Around the World in 80 Days

Complete with visas, running shoes, an inflatable globe and sound advice from Alan Whicker, Michael Palin set off to circumnavigate the world using only forms of transport available to the fictional Phileas Fogg. His Passepartout was a 5-strong film crew, his journey was phenomenal, his deadline was 80 days. This is what happend. PART ONE, OUTWARD BOUND Day One to Day Twenty-Eight: London, Alexandra, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Bombay, Madras. Any man who can glimpse France from the lap of luxury, view Venice from a refuse barge, play 'Man in Elevator' in an Egyption gangster film and head for Suez in a battered taxi should find circumnavigation a doddle. Unless one missed connection means driving 1,347½ miles across Arabia in 40 hrs before travelling the Sraight of Hormuz, crossing the Persian Gulf and reaching India on a primitive sailing vessel with no radio, no navigation aids and a helpful Gujarati crew. By the time he staggers through the Gateway to India, Michael's reality has become as fantastic as Verne's fiction. PART TWO, HOMEWARD BOUND Day Twenty-Eight to Day Seventy-Nine: Madras, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, California, London. The port that should have offered hope for the racing circumnavigator becomes a mecca of seafaring complications with anchors dropped off every bow. . .but our intrepid traveller, who will stop at little to catch up with the clock, hitches a ride on a Yugoslav ship as a deckhand, catches another ship that's already sailed and arrives in Hong Kong for champagne, cockatoos and the sport of kings. A taste of steam engines and snake restaurants in China, a passenger ferry to Japan and a container ship with a bizzare Date Line ritual take Michael to Claifornia. But he's got 17 days left and nearly half the world to go - hold your breath for the deadline dash!. © BBC