Frontiers (TV series)

Frontiers is an eight-part BBC television series, and accompanying book, that explored the geographic boundaries between different countries in the world. Eight writers and journalists in a variety of countries investigated the economic, political, geographical and historical reasons that account for why people are divided. The series was produced in 1989 - just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was featured in one episode.

• "Natural Break": Frederic Raphael explored the Pyrenees, the frontier between France and Spain, which at the time was preparing to join the (then) European Economic Community.
• "Gone Tomorrow": John Wells covered the Iron Curtain that split East and West Germans.
• "Gold and the Gun": Nadine Gordimer visited the war-torn border area between Mozambique and her native South Africa.
• "Night and Day": Richard Rodriguez showed how the rich North and poor South converged at the US/Mexican border.
• "Long Division": Ronald Eyre looked at the people living on both sides of the border in Ireland that splits the Republic from Ulster.
• "Big Brother's Bargain": Nigel Hamilton hiked up the boundary between Russia and Finland.
• "Border Run": Jon Swain visited the Thai/Cambodian border where thousands of Cambodian refugees had been stranded for over ten years.
• "Stranded in Time": Christopher Hitchens investigated the divided island of Cyprus.

Further reading

• Frontiers, published in 1990 by BBC Books, ISBN 978-0-563-20701-6