CTVA
The Classic TV Archive - UK Documentary Series

Michael Palin Travel Documentaries
 Episode Guide compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by:
references:
BBC Radio Times

 Playlist -  Michael Palin - Full Circle (1997)

############### Michael Palin ################
######## Around the World in 80 Days ########
##############################################
BBC Television
Filmed 1988

Michael Palin attempts to emulate the journey of the Jules Verne's
fictional character Phileas Fogg.

[01] Around the World in 80 Days: THE CHALLENGE

[02] Around the World in 80 Days: ARABIAN KNIGHTS


[03] Around the World in 80 Days: ANCIENT MARINER
Arabia to India anf through Dubai

[04] Around the World in 80 Days: A CLOSE SHAVE
Days 25-39. Bombay to Singapore via Poona and Madras.

[05] Around the World in 80 Days: ORIENTAL EXPRESS
Days 39-45. Singapore to Hong Kong, then departing on a
catamaran to Guangzhou in China.

[06] Around the World in 80 Days: FAR EAST AND FARTHER EAST
Days 47-58. Sailing out of Shanghai bound for Yokohama on
a mysteriously empty Chinese ferry.

[07] Around the World in 80 Days: DATELINE TO DEADLINE
(last in series)
Only 22 days to complete the second half of the circumnavigation,
taking in the Pacific, the United States and the Atlantic at
breakneck pace. Will he do it?

############### Michael Palin ################
############### Pole to Pole ################
##############################################
BBC Television
Filmed 1992

8 episodes x 50 min

Michael Palin journeys from the North Pole to the South Pole

[01] Pole to Pole: COLD START
On his journey through Norway and Finalnd he chats to Santa Claus
and hopes to get lucky panning for gold.

[02] Pole to Pole: RUSSIAN STEPS
From Lenningrad across the great plain of White Russia. After
stopping off in Odessa for a mud bath, he continues his journey
to Istanbul.

[03] Pole to Pole: MEDITERRANEAN MAZE
Landing in Istanbul for the next leg of his journey - across
Western Turkey and the Mediterranean into Egypt.

[04] Pole to Pole: SHIFTING SANDS
Michael Palin heads for the Equator.

[05] Pole to Pole: CROSSING THE LINE
After the slow progress through the Eastern Sudan. Michael Palin
enters Ethiopia through a remote border crossing.

[06] Pole to Pole: PLAINS AND BOATS AND TRAINS
Michael Palin goes animal spotting in Kenya and then travels on
to find the spot where Stanley presumed he'd met Livingstone.

[07] Pole to Pole: EVIL SHADOW
(repeat 4Jan02 BBC2 Friday)
Michael Palin finds himself under the baleful influence of an evil
force.

[08] Pole to Pole: BITTER END (last in series)
After 13,000 miles Michael Palin has to make a galling compromise to
his itninery, but there are few options still open if he is to finally
reach the Southernmost extremity of the Earth's land surface.

############### Michael Palin ################
################ Full Circle #################
##############################################
BBC Television
1997 10 episodes x 50 min

[01] Full Circle: ALASKA AND RUSSIA
31Aug97
7Sep97 repeat of previous week
Michael Palin undertakes his most ambitious journey to date,
a 50,000 mile circling of the Pacific Rim through 18 countries.
Beginning his year-long journey in the Bering Strait in a small
walrus-skin whaler, things go ominously wrong from the start.
This programme follows the first leg of the journey as he travels
from Alaska to Siberia, negotiating geysers and hot springs as well
as bad weather and transport troubles

[02] Full Circle: JAPAN AND KOREA
14Sep97 BBC1 Sun 8pm
Michael Palin undertakes a 50,000-mile circling of the Pacific Rim
through 18 countries. On arriving in Japan, he tracks down Japan's
most loyal `Monty Python' fan, places a bet in Tokyo's gambling
neighbourhood, visits a reproduction Dutch village, and stands on
the site of the epicentre of Nagasaki's atom bomb. However, in South
Korea he faces obstacles to his journey and must find an alternative
route to China

[03] Full Circle: CHINA
21Sep97
Michael Palin undertakes a circling of the Pacific Rim through 18
countries. Arriving in Qingdao, Michael checks into his hotel -
which is curiously like a Bavarian castle - and finds himself in a
room which was once Chairman Mao's. Having climbed China's holiest
mountain, he travels to Shanghai to see the new face of the nation,
then takes a steamboat trip on the Yangtze River, and travels on to
the remote southwest

[04] Full Circle: Vietnam and the Philippines
28Sep97
Michael Palin circles the Pacific Rim through 18 countries. From Hanoi,
where he is considered a possible threat to national security, he takes
a trip to Saigon on board the Re-Unification Express. It's then on to
Manila, where he visits the eighth wonder of the world

[05] Full Circle: Borneo and Java
5Oct97
Michael Palin circles the Pacific Rim through 18 countries. After a
journey in a rusty ferry through the dangerous Sulu Seas, he arrives
in Borneo at monsoon town. From the rainforest, he heads off to the
longhouses of the Iban tribesmen and the secret heart of Borneo.
Across the equator in Java, the most densely populated island in the
world, he visits the largest monument in the southern hemisphere

[06] Full Circle: Australia and New Zealand
12Oct97
Michael Palin circles the Pacific Rim through 18 countries. On this
leg he takes a journey full of action and adventure through the heart
of Australia and New Zealand

[07] Full Circle: Chile and Bolivia
19Oct97
Michael Palin's travels the Pacific Rim. On this leg he sets foot on
Cape Horn, then visits Chile, a country of staggering beauty and
variety, from where he heads for La Paz, the highest capital city in the world

[08] Full Circle: Bolivia and Peru
26Oct97
Michael Palin travels the Pacific Rim, through 18 countries. In
Bolivia, he visits Lake Titicaca, on the roof of the Andes, and meets
Meriel Larkin, a formidable Englishwoman who is restoring a
140-year-old steamer. He then follows the 1,000-mile path of the
Urubamba River by train, lorry, canoe and river boat, before visiting
the wondrous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu

[09] Full Circle: Peru and Colombia
2Nov97
Michael Palin travels the Pacific Rim, through 18 countries. On this
leg he takes an open canoe trip through the middle of the Peruvian
rainforest and, in one of the remotest parts of the world, finds that
a community of Indians is being touched by outside influences. Next
he visits the Colombian capital of Bogota, and Cartagena, one of the
oldest cities in the Americas

[10] Full Circle: Mexico, USA, Canada and Alaska (last in series)
9Nov97
Michael Palin travels the Pacific Rim, through 18 countries. On his
final leg, the longest, he travels all the way from Mexico City to
Diomede Island, off the coast of Alaska. Speeding through Mexico, he
pauses at Tijuana, where a steel curtain deters illegal immigrants to
the United States. He then visits Los Angeles, and in San Francisco
does time in Alcatraz before returning to the Alaskan wilderness.

############### Michael Palin ################
################## Sahara ####################
##############################################
BBC Television
Filmed 2002 4 episodes x 60 min

[01] Sahara: A LINE IN THE DESERT
13Oct02 BBC1 Sun 7:00 pm

[02] Sahara: DESTINATION TIMBUKTU
20Oct02 BBC1 Sun 7:00 pm

[03] Sahara: ABSOLUTE DESERT
27Oct02 BBC1 Sun 7:00 pm

[04] Sahara: DIRE STRAITS (last in series)
3Nov02 BBC Sun 7:00 pm

############### Michael Palin ################
################## Himalayas #################
##############################################
BBC Television
Filmed 2004  6 episodes x 60 min

[01] Himalayas: (title not known)
03Oct04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

[02] Himalayas: A PASSAGE TO INDIA
10Oct04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

[03] Himalayas: ANNAPURNA TO EVEREST
17Oct04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

[04] Himalayas: (title not known)
24Oct04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

[05] Himalayas: LEAPING TIGERS, NAKED NAGAS
31Oct04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

[06] Himalayas: (title not known) (last in series)
07Nov04 BBC1 Sun 9pm

######### Michael Palin Documentaries ########
################## the end #################
##############################################

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