BBC: Ultimate "Michael Palin DVD Collection" of worldwide exploration videos! (Oct 7)

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Fans of English comedian (Monty Python), actor and author Michael Palin may not be aware of his popular "explorer" programs produced since the early 1980s. The worldwide travel documentaries, described as "fascinating journeys of history and rediscovery" have appeared on BBC-Television and numerous public broadcasting channels. Now, Warner Brothers and the BBC are releasing new DVD editions of these classic programs (see further below).

Background information (from Wikipedia) -

After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. In 2000 Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.

Palin's first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which, humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting, he traveled throughout the UK by train, from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Inverness. At the Kyle of Lochalsh, Palin bought the station's long metal platform sign and is seen lugging it back to London with him.

In 1994, Palin traveled through Ireland for the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry". In a quest for family roots, he attempted to trace his great grandmother — Brita Gallagher — who set sail from Ireland 150 years ago during the Great Famine (1845-1849), bound for a new life in Burlington, New Jersey. The series is a trip along the Palin family line.

Starting in 1989, Palin appeared as presenter in a series of travel programs made for the BBC. These programs have been broadcast around the world in syndication, and were also sold on VHS tape and later on DVD:

* Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (Travel 1988; Program release 1989): traveling as closely as possible the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft.

* Pole to Pole (Travel 1991; Program release 1992): traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible, i.e., through Europe and Africa.

* Full Circle with Michael Palin (Travel 1996/97; Program release 1997): in which he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean counter-clockwise; a journey of 80,000 kilometers starting on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait and taking him through Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

* Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999): retracing the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway through the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.

* Sahara with Michael Palin (Travel 2001/02; Program release 2002): in which he trekked around and through the world's largest desert.

* Himalaya with Michael Palin (Travel 2003/04; Program release 2004): in which he travels through the Himalaya region.

* Michael Palin's New Europe (Travel 2006/07; Program release 2007): in which he travels through Eastern Europe.

Following each trip, Palin wrote a book about his travels, providing information and insights not included in the TV program. Each book is illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was on the team. (Exception: the first book, Around the World in 80 Days, contains some pictures by Pao but most are by other photographers.)

All seven of these books were also made available as audio books, and all of them are read by Palin himself. Around the World in 80 Days and Hemingway Adventure are unabridged, while the other four books were made in both abridged and unabridged versions, although the unabridged versions can be very difficult to find.

For four of the trips a photography book was made by Pao, each with an introduction written by Palin. These are large coffee-table style books with pictures printed on glossy paper. The majority of the pictures are of various people encountered on the trip, as informal portraits or showing them engaged in some interesting activity. Some of the landscape photos are displayed as two-page spreads.

Palin's travel programs are responsible for a phenomenon termed the "Palin effect": areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions — for example, the significant increase in the number of tourists interested in Peru after Palin visited Machu Picchu. In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer, Palin named Peru's Pongo de Mainique (canyon below the Machu Picchu) his "favorite place in the world".

On October 7, 2008, Warners Brothers and the BBC are releasing the following DVD editions to celebrate Michael Palin's journeys:

> The Michael Palin Collection
(19-disc Giftset - the ultimate and complete collection!)

> Full Circle with Michael Palin
(3-disc Box Set - journeying around the Pacific Rim)

> Hemingway Adventure (w/Great Railway Journeys)
(2-disc set - see description below)

NOTE: the content is presented in both Widescreen (16x9) and Full-screen (4x3) - refer to the DVD release details.

Synopsis:
(for each DVD edition listed above)

Michael Palin: Hemingway Adventure (with Great Railway Journeys (2 discs, SRP $34.98) - Michael Palin follows up the success of Pole to Pole, treading in the far-flung footsteps of one of this century's most celebrated writers, and Palin's hero, Ernest Hemingway. Depressive, disaster-prone, alcoholic and much married, Hemingway is viewed through the various locations he visited and wrote about in his novels. Comparing modern-day locations with rare archive footage featuring Hemingway, Palin follows him through Cuba, Spain, Kenya and many other places. Palin's brand of light-hearted curiosity is very much in evidence as he looks at the novelist's obsession with the bullfight, passion for reckless driving and, of course, his literature.

Great Railway Journeys: CONFESSIONS OF A TRAIN SPOTTER (London to the Highlands of Scotland) - Michael Palin spent much of his boyhood train-spotting on Sheffield Midland Station. In his first televised travel adventure, Palin travels from Euston Station in London, to Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland, and passes along routes steeped in rail history. Along the way, he visits the historic towns of York and Edinburgh, before crossing the Forth Bridge en route for the Highland Line to Inverness. His trip spans the development of the train engine, from a ride on the famous Flying Scotsman steam locomotive to a privileged place in the cab of the British Rail Inter-City 125.

Great Railway Journeys: DERRY TO KERRY - Palin's second Great Railway Journey takes him from the ancient walled city of Londonderry to the most western tip of Ireland. He travels his "family line" as he attempts to trace his great grandmother who left Ireland for the USA over 150 years ago. His trip through a still war-torn Northern Ireland takes him to Belfast before heading south to Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, and on to Wexford, Waterford, the little village of Buttevant and finally Kerry's Dingle Bay, the most western point in Ireland.
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The MICHAEL PALIN Collection (19 discs, $249.98) - Michael Palin, ex-Python turned intrepid explorer, has explored nearly every inch of our extraordinary world. Michael and his team have embarked on many audacious journeys and none have gone off 100% as planned, each came with new hurdles and dilemmas. In his friendly, humorous and charming way, Michael has brought viewers unique cultures and rich, deep histories from some of the least explored regions of the world. Now all his adventures are together in one complete collection. Travel the world with Michael Palin!

EPISODES:
-(1980 to 1994) Great Railway Journeys (various)
-(1989) Around the World in 80 Days (episodes 1-7)
-(1992) Pole to Pole (episodes 1-8)
-(1997) Full Circle (episodes 1-10)
-(1999) Ernest Hemingway Adventure (episodes 1-4)
-(2002) Sahara (episodes 1-4)
-(2004) Himalaya (episodes 1-6)
-(2007) New Europe (episodes 1-7)
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Full Circle with Michael Palin (3 discs, $49.98) - Michael Palin takes you along on an entertaining journey around the Pacific Rim, traveling by boat, train, plane and helicopter. Meet the Eskimos of the island of Diomede in the Bering Strait. Depart in one of their skin boats for Alaska's mainland, then voyage on to view Russia's westernmost wonders. Visit Japan's legendary Kodo Drummers, a Zen Buddhist temple, and as a contrast, downtown Tokyo.

Your itinerary includes the mysteries of China's holiest mountain, a nap in Mao's bed in the Governor's Castle, plus journeys to Vietnam, the perilous Sula Seas, Australia, South America, Mexico and finally full circle back to Alaska. Titles are: "Alaska and Russia," "Japan and Korea," "China," "Vietnam and the Philippines," "Borneo and Indonesia," "Australia and New Zealand," "Chile," "Bolivia and Peru," "Peru and Colombia," and "Mexico and the USA."

FULL CIRCLE Program Episodes:
1) Alaska and Russia - The first programme opens in the middle of the Bering Strait, on the tiny Eskimo island of Diomede which lies equidistant between Russia and the USA. Michael's first continental landfall is the goldrush town of Nome, whose Golden Sands still provide a living for youngsters and old timers who pan and dredge the beaches in the long Arctic summers. At Kodiak, Michael has a date with the US Coast Guard whose C130 supply aircraft will take him to the most distant island in the Aleutian chain, only a short hop from Russia.

2) Japan and Korea - After crossing from Vladivostok to Niigata in programme two, Michael visits the famous Kodd Drummers in Sado, a remote island off Japan. Accommodation is in a ryokan, a traditional inn, where Michael is thrown in at the deep end with a 10-course kimono trying to contain his nerves and his giggling.

3) China - China is home to a quarter of the world's population and, although its the biggest country on their journey, it is also the least understood. "But we have to try to understand it because, within 25 years, it will probably have the most powerful economy in the world". As he travels by ferry to Qingdao, he admits to feeling both apprehensive and fascinated.

4) Vietnam and the Philippines - Michael Palin arrives in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. To his delight, he finds a country filled with surprises and paradoxes, and one which is currently going through some massive changes.

5) Borneo and Java - Zamboanga is one of the most colourful cities in the Pacific Rim, which lies on a sensitive frontier between the Christian Philippines and a Muslim South. The Sula Seas, between Zambo and Borneo, have long been a haunt of pirates and, latterly, guerrillas fighting for a separate Muslim state in the southern Philippines. Michael crosses the perilous stretch of water in a leaky old Japanese ferry, now owned by a charming Filipino family. Fortunately, the journey passes without incident, albeit in considerable discomfort.

6) Australia and New Zealand - In the Northern Territory of Australia, Michael goes on a mercy mission with the outback flying vet; his first landing is on Bluey Pughs airstrip at Coolibah. Bluey has a crocodile farm and his chief breeding male has an abscess on the tip of his jaws.

7) Chile and Bolivia - Michael and the team have arrived at Cape Horn. They disembark, courtesy of the Chilean Navy, which is responsible for the lighthouse on the Cape. Sailing through the storm-racked Beagle Channel, Michael travels on by boat through the glorious coastal scenery of Southern Chile, where there are no roads, eventually reaching the capital, Santiago.

8) Bolivia and Peru - Lake Titicaca, in South America, provides the stunning opening scene in this episode. Michael visits a reed-boat builder on the edge of the Lake and drops in on an Englishwoman who is single-handedly restoring a British-built steamer which was carried up to the world's highest navigable lake more than 100 years ago, piece by piece on the backs of donkeys.

9) Peru and Colombia - Michael and the team are now nearing the end of their 50,000-mile journey. Still in South America, they continue their Urubamba trip, travelling a route which few, except local traders and certainly no film team, have tried. The reward is an incredible jungle experience including encounters with Indian groups only recently contacted by the outside world. At Camisea, they discover the effect that oil prospecting is having on the environment and people of Amazonia.

10) Mexico, USA, Canada and Alaska - Michael arrives in Mexico City where he meets Super Barrio, a masked wrestler who champions the poor of the Third World's largest city. He travels out to the countryside and learns how to make tortillas with families who have even less than their urban counterparts.

Please Note - More details:
Be sure to check out the full details under related releases.

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