11 October (1989-10-11) – 22 November 1989 (1989-11-22)
Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin is a 7-part BBC television travel series first broadcast on BBC1 in 1989, and presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin. Inspired by Jules Verne's classic 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days, in which a character named Phileas Fogg accepts a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less, Palin takes on the same task, prohibited from using aircraft in order to use a combination of trains, boats and other forms of transport, to take him across several countries around his circumnaviation of the world, including Italy, Egypt, China, Japan, and the United States.
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 book about the experience. The book contains much more detail, along with photographs, than could be presented in the TV programme, and Palin's personal views are also more evident.
In 1988, the BBC offers Michael Palin a challenge to undertake for them - to circumnavigate the world in 80 days, much like Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg undertook in Verne's 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days. With the start and finish line being the Reform Club in London, Palin would be required to not use aircraft, which would not have been around in the late 19th century, instead relying on various modes of transportation, mostly consisting of passenger trains and commercial ships. In agreement to this, Palin was also given the task of acquiring a series of souvenirs along the journey for three 'referees' - Robert Hewison, and fellow PythonsTerry Jones and Terry Gilliam. Accompanying Palin would be a small five-man film crew, who the comedian collectively names after Passepartout, Phileas Fogg's manservant.
Each episode of the series focuses on a specific leg of the journey, and the sights and people Palin encounters. In addition, the show also features the various problems and obstacles encountered on the journey that impeded progress, and Palin and his team's efforts to overcome them by negotiations and finding alternative arrangements to keep on track of completing the circumnavigation within the eighty day limit.
Episodes
Countries visited during Around the World in 80 Days.
No.
Title
Original air date
1
"The Challenge"
11 October 1989 (1989-10-11)
Michael Palin agrees to a challenge offered by the BBC - to travel around the world in 80 days, much like Jules Verne's character, Phileas Fogg. Following preparation for the journey, including arrangements for money, meeting seasoned TV traveller Alan Whicker,[1] and being given a list of items to collect on his travels, Palin sets off from the Reform Club, and then from London Victoria Station, for the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Along the way, he mingles with passengers on the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, rides with garbage men on their gondola in Venice, sees the world-renowned Evzones while travelling through Greece, and has cream tea with British soldiers stationed on the island of Crete.
2
"Arabian Frights"
18 October 1989 (1989-10-18)
In Alexandria, Palin heads onwards to Cairo, stopping off to watch a local football match starring in a cameo part in an Egyptian film,[2] and visiting the Pyramids in Giza. Heading for the Red Sea, a cancelled passage by ship forces Palin to take a ferry to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, which causes him to miss an important connection. With little choice, he takes a moment to jog around some interesting art pieces in the city, before being given the news he has been given passage by the authorities to cross to the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, though only he and one of his crew can tackle the journey. With the rest of the crew travelling by air, Palin is left to present photographs of this leg of his travels.
3
"Ancient Mariners"
25 October 1989 (1989-10-25)
At Dubai, Palin and his team find themselves struggling to find a ship that can take them across the Arabian Sea to Bombay. With their schedule set back several days due to the trouble crossing over Saudi Arabia, the group find salvation in the crew of a dhow called the Al-Sharma, which can take them to India. For the journey, Palin finds himself enduring sleep on sacks of grain and rice, making use of a unique open-air latrine due to diarrhoea, and having little much to do with the slow pace of the journey, except to enjoy the gracious hospitalty of the crew, whom the team find to be an extended family from the Indian state of Gujarat.
Notes: This episode was not originally planned for the series, but the producers received special permission to create it due to the amount of footage obtained from the dhow journey. Palin would later track down the crew from this episode in a BBC television documentary, Around the World in 20 Years, to reunite with them.
4
"A Close Shave"
1 November 1989 (1989-11-01)
In Bombay, Palin finds himself stuck for the day waiting for his train connection that will take him to the eastern shoreline of India, and so spends it experiencing a quick shave from a blind barber, watching a snake charmer's performance, and meeting astrologer Jagjit Uppal for one of the required items on his list.[3] The following day, he and his team embark on their train journey aboard the "Southern Express" for Madras, stopping at Pune for a brief while. Once at the coastline, passage to Singapore is fraught with problems, until negotiations allow Palin and one of his crew to secure space on a Yugoslavian freighter, in which the presenter not only must learn to be a soundman, but work with the crew doing various tasks.
Notes: Palin would later reunited with the captain of the freighter during filming of his New Europe series; the meeting features as part of the deleted scenes on the DVDs for that series.
5
"Oriental Express"
8 November 1989 (1989-11-08)
At Singapore, Palin finds his connection to China has just left, but miracously it is only a few miles off shore, allowing him to catch up to it with a fast motorboat. The ship brings him to the busy port city of Hong Kong, where he takes the opportunity to enjoy life in the metropolis, betting on horse race, checking out Kowloon, and attending a party in honour of reaching his halfway point in his journey. From Hong Kong, accompanied by his friend, photographer Basil Pao, he proceeds by train to reach the city of Shanghai, along the way experiencing a meal where the main ingredient is snake, and securing another of the items on his list during a stop at a station.
6
"Far East and Farther East"
15 November 1989 (1989-11-15)
In Shanghai, Palin prepares for the journey onwards by securing herbal remedies, and spending his final day with Pao to watch a Chinese jazz band, before parting ways the next day for a Chinese ferry to Japan. Arriving at Yokohama, Palin rides the world-famous shinkansen train to Tokyo, where he explores the city with British journalist David Powers, sampling life in a sushi bar and karaoke bar, and spending a night in a capsule hotel. Eventually, he prepares for his journey across the Pacific Ocean to the United States boarding a container ship that will take eleven days to make the trip. While dull, Palin and his crew find things enlivened for a while when the crew invite them to partake in a game of pass the parcel, and an unusual ceremony to cemmemorate crossing the International Date Line.
7
"Dateline to Deadline"
22 November 1989 (1989-11-22)
Arriving in Long Beach, California, Palin spends his time on the US West Coast by staying a night in the permanently berthed Queen Mary, and exploring the beachside attractions. Boarding an Amtrak train eastwards, he later makes a stopover in Colorado to experience a hot-air balloon ride and a dog sled trip, before making a hurried journey to New York City after some moments that leave his nerves wracked with worry. Finally, he secures passage on a container ship for the UK. The final leg of his journey sees him making for train connections from Felixstowe to London, where Palin reaches the finish line within 80 days, before meeting his friends with the souvenirs he was requested to get.
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, 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 and 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.
