Michael Palin: Pole to Pole

Michael Palin on the road again in a scintillating journey from the far north to the extreme south and all points in between.

"Getting to the Poles was to involve some of the hairiest moments of my travelling life...We must have been one of the last film crews to work in the Soviet Union before it collapsed and we worked on the edge of war zones in Sudan and Ethiopia. I shudder at the memory of how things went wrong after visiting a witch doctor, and can remember the bitter anti-climax of being told there was no room for us on the boat from Cape Town to Antarctica". Michael Palin

Michael's journey along the 30-degree east line of longitude encompasses 17 countries and both hemispheres - from Greenland in the north to Kenya, South Africa and Chile in the south. Along the way communism collapses, apartheid ends, and civil wars are sparked as Michael meets Santa Claus and Lenin, goes shopping for camels in Omdurman and makes a final hectic dash to the South Pole.