Well that's best left to the experts in the field. What I can deduce is that the inherent humanity in many of these stories is something that has touched a great deal of viewers around the country. This has been confirmed by the letters that keep coming in from viewers to tell us so. Maybe they all don't want the U.S. sitcoms or the real-life drama of the news programs when they are about to have dinner.

When it came to the idea of letting viewers choose their favourite stories to celebrate our 2000th episode, I thought we should concentrate mostly on the stories that first appeared in the series - the French series called Faraway People as this is where viewers formed their first impression of Global Village.

Wading through well over 900 documentaries that appeared over the years from the FARAWAY… series and filmed by countless producers worldwide who I'd never met I thought what were they all trying to show us in their stories?

Many deal with people, societies, minority races and individuals in faraway lands living lives different to ours and yet lives we can, if not identify with then certainly empathise with. It dealt with elements that define a people's identity. We saw nomadic people in Africa and the Middle East talking candidly on camera as we might do ourselves if someone shoved a camera in front of us.  They were presented as ordinary people going about their daily lives and allowed to speak for themselves.

There were stories of individuals who achieved great feats of human endeavour, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The postman in Mafate on Reunion Island was such an individual who does his mail run on foot covering hundreds of kilometres over mountains, streams and forests. I still recall the viewers who were so moved by this they wanted his address so they could send him a new pair of sneakers. And he never complained about how hard his job is.

Others strived to make their dream come true. One such a person was Tony Amato, a passionate Italian-America from New York whose dream was to open his own opera house. And he did! Together with his wife, who made all the costumes, the Amato's financed their Seasons of Opera for decades. Tony would not only conduct the performances but sing the roles as well if any singer became ill. Amato Opera is still going strong today even though Tony retired this year. The fact that the renowned Metropolitan Opera House was a few blocks away never deterred Tony in his glorious quest!

To be continued next week.