In 1988, actor Michael Palin took up the challenge of a lifetime and emulated the adventures of Jules Verne’s character Phileas Fogg in a journey across the world in 80 days.
The Monty Python legend, now 81, travelled by land and sea from London to countries including Italy, Egypt, China, Japan and the United States without using aircraft.
The BBC documentary aired 25 years ago today (October 11) and was a huge success. It is credited with launching Michael’s career as a travel presenter, although he insists this wasn’t his intention.
Michael said: “I’ve always felt that if you’re not careful, what turns out to be a nice little hook for a programme turns you into the world authority.
“Being Fogg was not my idea, and I was chosen after many others had turned it down... It was nice being asked to do something about stories I’d enjoyed so much when I was young. I have to thank Jules Verne for starting a whole new career for me.”
Contemplating how the journey would play out today, Michael believes it would be a “much less happy experience”.
He told the Big Issue: “You’d have much, much more difficulty. Largely because of Covid and the legacy of Covid, ships not being in the right place at the right time, not enough crews...
“And a lot of the countries in the world would still be quite difficult to get across. If you wanted to do it by land, there aren’t that many options.”
He added that the 1980s was probably the best time to make the trip as “things were more relaxed then” and “the great powers didn’t feel obliged to run the world”.
Michael previously opened up about the most difficult day filming the documentary - and it surprisingly came at the very end.
The Monty Python legend explained that despite the incredible experience, the 79th day of the journey was tough on his mental state.
He told the BBC in 2020: “I had so looked forward to seeing home and family again and yet when we reached London we found the capital in a very bad mood.
“The weather was grey and cold, it was Christmas, the streets were full of stressed shoppers and on top of that there had been a terrible rail crash at Clapham Junction.
“But worse was to follow when the Reform Club, where we’d started out 79 days and 7 hours earlier wouldn’t let us back in. I almost decided to go round the world again.”
Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
