Wild Shepherdess with Kate Humble

Series one, episode two
It’s not quite a hallucinogenic voyage on a Ben Fogle scale. But that nice Kate Humble gets stuck into some coca leaves tonight after a long slog through the hills of Peru takes it out of her. After last week’s Afghanistan excursion, she’s in South America checking out the alpacas and the people who farm them.

And, much like the series opener, it’s amiable without seeming quite sure of its purpose. Is it a travelogue? A polemic on behalf of small-scale farming? A reminder to harassed UK farmers to count their blessings? What it certainly is, however, is a vehicle for Kate Humble. And, as she bonds with her impecunious hosts, gets her hands dirty on the farm and describes a female alpaca as ‘gagging for it’, she’s hard not to like. Even so, this feels pretty inconsequential.