Panorama – Alex James In Colombia

28 January 2008 @ 8.30-9pm on BBC ONE

Alex James, bassist of hugely successful Britpop band Blur, goes to Colombia to report on the effect the cocaine industry is having on the country that supplies 80 per cent of the world's cocaine.

Alex wrote in his 2007 autobiography, Bit Of A Blur, about spending "a million pounds on Champagne and cocaine" at the height of Blur's fame. This admission came to the attention of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who invited Alex over to see the damage the multi-billion dollar cocaine industry has done to Colombia.

Britain is now at the forefront of cocaine abuse in the world – the Home Office estimates there are around 800,000 cocaine users in the UK. Alex, no longer a cocaine user himself, decided to throw himself into the story to investigate how the cocaine industry works.

Panorama shows Alex meeting a drug trafficker, a drugs mule and a contract killer working for the cartels, as well as the President of Colombia.

Alex is now a farmer back home in Britain, making cheese. But his fellow farmers in Colombia say they have no choice but to grow coca if they want to make any money.

He also accompanies Colombian and American special forces fighting the drug trade as they perform the dangerous task of clearing potentially landmine-rigged coca fields in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.