A TV traveller is due to explore Barrow and the Lake District in a new BBC series.

Simon Reeve is swapping the climes of the Tropic of Capricorn to explore Cumbria in a travelogue that starts this week.

The two-part series will see the 49-year-old adventurer visit Barrow to see nuclear submarines and the second largest windfarm in Europe.

In the Lakes, he will visit Windermere, talk to farmers, and meet campaigners trying to protect the red squirrel.

He said: "It's part of the country that everybody thinks they know, but experience suggests to me that we can still find stories they haven't heard before.

"There's so many things going on that none of us know about. I've been to the Lake District many times over the years, but I still thought it was an area that I'd love to rediscover and learn about.

"Of course, part of the reason was that I tend to do foreign exotic adventures, but global travel wasn't very possible during the old lockdown, so it was a case of finding somewhere fascinating and beautiful closer to home.

"And my goodness, the Lake District delivers on that."

He described the people of Cumbria as the 'real joy and surprise' of the journey.

"Brits, we're really lovely, wonderful, inspiring people, and I hope we celebrate that," he said.

"One of the most inspiring encounters I had was with an 18-year-old young farmer, whose parents had passed away rather tragically close together, and he's been left running a 1,500-acre sheep farm on his own, helped by a couple of teenage school friends."

The BBC Two programme will mark the latest in a number of programme to have featured Cumbria over the last 18 months.

Top Gear's Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness, naturalist Chris Packham and comedian Jack Whitehall have all recently filmed in the area.

The programme starts at 9pm on Sunday.