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Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin | |
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Based on | Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne |
Written by | Michael Palin |
Directed by | Roger Mills |
Presented by | Michael Palin |
Composer | Paddy Kingsland |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 7 |
Production | |
Producer | Clem Vallance |
Editor | David Thomas |
Running time | 52 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 11 October – 22 November 1989 |
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.
The series later spawned two further globe-crossing series featuring Palin – Pole to Pole with Michael Palin (travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole), an 8-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1992; and Full Circle with Michael Palin (the circumnavigation of the Pacific Rim), a 10-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1997 – as well as addition travel series in later years – Hemingway Adventure (following in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway) first broadcast in 1999, Sahara (travelling around and through the Sahara Desert) first broadcast in 2002, Himalaya (travelling around the Himalayas) first broadcast in 2004, New Europe (travelling around Eastern Europe) first broadcast in 2007, Brazil first broadcast in 2012, Michael Palin in North Korea broadcast in 2018, and Michael Palin: Into Iraq aired in 2022.
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 Pythons Terry 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.
No. | Title | Original air date | |
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1 | "The Challenge" | 11 October 1989 | |
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 | |
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 | |
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 | |
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 | |
At Singapore, Palin finds his connection to China has just left, but miraculously 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 | |
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 | |
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. |
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 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.
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.
Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager of £20,000 set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.
Aouda, a character in Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, is an Indian princess accompanied by Phileas Fogg and Passepartout. The daughter of a Bombay Parsi merchant, she was married against her will to the old raja of Bundelkhand. At the death of her husband, she is about to be sacrificed by her husband's relatives and other people of their society as a sati at her husband's funeral pyre. Upon learning the circumstances of the sati and how this is all against Aouda's will, Fogg and company intervene and rescue her.
Around the World in 80 Days is a 2004 American action adventure comedy film based on Jules Verne's 1873 novel of the same name and remake of the movie of the same name of 1956. It stars Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cécile de France and Jim Broadbent. The film is set in the nineteenth century and centers on Phileas Fogg (Coogan), here reimagined as an eccentric inventor, and his efforts to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. During the trip, he is accompanied by his Chinese valet, Passepartout (Chan). For comedic reasons, the film intentionally deviated wildly from the novel and included a number of anachronistic elements. With production costs of about $110 million and estimated marketing costs of $30 million, it earned $24 million at the U.S. box office and $48 million worldwide, making it a box office failure. It also received generally negative reviews from critics, mainly for lacking similarities to the original book.
Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Inspirations for the character were the American entrepreneur George Francis Train and American writer and adventurer William Perry Fogg.
Around the World in 80 Days is a 1956 American epic adventure-comedy film starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton and Shirley MacLaine, produced by the Michael Todd Company and released by United Artists.
Basil Pao Ho-Yun (鲍皓昕) is a Hong Kong–based photographer. He has been the stills photographer on the BBC filming teams that made Michael Palin's television travel programmes.
Pole to Pole with Michael Palin is an eight-part television BBC documentary travel series, first broadcast on BBC 1 in 1992, and presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin. The programme is the sequel to Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, and was the second of Palin's major journeys, the series focusing on a journey along the 30-degree east line of longitude from the North Pole to the South Pole, sticking to using mainly cars, buses, trains and ships to make the 5-month journey, while travelling through northern and eastern Europe, and Africa; a last-minute change of plans led to the journey diverting through South America, in order to reach Antarctica.
Jean Passepartout is a fictional character in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days, published in 1873. He is the French valet of the novel's English main character, Phileas Fogg. His surname translates literally to "goes everywhere", but “passepartout” is also an idiom meaning "skeleton key" in French. It can also be understood as a play on the English word passport—or its French equivalent passeport.
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is a science fiction novel written by American author Philip José Farmer in 1973. Reviving the Phileas Fogg character created by Jules Verne, the novel has also been classified as steampunk and a parallel novel. It was originally published by DAW Books and later reprinted in 1979 by Hamlyn and again in 1982 by Tor Books. Tor has subsequently reissued the novel in 1988 and 1993.
Around the World in 80 Days is the 1989 book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC TV program Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin.
A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or tourist attractions without recommending particular package deals or tour operators. A travelogue film is an early type of travel documentary, serving as an exploratory ethnographic film. Ethnographic films have been made for the spectators to see the other half to relate with the world in relative relations. These films are a spectacle to see beyond the cultural differences as explained by the Allison Griffith in her journal. Before the 1930s, it was difficult to see the importance of documentary films in Hollywood cinema but the 1930s brought about a change in the history of these films with the popularity of independent filmmakers.
Around the World in 80 Days is a three-part television miniseries originally broadcast on NBC from April 16 to 18, 1989. The production garnered three nominations for Emmy awards that year. The teleplay by John Gay is based on the 1873 Jules Verne novel of the same title.
Around the World in 80 Days is a 1988 Australian 49-minute direct-to-video animated film from Burbank Films Australia. The film is based on Jules Verne's classic French novel, Around the World in 80 Days, first published in 1872, and was adapted by Leonard Lee.
Around the World in 20 Years is a BBC television travel documentary first broadcast in December 2008, presented by Michael Palin. It follows him as he retraces the Dubai – Mumbai leg of his journey Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin. Also featured is his reunion with the captain and crew of the al-Shama dhow, in which he had undertaken the journey 20 years ago. Palin finds the captain of the al-Shama in Gujarat and is heartily welcomed. He also reunites with several of the surviving crew members and discovers several of them have since died, including the old man whom he'd let listen to Bruce Springsteen on his Walkman during the voyage. The captain also reveals that the al-Shama was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean a few months before when it was being towed for repairs. Several of the other crew members arrive after Palin and they all gather round Palin's portable DVD player to watch some of the original broadcast. The captain reveals that he had seen the miniseries when it was shown on BBC. The documentary ends with a shot of Palin and the crew members happily sharing a hammam.
Around the World in 80 Days is a British travel documentary series made to support the annual BBC Children in Need charity appeal in 2009. It sees twelve celebrities attempt to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days without using air transport, recreating the journey of Phileas Fogg and Michael Palin. Like Fogg and Palin, the journey begins and ends at the Reform Club in London. It was first shown on BBC One and BBC HD in October and November 2009.
Around the World in Eighty Days is an animated television series that lasted one season of 16 episodes, broadcast during the 1972–1973 season by NBC. It was the first Australian-produced cartoon to be shown on American network television. Leif Gram directed all 16 episodes, and the stories were loosely adapted by Chester "Chet" Stover from the 1873 novel by Jules Verne.
Around the World in Eighty Days is a 1919 German silent adventure comedy film, directed and produced by Richard Oswald and starring Conrad Veidt, Anita Berber, and Reinhold Schünzel. It is based on the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. It premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.
80 Days is an interactive fiction game developed and published by Inkle. for iOS on July 31, 2014, and Android on December 15, 2014. It was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on September 29, 2015. It employs branching narrative storytelling, allowing the player to make choices that impact the plot.
Around the World in 80 Days is a historical drama adventure television series based on the 1872 Jules Verne novel of the same name, in which, for a bet, Phileas Fogg travels the world in 80 days by various means both traditional and new. It was commissioned by the European Alliance, a co-production alliance of France Télévisions, ZDF of Germany, and RAI of Italy, with additional co-production partners of Masterpiece (US) and Be-Films/RTBF (Belgium). It was produced in the UK, France and South Africa, with filming also taking place in Romania. The series first premiered on La Une in Belgium, on 5 December 2021, and later on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2021. In November 2021, ahead of the premiere, it was announced the programme had been renewed for a second season. However, there has been no further announcement since.