EXTREME WIVES WITH KATE HUMBLE, BBC2, 9pm
I THOUGHT this was going to be some kind of wife-swap thing (Silicon Valley jet-setter goes to live with some vegan hippies for a week) but when I saw Kate Humble’s name attached I knew we’d have no such luck. Humble fronts proper documentaries about nature and wild places, and in this new series she does indeed travel, visiting far-flung places where a woman’s role is far removed from what we are used to.
In tonight’s episode she goes to Kenya and lives with the Kuria tribe for three weeks. The men may have several wives, but the tribe also has “woman-to-woman marriage”. Is it a sexual thing, asks Humble, or does it produce advantages to the community?
She meets one family where Paulina, the wife, has two other wives. This practice is known as Nyumba Mboke.
Paulina’s son died, so he would not be able to bring a daughter-in-law into the family. Quite simply, they needed another woman to come into the family who can bring a son. Such wives are also a source of labour, “another helper”.
TRAVEL MAN, C4, 8.30pm
IF trekking through Kenya to live amongst a tribe seems a bit strenuous then you can sample some light-hearted travel adventures here.
Richard Ayoade continues his lightning-fast tours of the great cities with a celebrity companion in tow. Tonight he is in chilly, expensive Stockholm with the comedy actress Sally Phillips.
They do something which is surely obligatory on a trip to Sweden – they visit an ABBA museum and indulge in a bit of singing.
Later they visit an “ice bar”, where the customers take a drink in a freezing cavern while bundled up in cosy anoraks.
And all that frosty booze might be needed to calm the nerves when they attempt a tour of Stockholm’s rooftops whilst attached to a harnesses.
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