Clive James' Postcard from Episode Rating Graph

With only a faulty Trabant car for company, Clive James goes to the reunited capital of Germany and finds a kaleidoscopic city of energy, invention and excitement. He mingles with the weird and wonderful youth of Berlin, keeps a last appointment at the notorious border-crossing Checkpoint Charlie, and eventually finds himself cold-shouldered off the road by former East Berliners in convertibles.

Los Angeles is a city of big money, big cars and big dreams. Young people from around the world are drawn to it for a shot at the entertainment bigtime, but how do they go about becoming stars? James's exploration of LA takes in the contrasts between the glitz and sleaze apparent in the city and he meets ex-pat Dudley Moore and actress Kirstie Alley in his quest to discover how to become a star.

In 1961 Clive James and his cardboard suitcase arrived in swinging London. Thirty years on he re-assesses the city he knew then and the city he finds now. Out on the town he samples heavy rock night at the Hippodrome nightclub. In contrast he goes to a masked charity ball in the presence of Princess Alexandra and Bubbles Rothermere. Meeting Michael Caine in Mayfair, Victoria Wood in Islington, Peter Cook in Soho and driving with Terence Donovan in his Rolls, he rediscovers what it is about London, his home for 30 years, that makes it such a unique place to live.

In an occasional series that has included reports from Shanghai, Rome, Sydney and Los Angeles, Clive James makes his first trip to the Middle East and finds a city of opposites: liberalism and fundamentalism, opulence and poverty, ancient and modern. James visits the pyramids ("they're exactly as advertised: big, pointed buildings"), tries to buy a camel and talks to Omar Sharif about his love for Cairo's traditions of tolerance and cosmopolitanism.