![]() ![]() After an extensive search involving the shipping company that owned Al Shama, Palin tracks them to the city of Mandvi in Gujarat. On 30 December 2008, the BBC aired a special one-hour documentary entitled Around the World in 20 Years documenting Palin’s search for the crew of the Al Shama, the dhow which carried him from Dubai to Bombay (now Mumbai). In September 2008, twenty years after the trip on the dhow, Palin announced on his official website that he would be travelling to Gujarat in an attempt to locate the dhow’s crew, reunite with them and thank them again for their gracious hospitality. Michael Palin – Around The World In 80 Days E03… door mike-palin Around the World in 20 Years The trip on the dhow yielded so much material that the producers gained special permission to craft this extra seventh episode for what was originally planned as a six-episode series. On the slow boat to India Captain Suleyman and Deyji Ramji show Michael Palin the way. The journey took seven days on what became the most famous part of the whole trip featured in the series. ![]() ![]() Along the way, Palin bonds with the dhow’s crew who were an extended family from the Indian state of Gujarat, letting the oldest one listen to a Bruce Springsteen song on his Walkman, and developing a bad case of diarrhoea, resulting in many trips to the ship’s unique open-air latrine. In Dubai, the team finds a traditional dhow boat named the Al-Shama to take them to Bombay. Once in Dubai Palin notices that in his trip getting there – driving from Jeddah to Dubai via Riyadh – he drove the distance from London to the Black Sea in one weekend. Michael Palin – Around The World In 80 Days E02… door mike-palin Episode 3: Ancient Mariners ![]() The Saudi Arabia leg of the trip is represented in the TV series only with a few still pictures taken by Palin along the way. As a last-ditch effort to save the journey, Palin and the director Clem Vallance are permitted by the Saudi authorities to drive across Saudi Arabia to Dubai, with the rest of the crew (and their problematic camera equipment) making the journey by air. Michael Palin riding a camel ‘lawrence of Arabia’ styleĮven though he is able to take a ferry from the city of Suez to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he misses a key connection that would have taken him to Muscat in Oman. Had it not been for the other’s rejection, Michael Palin the notorious traveler, as we know him might have never materialised! That’s how they came to Palin who was only their fourth choice. To the BBC’s dismay Whicker declined the job, and so did number two and three on their list (Miles Kington and Noel Edmonds). Seasoned TV traveller Alan Whicker (legendary host of the BBC travel show ‘Whicker’s World) was their first choice. For this they needed to find a modern version of him to take the trip and host the show. In 1988 the BBC decided to produce a tv-series retracing the steps of Phileas Fogg around the world in 80 days. Nellie Bly & Elizabeth Bisland already proved that assumption wrong in 1889 when they raced each other in a full loop around the world. In 1988 TV legend Michael Palin took Jules Verne’s travel classic to the big screen by making the first televised version of this global round the world journey that has inspired so many of us. At that time it was a truly fictional piece of writing covering a trip of 80 days around the world that – supposedly – could not be achieved with the travel means of that era. Jules Verne’s 1873 classical travel book ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ has inspired many person’s imagination. ![]()
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