Intrepid Journeys - Ukraine (Kevin Milne)

I've only been in the house about ten minutes, and my pants are being pulled off me...

– Kevin Milne is strongly encouraged to try on a traditional Hutsul farmer's outfit

It's an ugly monument to man's folly, isn't it...

– Kevin Milne on Chernobyl's sealed up nuclear reactor number four

"Go for it?" What sort of surgeon is he?

– Kevin Milne is amazed when his heart doctor back home gives him the go ahead for an icy plunge in a river

Sad to see these childrens' books and stuff, just sitting here. And [I] wonder what happened to the children who were reading them. There'd be a fair chance that they're still dealing with the reality of what happened here physically, if indeed they're still alive at all.

– Kevin Milne visits an abandoned school room in Pripyat, close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, near the end of this episode

Sergei jokingly said that if you are over-reactive you get a job working on the reactor. You stay there forever...

– Kevin Milne enjoys the black humour of his guide at Chernobyl, near the end of this episode

You can imagine how worried I was taking this through customs...

– Kevin Milne on a suspicious looking bag of cornflour, as he makes a pavlova for his hosts

I'm not sure whether my insurance policy covers me for feeding bears...

– Kevin Milne meets a Kolomiya local who lives with a 'pet' bear

I think to be quite honest they love the fact I gave it a crack more than the pavlova itself.

– Presenter Kevin Milne on his hosts' bemused reaction to his Kiwi dessert treat

All history my people work for this day, for independence...

– Kolomiya local Igor gives Kevin Milne a political history lesson about his country

How quickly I've got used to skulling vodka in the middle of the day.

– Kevin Milne's liver gets a work out in Ukraine

We've had these celebrations before until 1936, then they got banned by the Soviet rule. The celebration which is taking place tonight, it's the first one since 1936.

– Kolomiya local Vitaly explains the significance of New Year celebrations (including women) at the man club

While the Ukraine is hardly at the top of most travellers' lists, the good sport Mr Milne ensured his time there made sure some of us out here in tellyland might be curious to book a few nights in the country that included a stopover at a place whose name has become synonymous with death and disaster. Chernobyl is hardly a tourist mecca, but Milne's relaxed personality and keenness to adapt to any new situation meant the viewer was drawn into the area best known for the nuclear disaster in the 1980s. Seeing him moved to tears when they visited a nearby school showed a human side to the man, and that is what I like most about this series.

– Reviewer Glenn Conway in The Otago Daily Times, 4 August 2009

I'm moved nearly to tears, to be honest. It did bring me back to some very happy times with my family in church, when I was a boy. I'm thinking a lot about my mother and father...

– Kevin Milne is overcome with the beauty of an Orthodox Christian Christmas mass, early in this episode

When New Zealand celebrities are approached about their potential involvement in a show like Intrepid Journeys, they must have their fingers crossed they get picked to be flown to some exotic country with luxuries at their disposal. Kevin Milne hardly got a Fair Go when he was picked to spend two weeks in the Ukraine, but the first episode of a new series of Intrepid Journeys, which screened last Monday, was still well worth a look...

– Reviewer Glenn Conway in The Otago Daily Times, 4 August 2009

This is Intrepid Journeys after all — failure shouldn't be tolerated.

– Kevin Milne prepares to jump into Kyiv's ice-cold Dnieper River, near the end of this episode

My earlier experience on TVNZ's Holiday programme had taught me that filming someone lying on a beautiful beach, swimming in a clear blue ocean ...all felt good, but was surprisingly dull to watch. You needed a story. And Ukraine, with its grim history, struggling economy, rich culture, caring people, had a story...

– Kevin Milne on choosing Ukraine over the Pacific and the Mediterranean for his Intrepid Journey, in his book The Life and Times of a Brown Paper Bag, page 229

As we drove into the exclusion zone to nuclear reactor number four, our Geiger counter rose from 12 to 350. We were safe because we were on the move.

– Kevin Milne on visiting a town near Chernobyl, in his book The Life and Times of a Brown Paper Bag, page 230