Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2021) |
Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin | |
---|---|
BBC1 | |
Release | 11 October 22 November 1989 | –
Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin is a 7-part
Palin was given the same deadline, and not allowed to use aircraft, which did not exist in
The programme was a critical and commercial success, gaining strong ratings in the UK and selling well abroad. It was also released on video tape and later on DVD. Following the trip Michael Palin wrote a
Around the World in 80 Days was the first of a trilogy of globe-crossing series featuring Michael Palin as he visited many countries. The second series was
The Journey
The series was presented in seven episodes.
The Challenge
Palin accepts the offer from the
Sections:
- Outward Bound
- Preparations
- The Ultimate Traveller
- Orient Express
- Bad News
- Venice
- Travelling by Ferry
- An Evening Meal
Arabian Frights
Palin arrives in
Sections:
- Arabian Frights
- The Road to Cairo
- A Closer Look
- An Appointment to Keep
- Problems
- At Sea
- Jeddah
- A Plan
Ancient Mariners
Palin recounts his trip from Jeddah to Dubai via Riyadh, and notes that he drove the distance from London to the Black Sea in one weekend.
In Dubai, the team finds a
The trip on the dhow yielded so much material that the producers gained special permission to craft this extra seventh episode for what was originally planned as a six-episode series. In the interview included with the DVD release, Palin said that he would like to meet the dhow's crew and thank them again for their gracious hospitality, though he remarks that he may never see them again. In September 2008, Palin announced on his official website that he would be travelling to Gujarat in an attempt to locate the crew and reunite with them. Palin succeeded in finding them and this journey was chronicled in the BBC television documentary, Around the World in 20 Years.
Sections:
- Ancient Mariners
- Provisions
- Mohammed
- Life at Sea
- Chips
- Raising the Mast
- Bombay Bum
- A First Glimpse of India
A Close Shave
In
Palin then embarks on the Indian Railways express line called the "Southern Express" for
Palin later reunited with the captain of the Croatian ship in Rijeka, Croatia, during filming of his New Europe series. This meeting was not shown in the original broadcast of the series but it is on the deleted scenes on the DVD.
Sections:
- A Close Shave
- A Day in Bombay
- Off to Madras
- Making Friends
- Arrival
- A Boat to Singapore
- 11 Days Behind Schedule
- Waiting to Dock
Oriental Express
Palin finds that the ship had indeed sailed from Singapore. However, quite fortunately, it was only four miles from shore and Palin was able to make it on board using a fast motorboat. While in Hong Kong, he has a big win betting on a horse race, is attacked by a cockatoo and meets up with his friend, photographer Basil Pao. He attends a party thrown in his honour at the halfway point (in terms of days) in the journey. Then it is on to Guangzhou for a dinner of shredded cobra and then a train journey to Shanghai. On the train, he is asked by a Chinese businesswoman if he carries an umbrella all the time. Palin replied, "I just get wet." He also collects the roofing tile requested by Terry Gilliam from a very old railway station.
Sections:
- Oriental Express
- Welcome to Hong Kong
- Local Life
- The Hong Kong Riviera
- "China, here we come"
- A Snake Supper
- The Train to Shanghai
- A Four Seasons Climate
Far East and Farther East
In Shanghai, Palin gets some herbal remedies to help him on the rest of his trip. He and Basil Pao take in a Chinese jazz band. After parting with Pao the next day, Palin takes a Chinese ferry to Yokohama, where he rides the world-famous shinkansen train to Tokyo. Here he meets David Powers, a British journalist, and is taken to a sushi bar and then a karaoke bar, where he sings a duet of "You Are My Sunshine". After spending the night in a capsule hotel, he boards a container ship to cross the Pacific Ocean. The journey takes eleven days and is very dull, enlivened only by a game of pass the parcel with the Singaporean crew, and the crossing of the International Date Line. Palin partakes in an unusual ceremony to commemorate crossing the line, involving getting doused in tomato paste and flour, and drinking a strange cocktail containing many ingredients, among others, "eggs, curry powder, cocoa...". Palin suggests that some people involved in the ceremony had watched Full Metal Jacket to prepare for it.
Sections:
- Far East and Farther East
- Time to Move On
- Japan
- Karaoke
- The Neptune Garnet
- Worsening Weather
- Ship-Lag
- Halfway Round the World
Dateline to Deadline
Arriving in
Sections:
- Dateline to Deadline
- America by Train
- Glenwood Springs
- Behind Schedule Again
- New York Bound
- Nine Days Left
- Felixstowe
- The End in Sight
Production
The journey around the world lasted from 25 September to 12 December 1988. Palin travelled through the following countries by foot, train, ship, balloon, and husky dog, amongst other methods of transport (except for aircraft): United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, and the United States.
Only four members of Palin's film crew completed the circumnavigation: Clem Vallance, Roger Mills (the directors), Angela Elbourne, and Ann Holland (the production assistants). The three others who started with him left when they got to Hong Kong, and were replaced by others. Strictly speaking, it was only Palin who obeyed the rules of the journey, as the production team was not allowed on the road trip across Saudi Arabia and Qatar (Palin and Clem Vallance did this stretch) or on the Croatian ship (Palin and Nigel Meakin did this stretch). The remainder of the team flew on these stretches. During the Jeddah to Dubai episode, Palin managed to snap a few pictures which are seen in the documentary.
While preparing for the journey, Palin had a chat with renowned documentarist Alan Whicker. In the book and an interview on the DVD, Palin mentions that Whicker had been the BBC's first choice of presenter, but he and two others (Miles Kington and Noel Edmonds) had declined; Palin was fourth on the BBC's list.
Around the World in 20 Years
On 30 December 2008, the BBC aired a special one-hour documentary entitled Around the World in 20 Years. In it, Palin goes in search of the crew of the Al Shama, the dhow which carried him from Dubai to Bombay (now Mumbai) some 20 years ago. After an extensive search involving the shipping company that owned Al Shama, Palin tracks them to the city of Mandvi in Gujarat. There, Palin finds the captain of Al Shama himself, along with five other members of the crew. Two of the original crew members had died in the intervening years, one of them being the older man whom Palin had let listen to Bruce Springsteen on his Walkman. Palin also discovers that the Al Shama had sunk in the Indian Ocean while being towed for repairs years before. The production crew are the same people as on 80 Days.
See also
References
- ^ Burrell, Ian (17 September 2014). "Presenter Michael Palin and film-maker Roger Mills look back on 25". The Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
- ^ "About Jagjit Uppal". Jagjituppal.com. Retrieved 13 September 2011.