all will be revealed.

About Kathy Janich

Kathy Janich is a longtime arts journalist who has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. She's a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Americans for the Arts and the National Arts Marketing Project. Full disclosure: She’s also an artistic associate at Synchronicity Theatre.

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