Hollywood superstar George Clooney features in a new angling show being aired on Channel 4 this weekend.
Fishing For Trouble follows the adventures of Time Magazine’s Africa correspondent Alex Perry as he tries to fit in some fishing in a war zone.
Alex has reported on more than 20 conflicts across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
This time he’s in troubled South Sudan, and for his downtime he decides to try and catch a Nile perch.
While travelling through the region, accompanied by an armed guard, Alex bumps into George Clooney, a fervent supporter of South Sudan, on the banks of the Nile.
This is more than just a fishing adventure, as Perry, through his passion for fishing, tells the story of the world’s newest nation.
The programme will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 12.30am on Sunday morning and the programme makers – Bigballs Films – hope a full series will be commissioned.
Fishing For Trouble Q&A
How did it come about?
Alex Perry, Time magazine’s war correspondent, came to Bigballs Films with the idea of Fishing for Trouble a couple of years ago, to combine fishing in war zones with telling the story of that country, and together they developed the pilot that is broadcasting on December 2nd.
Is it a one off?
It was commissioned as a pilot episode, and Channel 4 will make a decision in the coming weeks about whether to make a series.
Where do they fish?
The bulk of the episode takes place on the Nile in an area of South Sudan called The Sudd, which is one of the world’s last great wildernesses.
What challenges did they face?
Heat, crocodiles, hippos, all the usual challenges of fishing in Africa.
What did they catch?
Not a lot! A very small Nile perch was caught (not exactly by design) in a net when Alex Perry fell out of a dug-out canoe into the Nile and twisted his leg around the net.
What’s it like fishing in a war zone?
Additional threat of land mines, armed gangs, and the constant threat of military action on the border made fishing in South Sudan rather more dangerous than your average fishing trip. The crew had a Kalashnikov-toting guard with them at all times!
