Piers Gibbon

Piers Gibbon
Nationality British
Occupation Television presenter, radio host and author
Known for Television documentaries:
Jungle Trip
Dining with Cannibals
The Witch Doctor Will See You Now
Human Ape
Website www.piersgibbon.com
Gibbon's voice
recorded February 2014

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Piers Gibbon is a British television and radio presenter, author and self-styled "adventurer".[1] He is best known as the host of the National Geographic Channel documentary series, The Witch Doctor Will See You Now.

Career

In the early 1990s, Gibbon worked as a business manager, including for public relations firm Lawson Dodd.[2] He left that role to begin his television presenting work:

He ended up presenting TV programmes [...] and drinking hallucinogenic ayahuasca with shamen. To be honest, we weren't entirely surprised.

Belinda Lawson, Lawson Dodd

Gibbon then studied human sciences at Oxford University. His thesis on Plant Use in Tribal Societies became the basis for his first Channel 4 documentary, Jungle Trip. At the same time, Gibbon was featured on a number of radio shows. He had a regular spot on Resonance FM where he and David McCandless received a Sony Award nomination for the documentary series The Good Drugs Guide.

Television

Gibbon has hosted a series of "adventurous documentaries" filmed in "less comfortable locales",[3] directly participating in many of the documentaries rather than simply observing the subjects and providing commentary.

During the filming of Jungle Trip, Gibbon found a species of plant he believed was unknown to Western science. He had a sample sent to the Kew Gardens where it was analysed and named in his honour.[4]

Gibbon's documentary series, The Witch Doctor Will See You Now, first aired in 2011. In each episode, Gibbon escorts two Americans to a different country to test the claims of various traditional medicines.[5] His stated aim was to test the healing powers and credibility of people that those in Western society describe as "witch doctors".

Host

Show Channel Year
Jungle Trip Channel 4 2000
Tasting History ITV 2008
Headshrinkers of The Amazon Channel 5
National Geographic Channel
2009
2011
Dining with Cannibals
Search for The Living Cannibals
National Geographic Channel 2010
The Witch Doctor Will See You Now National Geographic Channel
SBS2
2011
2013

Guest

Books

Gibbon published his first book in 2010, entitled TRIBE: Endangered Peoples of the World. I was published by Cassell. It received positive reviews from Geographical Magazine[6] and the Daily Express[7]

References

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