The Greatest Shows on Earth

Arab World (1x3)

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This week Daisy is exploring the TV of the Arab world - it’s a journey that sees her sucked into the darkest of Egyptian comedy and inspired by the most sublime talent show on earth. Prank shows are hugely popular in Egypt and Daisy starts by interviewing one of the nation’s favourite old-school practical jokers, Sherif Baher - a man who recently terrified hopeful actors on a film set by threatening to blow them up with real explosives. But when Sherif collapses during the interview and a doctor and the police arrive, it’s not clear whether the joke has gone too far. Daisy next meets the brains behind some of the cruellest pranks in television history. Ramez Galal’s latest show was the highest rating in Egypt last year, in it unsuspecting and terrified celebrities are ambushed and taken hostage at gunpoint – it’s a very real fear in the country following the bloody revolution. “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” says Daisy, after watching a beloved Egyptian actor get the Ramez treatment. “It’s like a snuff murder movie. Inhumane. Ramez can barely contain his laughter holding a gun to his head. He has to be nuts.” But when she tries to interview the notorious prankster, Daisy finds herself and her terrified director locked in a room by him as he releases snakes, bats and an 8-foot python. Have Ramez and his team become immune to brutality or are they just exploiting a pitch-black gallows humour that Egyptians seem to enjoy? In the end, the only option is to interview Ramez on a live Egyptian TV talk show. Daisy heads to Abu Dhabi to participate in a huge home-grown reality TV hit that celebrates a very different aspect of Arab culture. Millions Poet, the Arab world’s equivalent of X Factor, features contestants reciting poetry in ancient Arabic for an audience of 70 million – Daisy will be the first westerner to take part. Daisy meets the only woman ever to reach the finals of the competition – a veiled housew