Throwing stuff in a suitcase for tomorrow's trip. I'm off to Taiwan for a week's work on a National Geographic documentary about Coxinga. We shot some footage in London a year ago, but this is the big one: much delayed, much rescheduled, but finally we're off to the place he made his home.

There's some historical consultant stuff to do for the re-enactment scenes, and then I am a talking head, discussing my long-standing interest in the man otherwise known as Zheng Chenggong, the leader of...