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Around the World in 80 Days is a BBC television travel series that was first broadcast in 1989. It was presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin. The show was inspired by Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in 80 Days, in which the character of Phileas Fogg takes on a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less. Palin was given the same deadline, and was forbidden from using any mode of transport that did not exist in Jules Verne's time, most notably aircraft. He followed Phileas Fogg's route as closely as possible. Along the way he commentated on the sights and cultures he encountered. Palin encountered several setbacks during his voyage, partly due to the fact that he travelled with a five-person camera crew.

The show was a critical and commercial success, winning strong ratings in the UK and selling well abroad. It was followed by several similar conceptual travel series starring Michael Palin, such as Pole to Pole (in which the globe was circumnavigated longitudinally), Full Circle (circumnavigation of the Pacific Rim), Sahara, and Himalaya.

Contents 1 The Journey 1.1 The Challenge 1.2 Arabian Frights 1.3 Ancient Mariners 1.4 A Close Shave 1.5 Oriental Express 1.6 Far East and Farther East 1.7 Dateline to Deadline 2 Production 3 See also 4 External links

The series was split up into seven parts.

Palin accepts the offer from the BBC to attempt going around the world in 80 days. After boarding the Orient Express at Victoria Station in London, he reminisces on his rigorous preparations for this extraordinary circumnavigation. He rode across Europe before being stopped by an Italian train strike in Innsbruck. Arriving in Venice by coach, he helps out the local sanitation department clean up the city. After that, it was on to the Corinth Canal and Athens, where he saw the world-renowned evzones, as well as a die-hard Python fan. After that, and a brief stopover in Crete, Alexandria beckoned.

Palin mentions that two of his referees are fellow Pythons, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.

Palin arrives in Egypt, only to find difficulty getting a train to Cairo. When in the capital, he attends a local soccer match and appears in a cameo role in an Egyptian film. After seeing the Pyramids in Giza and riding a camel sharing his name, Palin runs into trouble when a ship he was supposed to board develops engine issues and cannot run. Even though he is able to board a ferry getting out of the city of Suez, he misses a key connection that would have taken him to Muscat. As a last ditch effort to save the journey, Palin and the director Clem Vallance are allowed to drive across Saudi Arabia to Dubai, with the rest of the crew (and their frowned upon camera equipment) flying to the Gulf state.

In Dubai, the crew finds a good dhow to take to Bombay. Along the way, Palin bonds with the dhow's crew, lets one listen to a Bruce Springsteen song, and develops a bad case of diarrhea. He was also introduced to the ship's unique open-air latrine...

Palin mentions he drove the distance from London to the Black Sea in one weekend.

Palin has said in interviews that he wants to meet up with the dhow's crew and thank them again for their gracious hospitality.

In Bombay, Palin finds himself a week behind Phileas Fogg. After a getting quick shave under a tree and seeing a snake charmer's cobra, he is able to find a train from there to Madras in the south. Before leaving Bombay, he runs into an astrologist who, after giving him a chart for a baby to be born to one of his referees, tells him he will complete the journey a day ahead of schedule. However, in Madras, he finds himself in trouble trying to get a connecting boat to Singapore. Eventually, an "...Anglo-German-Indo-Yugoslav agreement the UN would have been proud of" was reached and Palin was on his way, albeit eleven days behind. According to the agreememnt, only Palin and the cameraman Nigel could travel aboard the ship, and on condition that they acted as deckhands. That meant that Palin had to take a "crash course in sound testing" so they could film aboard the ship. Arriving in Singapore, Palin worries whether or not his connecting boat from Singapore has sailed. If it had, it would have been impossible to complete the journey in eighty days.

One of the train stops on his way from Mumbai to Chennai is Pune, where Palin talks about his father winning two rowing cups there in the 1920s.

The boat had sailed from Singapore, but it was close enough to the coast for Palin to catch it and move on to Hong Kong. While there, he wins big in a horse race, is attacked by a cockatoo and meets up with his friend Basil Pao. He attends a party thrown in his honour at the halfway point in the journey. Then, it is on to Guangzhou for a dinner of shredded cobra and then a train to Shanghai. On the train, he is asked by a Chinese businesswoman if he carries an umbrella all the time. Palin states, "I just get wet." As well, he collects the roofing tile requested by Terry Gilliam from an archaic train station.

In Shanghai, he gets some herbal remedies to help him on the rest of his trip. He and Basil take in a Chinese jazz band. After parting with Basil the next day, he takes a Chinese ferry to Yokohama, where he rides the world-famous shinkansen train into Tokyo. Meeting up with David Powers, a fellow Brit, he is taken to a sushi bar and then a karaoke bar, where he does a duet singing You Are My Sunshine. After spending the night in a capsule hotel, he is off on to the Pacific Ocean for eleven days, one of which includes crossing the International Date Line. After crossing the line, Palin partakes in an unusual ceremony to commemorate the crossing, involving getting doused in tomato paste and flour, and drinking a strange cocktail containing many ingredients, among others, "... eggs, curry powder, cocoa,....".

Palin mentions some people involved in the ceremony watched Full Metal Jacket to prepare for it.

Arriving in Long Beach only two days behind Fogg, Palin spends night one in America onboard the embedded Queen Mary. After a few days, he boards an Amtrak from Los Angeles and travels to Glenwood Springs. He takes a hot-air balloon ride there and a dog sled trip in Aspen. After a nerve-wracking delay he realizes he probably should have stayed on the Chicago-bound train, and leaves the Rockies frantically. Eventually arriving in New York, he boards the final ship of his journey dead-even with Phileas Fogg on Day 71. After eight days on the Atlantic Ocean, he arrives in Felixstowe, touching foot on British soil for the first time in two and a half months (although Hong Kong was still a British possession at this point in time). A few train connections later, he arrives at his starting point, the Reform Club, Pall Mall, London, yet is not allowed in. The journey ends 79 days and 7 hours after it began.

The closing credits show Palin chatting with his referees.

The journey around the world lasted from September 25, 1988 to December 12, 1988. Palin travelled through the following countries by foot, train, boat, balloon, and husky dog, amongst other methods of transportation: United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, India, Singapore, the People's Republic of 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 (production assistants). The others who started with him left when he got to Hong Kong, and were replaced by others. Strictly speaking, however, it was only Palin (and the director) who obeyed the rules of the journey, as Palin was not allowed to take the production crew on his road trip across Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The remainder of the crew flew from Jeddah to Dubai. During the Jeddah to Dubai episode, Palin managed to snap a few pictures which are seen on 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 actually been the BBC's first choice of presenter; Palin was fourth.

Coincidently a straightforward adaptation of Jules Verne's book was also broadcast in 1989. It was a three-part miniseries co-produced by US and European broadcasters, starring Pierce Brosnan as Fogg, and Palin's fellow Monty Python alum Eric Idle as Fogg's assistant Passepartout.

• Michael Palin
• Pole to Pole (1992)
• Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997)
• Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999)
• Sahara with Michael Palin (2002)
• Himalaya with Michael Palin (2004)
• Around the World in 80 Days, the source novel

• The Official Site
• Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days at the Internet Movie Database