Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime (2020) s01e02 Episode Script
Pole to Pole
MICHAEL:
Now, let's have a look.
Let's see what we've got here.
Oh, yes.
MICHAEL (VO): When I was growing up,
I dreamed of travel and adventure.
CROWD CHATTERS
Bye. Thank you!
MICHAEL (VO):
Then one day, that dream came true.
This is it.
I'm standing on the top of the world!
For three decades,
I've been lucky enough to travel the world
making documentaries
and sharing my adventures
With millions of viewers.
Michael Palin set the tone for, I think,
all travel TV today.
Ooh! Ah
It's a bit like a very friendly steamroller.
He came at the right time,
he had the right daring qualities.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
He has huge warmth.
And it's a warmth that spreads across
all kinds of people.
Bye—bye, Suleiman Two.
Bye—bye, Yousef.
Bye, Mohammed.
It expanded my little horizons
to the rest of the planet.
MICHAEL (VO):
All through my travels, I kept a diary.
MICHAEL:
I've always felt, when I've travelled
it's really, really important
to keep a record.
I mean, every day is precious.
You're seeing things you'll probably never,
ever see again in your life.
Now, for the first time, I'm looking back
re visiting my most memorable journeys
and opening my diaries to find
forgotten moments from my travels.
My way of looking at each journey
as something different
new, special, exciting
dramatic and challenging
as not really knowing exactly
how it was going to turn out.
"POLE TO POLE" THEME MUSIC PLAYS
MICHAEL (VO): My first travel series,
Around the World in 80 Days
had proved that viewers enjoyed
my adventures almost as much as I did.
So it wasn't long before we started
to think about doing another
even more demanding journey.
You've clearly forgotten the horrors
of Around the World in 80 days
because you're about to go off
from Pole to Pole.
Someone suggested doing this route
which is North Pole to South Pole
down 30 degrees, east longitude
which goes right down
through Finland, Russia, Turkey
and right down through Africa,
down the Nile, the Rift Valley, all that
through South Africa to Antarctica
and it just sounded, you know,
too good to miss.
So, I signed up.
MICHAEL: Well, 80 Days,
we didn't pit ourselves against
great physical obstacles at all.
It was all well—settled ground.
Here, straight away, you're going to one
you know, literally an end of the Earth.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Where are we now?
We're three miles from the Pole.
We'll be there in one minute.
MICHAEL:
What are the chances of getting down?
PILOT:
I'd say they're pretty good.
MICHAEL:
By the Pole?
Yeah, we'll be
Probably land within at least
Probably right at the Pole.
MICHAEL:
They said to me, the guys who were flying
"We can't land till the sun comes out"
and I remember saying,
"Oh, it doesn't matter about the weather!
Let's just get this over with."
They said, "No, it does matter
about the weather
because the sun will be shining down
and it will reveal any ridges."
A lot of these ice flows have ridges
which can just flip a plane over
just like that.
I can remember sitting up in that plane
and thinking this was stupid.
This was stupid.
This is it.
I'm standing on the top of the world
at the North Pole
where the time is Well, the time's
anything you want it to be, up here!
The temperature's about
—25 degrees centigrade
so there's no point in hanging around,
what I'm gonna do is make a journey
from here to the South Pole,
which is
oh, in every direction!
It's gonna be a hell of a long journey,
but, uh
Well, let's go!
SNOW CRUNCHES
KARI HERBERT:
They're standing on the top of the world.
There's this incredible sense
of being enormously privileged
because the world is literally
falling away at your feet, every
every direction is south.
And you're
You're in a place where very, very few
human beings have ever been before, so
so, I mean, that's just
What a way to start a programme.
MOTOR STARTS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
South Pole, here we come.
JOANNA LUMLEY:
Pole to Pole was just exciting, real travel.
Beginning to stretch into the kind of
Ran Fiennes territory
and all these great
Robin Knox—Johnstons, the big travellers.
ED BYRNE:
There's such a constant threat of peril
it's actually, it's a bit like watching
a James Bond film.
It's got that thing of,
you know he's going to be fine
but you still find yourself
slightly worried at times
going, "Oh, how's he gonna
get out of this one?"
ENGINES ROAR
The idea was deliberately sort of engineered
to try and get us
from North Pole to South Pole,
going through land most of the way.
"Epic", I suppose is a good word
for Pole to Pole.
I thought if you really want to look hard
at the world and places that
you know, countries that I'd never been to,
for instance
then this was a greater challenge.
The challenge was important.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
We drive on through the night
though at this time of year,
the sun never sets.
It's still there at three in the morning,
and at last, we glimpse the first sign
of human habitation since leaving
Ny—Alesund.
MICHAEL (VO): My three weeks
traveling across the Arctic
was like nothing I'd done before.
But ahead of us was an even more fascinating
and in some ways more mysterious destination.
Russia, and the other states
that then formed the USSR.
Following the line that we'd chosen
we didn't know quite what
was going to be happening along that line
but it would take us through
some very different places.
But
what happened with the timing
was quite extraordinary
because that period in 1991
when the world was changing
incredibly rapidly.
SHIP HORN BLARES
MICHAEL SPEAKS RUSSIAN
"I'm called Michael."
MICHAEL: "For me, the first half
of this Pole to Pole journey
is dominated by Russia.
It's Russia I want to know about,
read about, experience, see.
It is so strange, magnificent,
mysterious, and flawed.
I feel that I may have
an uncomfortable time there
but somehow, that's what I expect.
That's what makes it so
unusual and unfamiliar."
Going into the USSR
was a real change of gear
mentally and indeed, physically.
I just knew this was going to be
the most difficult of all the countries
we went into,
because it was a communist country.
Michael going to Russia
at that very interesting time
where they had been our enemy for
for, you know, in literal terms
I mean, it's very weird
talking about that now.
Don't even understand it anymore
but, like, that was how I thought back then
and so Michael going to these places
was curious, you know,
it was curious to watch
and somehow he managed to keep it light
and yet the gravitas was there,
you know, it was
it was an interesting
mix, and and skilfully done,
MICHAEL: It was difficult
to get permission to film there
you weren't quite sure
whether you were going to be able
to complete the journey through there.
They weren't particularly welcoming
to a British film crew.
So there's a frisson,
as soon as you got to the USSR.
Everything meant something different,
on different levels.
"The roads are in terrible condition,
holed and pitted.
The chronic shortage of petrol
means that, to be sure of supplies
our regular drivers have to fill up
at three o'clock in the morning
and the chronic shortage of glass
is why every other windscreen
in the city is cracked."
Michael was very good at conveying facts
in an utterly informal way.
So at the end of it, you find that you really
know quite a lot about that place.
ADE ADEPITAN:
He's like a really cool, chilled—out teacher.
You know, that gave you information
when you needed to
made you chuckle and laugh
at the right points as well
and then, you know, guided you.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: I have the money
but it doesn't seem to be that simple.
Vodka by coupon.
No? Coupons?
Maybe I could buy a coupon off you?
HE LAUGHS
Yes? How much?
I not sell.
Oh, no?
— No sale.
MICHAEL: There was something
really engaging about the way of life
of the people in the USSR. For them
Russia meant something more
than the communist regime.
It was a place where you
made your own way.
You could be as independent as you want,
which surprised me.
It didn't seem as cowed and as oppressive
as I thought it would be.
We kept meeting these jolly people,
and they'd all drink a lot of vodka
and there'd be toasts and all that
and everyone seemed very pleased to see us.
Here we go.
Mmm!
By my count, that's number 23.
It's the first time I'd really seen
a presenter get stuck in
with the people that he's
he's going to meet, you know.
It always felt, before, like the presenter
was just observing
from a distance, you know?
But he was in there, and I
and that, for me, is really special,
you know.
The fact that he's having a few drinks
with the people.
He's getting drunk.
It's like the camera isn't there.
A lot of telly presenters want
They want a script, they want
they wanna know what they should be saying
and where they should be standing and
There's, it
There's something
wonderfully natural about Michael
in that he wasn't dominated
by a colossal ego
that required that, and he was confident
and clever enough just to say
"Let's go for it."
Well, just as I was having lovely dreams
of breaking my day's fast
um, we've had a bit of bad luck with the
with the train, and we're gonna be
stopped here in the middle of the forest.
MICHAEL:
This is a piece of Russian life
that I think sort of sums up
what I like about the place.
For some reason,
there was a problem with the engine
and people are straight off the train
and going to the village
and getting water and vodka and tea.
Suddenly, they found a pond nearby
and so it's an impromptu
sort of afternoon off.
HE SHOUTS
People all sort of swimming, jumping
throwing themselves in the water.
You couldn't imagine this happening,
you know, in
outside Didcot!
"After a swim, I returned to the train.
I search the map and locate the spot
in case I should not believe
all this ever happened.
As I do so, I notice that less than
100 miles to the south west
the name of the small town of Chernobyl."
The Soviet Union admitted this evening
that there's been an accident
at one of its nuclear power stations.
The accident happened at Chernobyl
in the Ukraine.
It sent a wave of radiation
across Scandinavia
which was recorded several hours
before the Soviets
admitted that something had happened.
REPORTER: Now there's an exodus
of children going on from Kiev.
Parents have been sending
their children away
as their level of anxiety mounts.
MICHAEL (VO):
It was now five years since the accident.
I was curious to see where it happened
and what was left behind.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
This plant is wormwood.
The Ukrainian word for wormwood
is "Chernobyl".
It grows abundantly here in Narodychi
only 40 miles from the scene
of the world's worst nuclear accident.
Michael, you carry this one.
If it omits a loud wail
just get out of the area,
cos it means it's a hotspot.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: No one knows
quite how dangerous this area is.
But none of our Russian guides would
come with us, only Vadim would join me.
This is something which,
I look back on now and I think
this was a fairly audacious
and possibly risky bit of filming.
I'm sure he must have been afraid
at some points
but he didn't show the fear,
and I think not showing that fear as well
and not
not putting judgement on things,
letting the viewer just take it in
and go, "OK, this is how it is here,
alright."
Yeah, it's a much better
It was a much better way to do things,
I think.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The poison that infects
these ghost villages is invisible
but, as happened
outside this old village shop
it can be heard.
DEVICE WAILS
"There is still confusion and debate
over the effects of the disaster.
Flowers are in bloom
yet scientists say it could be 700 years
before this place comes back to life.
Whatever curse lies over these villages
is more frightening from being invisible.
It's how one has heard the countryside
would be after a nuclear war.
Benign, smiling
deadly."
This lady here, who decided to stay
everyone else moved out.
She just wasn't gonna move,
and it's that
that spirit.
You tend to think of Russia as very
conformist and everybody just toeing the line
but in fact, when you look more clearly,
it's a number of very eccentric
and independent spirits throughout Russia.
ED BALLS:
These are not documentaries
which have a view or a thesis.
This is not Michael Palin's
version of history.
He doesn't need to say,
"I'm here at a historic moment."
What he's doing is he's capturing the reality
of history as it unfolds.
When I start thinking about the land,
it would be so rich
if it were not for Bolsheviks first
for Chernobyl.
MICHAEL (VO):
As I continued south across Ukraine
which was then still part
of the Soviet Union
a chance encounter
with a young Ukrainian Nationalist
reinforced my sense
that change was in the air.
I see Ukrainian history being revived,
I see Ukrainian culture, you know
the culture which many people
thought is no
is gone forever.
Now, we're getting back to some of our roots,
there is so much to do here.
And he said, you know, it may seem crazy
but I think Ukraine will be
a free, independent country
and it was free and independent
within the next, sort of, three months.
He just seemed to be right next
to these incredibly historic moments
in geopolitics, and it does add
a poignancy to the journey
especially after he goes through Russia
and just after he gets out the other side
there's a coup.
The Soviet Union is back under the control
of hard—line communists tonight.
They took over the country
with the help of the Army
and the KGB before dawn this morning.
They said the country had become
ungovernable and was in mortal danger.
We could hear the radio going
and our interpreter said that is saying
that Gorbachev has gone
that, uh, the Communist Party
is going to be declared illegal.
Extraordinary.
MICHAEL (VO): We had spent 78 days
crossing the Soviet Union
followed by a few days in Turkey.
Then after a short hop to Cyprus,
we docked at Port Said, Egypt.
For our journey south down the Nile,
we swapped Egyptian trains
for something a bit more sedate,
the tourist trail.
At this time in the early'90s, the world
was becoming more open to travel.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Cultural cruises
down the Nile have become big business
in the last ten years.
But the Gulf War has scared customers away
and there are only 30 passengers
aboard the Isis
as we move at a leisurely pace
towards Aswan.
To see Michael,
who didn't feel so different from me
travelling country to country in this way
not with some massively expensive
kind of
package, but finding a boat,
finding a train
I mean
That was the first time I realised
that people like me could do that.
GREG JAMES: It feels like Michael Palin
comes from a better time
where you felt lucky
to go and do a big adventure
and you weren't just doing it
to put it on Instagram.
And unfortunately,
that's how a lot of travel is these days.
Michael never did any of those things
to say he did it.
He always went for a reason
and to find something interesting out
about a person or the place.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL: When we got to Aswan,
the cruises all go back north
because they can't go south
cos there's a huge dam,
Lake Nasser.
We went south
on Lake Nasser into Sudan.
Totally different group of people.
INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN
All migrant workers from Egypt
crammed on the deck of a very small ferry
chugging its way across to a town
in Northern Sudan
that no one really had ever heard of
and probably never had
a film crew ever going there.
"We're on our way out of Egypt, at last.
From tomorrow,
we shall cease for a while to be tourists
and become travellers
in a country which my guidebook
describes as
quotes, 'fraught with political turmoil,
economic chaos, civil war
drought, famine, disease,
and a refugee crisis'."
We didn't know really anything
about what happened in Sudan
who populated this enormous great country.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
It was a mystery.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Sudan, the biggest country in Africa
is an overnight ferry ride from Egypt
but life here is very different.
Sudan does not encourage visitors.
MICHAEL: As soon as you landed
off the ship at Wadi Halfa
which is the Northern Sudan
British had been stationed there in the war
and called it "bloody hellfire"
and it wasn't a place with schedules
and timings and all that.
For our journey across Sudan
we had reservations on a legendary service
that looked like it had seen better days.
The Nile Valley Express.
The train didn't leave on time.
The train left when there were enough people
to make it worth leaving.
No one was rioting
because the train left two days late.
Can you imagine that, you know,
sort of Paddington, somewhere like that?
"Excuse me, we've been
two days on this train.
Haven't even reached Reading yet!"
Bye. Thank you!
HE SPEAKS ARABIC
— INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
There are 3,000 to 4,000 passengers
on the Nile Valley Express.
It's like a small town on the move.
The rate of progress is governed
less by timetables
than by the needs of the townsfolk.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
MICHAEL: Every now and then,
the train would have to halt
because it was a desert line
and the wind would blow sand over the track.
So people would have to get out
and dig it out.
No complaints.
People would get off and there'd be
a lot of people do their prayers to Mecca
and all that sort of thing,
people would have food
everyone was prepared for delay.
HE CHUCKLES
And would then get back on again
and off we'd go.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Tea? Tea?
Chai? Thank you.
Cucumber sandwiches, please.
There's something really romantic
about train travel
and the shows he did, I think, capture that.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Roof class have their own catering.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Everyone up here travels free,
and there are plenty of punters
willing to risk sun, sand
and sliding off into the desert.
Sleep well?
MICHAEL: There were students going
to university in Khartoum and all that.
Bright, intelligent, sort of
Interested, the fact that we didn't travel
on the roof in the UK.
So I had to sort of tell them
about bridges and things like that.
There's no way they'd let a presenter
do that now.
Climb up onto the roof of a train
unless they were strapped on.
You know, unless you were put in a
like Hannibal Lecter—style
handcart, and strapped to the roof.
This is what's special
because they just did
get the cameras and just
just do it, you know, like
that's what the local people are doing
and I think it's important to try
you know, what the locals do.
If you start worrying about
health and safety
then you'd you'd miss out all of Africa.
Do you always travel like this,
on top of the train?
Yes, sometimes.
It's better than first class,
you know, you've got a better view.
MICHAEL:
And I thought, this is all new.
This is what's so wonderful
about that kind of travelling
you are learning things all the time.
I think our job is
is all the time,
to be bringing you things that
quite a section of the audience
has never seen before.
Michael brings in
He takes you to places
you've never heard of before and takes risks.
MICHAEL: Some of the most magical moments
of any of my travels
were sitting just watching
the Sudanese Dessert go by.
Just the smell of
of sand, and it was just wonderfully soothing
and it's on a train which is two days late
with an engine which keeps breaking down.
You know, that can be a good thing.
MICHAEL (VO):
We'd now been travelling for 67 days
more than 5, 000 miles
with roughly 74, 000 miles still to go
to the South Pole.
Africa was living up to all my expectations.
This was what I'd hoped for.
"Day 69.
After a weekend of recovery
from the journey into Sudan
it's now time to investigate
how we're going to get out.
This necessitates a visit
to the Ministry of Information.
The threat of violence is more real here
than in any of the other countries
through which we've travelled."
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Here in the capital
are the first signs of trouble ahead.
For the last eight years,
the mainly Christian South has been at war
with the hard—line Muslim government
in Khartoum.
Unfortunately for us, the warzone
lies straight across our path.
Ayusha Travel, a transport company
run by Eritreans
from Northern Ethiopia
could solve our problem of leaving the Sudan.
So which route would you take us?
From Khartoum direct to Madani.
Through Madani to Gedaref.
— Yeah.
From Gedaref to Metema is ruffles.
Rocky road?
— Yeah.
MICHAEL (VO): This new route
to the Ethiopian border
over 300 miles away
took us around the current warzone
but it was still risky
as the conflict had left defeated soldiers
wandering the countryside
looking for trouble.
JOANNA:
A lot of travelling is
seeing which way the wind is blowing.
You go, "Well, let's take that path."
You've got to have that feeling to it.
I think Michael
keeps the feeling of it like that.
There's always something,
a slight element of danger
that he would go off the beaten track.
He doesn't seem biddable.
He doesn't seem to toe the line.
I can see risk, but for some strange reason,
I've always been a complete optimist
and felt we're going to be OK.
I'm glad I feel like that
because it's
I've been in some very, very
dodgy situations
and if I'd known
they were going to be dodgy
that dodgy, I would have never gone.
"Day 76.
At about midday, the scenery
is becoming more picturesque
and we stop to allow Nigel the cameraman
to climb a low hill and get some shots.
The soldiers become very agitated
and order him back.
Apparently both these hills
are full of armed men
who will not hesitate to shoot on sight.
He is the sort of person
you want to travel with
because he wouldn't ever panic.
He never panics,
no matter how hairy it might get
he's always like, "Right!
OK, let's we can work through this,"
type thing.
MICHAEL: It constantly makes you sort of
question how you live at home and all that.
There are five—star hotels in Africa
but to get the feel of Africa
I suppose something like that journey
across the border from Khartoum
sort of, really don't get more basic,
you get close to people.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
In the busy little town of Shashamene
a moody walk through the streets
becomes a major event.
As far as the locals are concerned,
the circus has come to town.
LOUD CHATTER
Behave normally, just carry on!
Do whatever you're doing.
I'll try and behave normally as well.
There's really nothing else to do
but enjoy it as much as they are.
Where did you get that?
Oh! There they are!
He's great at improvising
so none of that stuff when he's just
meeting people on the street
or even if there's a set—up
I would be very surprised if there was
a talking through of
how they're gonna script it
or how the conversation is gonna go.
In his head, he'll have some things
to ask the person
but because he's so instinctively funny
and intelligent and really likes people
and that is crucial, you can't do these
sorts of jobs if you don't like people
then he just goes with stuff,
and he's an amazing improviser.
LOUD CHATTER
— I'll continue my
gentle walk
CROWD CHATTERS
Now
Ho, ho, hum!
Mmm, lots to do here!
CHILDREN LAUGH
MUFFLED SPEECH
— CROWD CHATTERS
Oh, that's very good.
SIMON:
It's the people that you meet on journeys
that really make travel special
hearing their all—too—human stories
and experiences
but just knowing that out there
on this enormous planet
with this ridiculous number of people on it
fundamentally, human beings are warm
and welcoming and friendly.
I think that can never be said
too much or too often.
It's one of the key discoveries,
I think, for anybody who
starts travelling properly around this planet
but it is something you have to learn.
You have to get out there and try it
and experience
and you have to stumble as well.
There will be a few stumbles along the way,
but you trust your instincts
you avoid the dodgy salad at the hotel buffet
you always wear a seatbelt
and basically, you'll be OK.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Journey's end, 27 hours after leaving Dodoma.
A little bit late, but not late enough
to miss the boat which, er, leaves very soon.
That will take me down on the next stage
of the journey south at last
a long way south,
down Lake Tanganyika to Mpulungu!
MICHAEL (VO): We'd now been travelling
and filming for 703 days straight
and that night in the hotel,
the strain was starting to show.
Oh
MICHAEL GIGGLES
MICHAEL GIGGLES
Oh, dear!
Oh, dear. Well, it's my wedding day!
There we are, right. Hey!
I did it!
HE LAUGHS
Gone, I'm cracked
HE LAUGHS
HE GIGGLES
MICHAEL: "If all goes well,
we should be in Lusaka by tonight
then Victoria Falls
then Zimbabwe and South Africa.
I feel a pain of sadness
at the prospect of leaving behind
all I've been through these past months."
I think, during Pole to Pole,
seeing him go through Africa in that way
and spending time in all the countries,
what we see on the news of Africa
is often just the tragic side of it
and these people need help,
and then it's
it can be a very patronising view
that we have
and then just seeing
people's actual lives
and seeing the joy in them,
and what they do
and even the hardships
they have to go through
but how they overcome them
he really facilitated in showing that
and again, didn't impose
these Western views upon it
going, "This is just their lifestyle,"
and lived the way they lived
rather than saying,
"I'm this British TV reporter
I'm gonna do this."
He was just in it, which is a way more
interesting way to view the world
than through our own lens.
MICHAEL:
And then we went into South Africa
and although apartheid
had just been sort of voted out
there was still the attitudes
that sustained apartheid was still there
and I can remember
the swagger of the police
at the border,
and the sort of sticks they had
and the confidence of these sort of
pale, red—headed young men
um, in a country of black people, you know
just made me feel, "God, this is not good."
South Africa seemed to be
Well, was the most like the West.
Was the most organised, the most orderly
the richest, you just felt that
as you were going into the country.
And then we found out
that's a very superficial thing
and in fact, underneath it all
there's great levels of poverty
in South Africa.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Soweto was set up in 1933
to house a cheap labour force.
Shanty settlements like this one,
known as Mandela Village
are the legacy of that decision.
These are the families of people
who are not wanted
and probably never will be.
MAN: These are the haircuts,
the barbers, street barbers.
Money making, of course.
— MICHAEL: Yes.
MAN: As you can see, it's connected
electrically from the battery.
JOANNA:
He put down a sort of blueprint
of how to behave in foreign countries
which is his great courtesy,
but familiarity and friendliness.
MICHAEL:
Yeah.
Usually, people behave pretty disastrously
because they feel uncomfortable,
strangely enough.
And he's at ease with himself
and he's got no he holds no
bad thoughts, so he's not
he's not starting off with a sneer
in his heart, you know what I mean?
Or trying to make a point.
He goes in, just open enquiry, you know?
MICHAEL (VO): But it was clear that
South Africa's road to true racial equality
would be a long one.
As for me
my epic journey across
the continent was over.
I'd finally reached Cape Town.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: From the top
of Table Mountain, you can see the point
where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.
Beyond that, 2,500 miles
over the horizon is Antarctica.
But the most poignant site of all
is down in the harbour
a red hull supply ship we've chased
through Africa to reach.
In the end, we made it
but our appeal for space
onboard the Agulhas has failed
and when she sails tomorrow
on the only voyage of the year
between Cape Town and the Antarctic
we will still be here.
The journey, it seems
is over.
MICHAEL (VO):
Except it wasn't.
I was determined
not to fall at the final hurdle.
So, after making some calls,
we found another route to the South Pole
not via South Africa but South America.
MICHAEL: I was apprehensive to say the least
about flying into Antarctica.
Day by day, we were made aware
that there were weather conditions
changed very, very fast around there
and we could not get from Punto Arenas
on our plane into Antarctica
unless all the weather conditions were right
for about 48 hours
cos the plane had to go into there
and be able to come back.
So when we took off,
I suppose that was
one of the zones of fear
in all the journeys.
I began to feel,
"Why are we doing this bit?
Why can't we just end here
where we're safe and go back now?"
MICHAEL (VO):
The trip was in two stages.
First, this plane would take me
and a few other intrepid travellers
to a base called Patriot Hills,
600 miles from the Pole.
There, we were to be picked up
by a smaller plane
to take us to the South Pole itself
There's no airfield as such on Antarctica,
where we were going
it's just blue ice,
and the pilot will have to land.
It's quite difficult to land on this ice
without skidding off into the, you know
Tipping over or anything like that,
so everything was hairy.
INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER
The next thing I remember
was getting out of the plane
and finding that
HE LAUGHS
Antarctica was really slippery.
CREW CHATTERS
The bit we've all been warned about!
I know why. Jesus.
Absolutely like glass.
Oh, dear. Too late to go back. Woo!
There's something
about the immensity of it
of the ice and the cold
and just, you feel so
sort of small and insignificant
in many places in the Antarctic.
It is so spectacularly beautiful.
But there's also just a sense
of the greatness of it
and also the possibility of danger
at pretty much every step.
So for me,
I find that incredibly irresistible.
For Michael, he didn't look like he was
particularly at his most comfortable
in that environment,
but I think that's also because he's
he loves being around people
and the Antarctic is a very wide open space
and it is a very, very challenging
place to be.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The first thing I learn
is that here in this ice desert
even the most mundane human tasks
take on an epic quality.
HE SIGHS
That is the most extraordinary view
from any lavatory anywhere in the world.
MICHAEL:
"Day 141
1:10am.
We can see the South Pole ahead.
It's somewhere in the middle
of a complex of buildings
dominated by a 150—foot wide geodesic dome."
The disappointing thing about it
was it was very sort of, um
functional.
Underneath the South Pole itself,
there's this great base.
And you open a door and there are people
having blackberry muffins
and listening to Chicago on the sound system.
And this is at the South Pole
and it's awful, it's just awful, you know.
Where's my ideas of heroism
and the great Greek travellers and all that?
The Argonauts have come to this
you know, sort of ordering cheeseburgers
underneath the South Pole.
"Some 50 yards from the main pole
is a ceremonial pole.
The pole itself, a small brass tube
which looks like something
should be about to be plumbed into it.
Poor old South Pole!
But I stand on it at 3:05 in the morning
of December 4th
and thought of Mum and Angela and Dad
and what they would think of me."
HE TUTS
Yeah.
It is the end of the world.
It's also the end of our hare—brain migration
from North to South.
I think the omens
are telling us to stop.
Just a while ago, the camera packed up
because of the cold
and as you can tell, I'm beginning
to pack up because of the cold too.
I think it's just that after five
and a half months on the road
the body is finally saying, "Pack it in!"
MICHAEL: It's much less settled,
much less comfortable
much less predictable
than Around the World in 80 Days
and I think that, to me
I felt a real, much more of a sense of
of adventure,
that'd we'd actually gone into places
that I probably would never have ever gone
in my life otherwise
and come out the other side.
HE CHUCKLES
Full Circle had to be as stunning
if not more so than the others.
— CROWD ROARS
CANE CRACKS
This was a very, very long journey
much, much longer, in fact
I think it was in the end 50,000 miles,
something like that
which was longer than Pole to Pole
and 80 Days put together.
Now, let's have a look.
Let's see what we've got here.
Oh, yes.
MICHAEL (VO): When I was growing up,
I dreamed of travel and adventure.
CROWD CHATTERS
Bye. Thank you!
MICHAEL (VO):
Then one day, that dream came true.
This is it.
I'm standing on the top of the world!
For three decades,
I've been lucky enough to travel the world
making documentaries
and sharing my adventures
With millions of viewers.
Michael Palin set the tone for, I think,
all travel TV today.
Ooh! Ah
It's a bit like a very friendly steamroller.
He came at the right time,
he had the right daring qualities.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH:
He has huge warmth.
And it's a warmth that spreads across
all kinds of people.
Bye—bye, Suleiman Two.
Bye—bye, Yousef.
Bye, Mohammed.
It expanded my little horizons
to the rest of the planet.
MICHAEL (VO):
All through my travels, I kept a diary.
MICHAEL:
I've always felt, when I've travelled
it's really, really important
to keep a record.
I mean, every day is precious.
You're seeing things you'll probably never,
ever see again in your life.
Now, for the first time, I'm looking back
re visiting my most memorable journeys
and opening my diaries to find
forgotten moments from my travels.
My way of looking at each journey
as something different
new, special, exciting
dramatic and challenging
as not really knowing exactly
how it was going to turn out.
"POLE TO POLE" THEME MUSIC PLAYS
MICHAEL (VO): My first travel series,
Around the World in 80 Days
had proved that viewers enjoyed
my adventures almost as much as I did.
So it wasn't long before we started
to think about doing another
even more demanding journey.
You've clearly forgotten the horrors
of Around the World in 80 days
because you're about to go off
from Pole to Pole.
Someone suggested doing this route
which is North Pole to South Pole
down 30 degrees, east longitude
which goes right down
through Finland, Russia, Turkey
and right down through Africa,
down the Nile, the Rift Valley, all that
through South Africa to Antarctica
and it just sounded, you know,
too good to miss.
So, I signed up.
MICHAEL: Well, 80 Days,
we didn't pit ourselves against
great physical obstacles at all.
It was all well—settled ground.
Here, straight away, you're going to one
you know, literally an end of the Earth.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Where are we now?
We're three miles from the Pole.
We'll be there in one minute.
MICHAEL:
What are the chances of getting down?
PILOT:
I'd say they're pretty good.
MICHAEL:
By the Pole?
Yeah, we'll be
Probably land within at least
Probably right at the Pole.
MICHAEL:
They said to me, the guys who were flying
"We can't land till the sun comes out"
and I remember saying,
"Oh, it doesn't matter about the weather!
Let's just get this over with."
They said, "No, it does matter
about the weather
because the sun will be shining down
and it will reveal any ridges."
A lot of these ice flows have ridges
which can just flip a plane over
just like that.
I can remember sitting up in that plane
and thinking this was stupid.
This was stupid.
This is it.
I'm standing on the top of the world
at the North Pole
where the time is Well, the time's
anything you want it to be, up here!
The temperature's about
—25 degrees centigrade
so there's no point in hanging around,
what I'm gonna do is make a journey
from here to the South Pole,
which is
oh, in every direction!
It's gonna be a hell of a long journey,
but, uh
Well, let's go!
SNOW CRUNCHES
KARI HERBERT:
They're standing on the top of the world.
There's this incredible sense
of being enormously privileged
because the world is literally
falling away at your feet, every
every direction is south.
And you're
You're in a place where very, very few
human beings have ever been before, so
so, I mean, that's just
What a way to start a programme.
MOTOR STARTS
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
South Pole, here we come.
JOANNA LUMLEY:
Pole to Pole was just exciting, real travel.
Beginning to stretch into the kind of
Ran Fiennes territory
and all these great
Robin Knox—Johnstons, the big travellers.
ED BYRNE:
There's such a constant threat of peril
it's actually, it's a bit like watching
a James Bond film.
It's got that thing of,
you know he's going to be fine
but you still find yourself
slightly worried at times
going, "Oh, how's he gonna
get out of this one?"
ENGINES ROAR
The idea was deliberately sort of engineered
to try and get us
from North Pole to South Pole,
going through land most of the way.
"Epic", I suppose is a good word
for Pole to Pole.
I thought if you really want to look hard
at the world and places that
you know, countries that I'd never been to,
for instance
then this was a greater challenge.
The challenge was important.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
We drive on through the night
though at this time of year,
the sun never sets.
It's still there at three in the morning,
and at last, we glimpse the first sign
of human habitation since leaving
Ny—Alesund.
MICHAEL (VO): My three weeks
traveling across the Arctic
was like nothing I'd done before.
But ahead of us was an even more fascinating
and in some ways more mysterious destination.
Russia, and the other states
that then formed the USSR.
Following the line that we'd chosen
we didn't know quite what
was going to be happening along that line
but it would take us through
some very different places.
But
what happened with the timing
was quite extraordinary
because that period in 1991
when the world was changing
incredibly rapidly.
SHIP HORN BLARES
MICHAEL SPEAKS RUSSIAN
"I'm called Michael."
MICHAEL: "For me, the first half
of this Pole to Pole journey
is dominated by Russia.
It's Russia I want to know about,
read about, experience, see.
It is so strange, magnificent,
mysterious, and flawed.
I feel that I may have
an uncomfortable time there
but somehow, that's what I expect.
That's what makes it so
unusual and unfamiliar."
Going into the USSR
was a real change of gear
mentally and indeed, physically.
I just knew this was going to be
the most difficult of all the countries
we went into,
because it was a communist country.
Michael going to Russia
at that very interesting time
where they had been our enemy for
for, you know, in literal terms
I mean, it's very weird
talking about that now.
Don't even understand it anymore
but, like, that was how I thought back then
and so Michael going to these places
was curious, you know,
it was curious to watch
and somehow he managed to keep it light
and yet the gravitas was there,
you know, it was
it was an interesting
mix, and and skilfully done,
MICHAEL: It was difficult
to get permission to film there
you weren't quite sure
whether you were going to be able
to complete the journey through there.
They weren't particularly welcoming
to a British film crew.
So there's a frisson,
as soon as you got to the USSR.
Everything meant something different,
on different levels.
"The roads are in terrible condition,
holed and pitted.
The chronic shortage of petrol
means that, to be sure of supplies
our regular drivers have to fill up
at three o'clock in the morning
and the chronic shortage of glass
is why every other windscreen
in the city is cracked."
Michael was very good at conveying facts
in an utterly informal way.
So at the end of it, you find that you really
know quite a lot about that place.
ADE ADEPITAN:
He's like a really cool, chilled—out teacher.
You know, that gave you information
when you needed to
made you chuckle and laugh
at the right points as well
and then, you know, guided you.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: I have the money
but it doesn't seem to be that simple.
Vodka by coupon.
No? Coupons?
Maybe I could buy a coupon off you?
HE LAUGHS
Yes? How much?
I not sell.
Oh, no?
— No sale.
MICHAEL: There was something
really engaging about the way of life
of the people in the USSR. For them
Russia meant something more
than the communist regime.
It was a place where you
made your own way.
You could be as independent as you want,
which surprised me.
It didn't seem as cowed and as oppressive
as I thought it would be.
We kept meeting these jolly people,
and they'd all drink a lot of vodka
and there'd be toasts and all that
and everyone seemed very pleased to see us.
Here we go.
Mmm!
By my count, that's number 23.
It's the first time I'd really seen
a presenter get stuck in
with the people that he's
he's going to meet, you know.
It always felt, before, like the presenter
was just observing
from a distance, you know?
But he was in there, and I
and that, for me, is really special,
you know.
The fact that he's having a few drinks
with the people.
He's getting drunk.
It's like the camera isn't there.
A lot of telly presenters want
They want a script, they want
they wanna know what they should be saying
and where they should be standing and
There's, it
There's something
wonderfully natural about Michael
in that he wasn't dominated
by a colossal ego
that required that, and he was confident
and clever enough just to say
"Let's go for it."
Well, just as I was having lovely dreams
of breaking my day's fast
um, we've had a bit of bad luck with the
with the train, and we're gonna be
stopped here in the middle of the forest.
MICHAEL:
This is a piece of Russian life
that I think sort of sums up
what I like about the place.
For some reason,
there was a problem with the engine
and people are straight off the train
and going to the village
and getting water and vodka and tea.
Suddenly, they found a pond nearby
and so it's an impromptu
sort of afternoon off.
HE SHOUTS
People all sort of swimming, jumping
throwing themselves in the water.
You couldn't imagine this happening,
you know, in
outside Didcot!
"After a swim, I returned to the train.
I search the map and locate the spot
in case I should not believe
all this ever happened.
As I do so, I notice that less than
100 miles to the south west
the name of the small town of Chernobyl."
The Soviet Union admitted this evening
that there's been an accident
at one of its nuclear power stations.
The accident happened at Chernobyl
in the Ukraine.
It sent a wave of radiation
across Scandinavia
which was recorded several hours
before the Soviets
admitted that something had happened.
REPORTER: Now there's an exodus
of children going on from Kiev.
Parents have been sending
their children away
as their level of anxiety mounts.
MICHAEL (VO):
It was now five years since the accident.
I was curious to see where it happened
and what was left behind.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
This plant is wormwood.
The Ukrainian word for wormwood
is "Chernobyl".
It grows abundantly here in Narodychi
only 40 miles from the scene
of the world's worst nuclear accident.
Michael, you carry this one.
If it omits a loud wail
just get out of the area,
cos it means it's a hotspot.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: No one knows
quite how dangerous this area is.
But none of our Russian guides would
come with us, only Vadim would join me.
This is something which,
I look back on now and I think
this was a fairly audacious
and possibly risky bit of filming.
I'm sure he must have been afraid
at some points
but he didn't show the fear,
and I think not showing that fear as well
and not
not putting judgement on things,
letting the viewer just take it in
and go, "OK, this is how it is here,
alright."
Yeah, it's a much better
It was a much better way to do things,
I think.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The poison that infects
these ghost villages is invisible
but, as happened
outside this old village shop
it can be heard.
DEVICE WAILS
"There is still confusion and debate
over the effects of the disaster.
Flowers are in bloom
yet scientists say it could be 700 years
before this place comes back to life.
Whatever curse lies over these villages
is more frightening from being invisible.
It's how one has heard the countryside
would be after a nuclear war.
Benign, smiling
deadly."
This lady here, who decided to stay
everyone else moved out.
She just wasn't gonna move,
and it's that
that spirit.
You tend to think of Russia as very
conformist and everybody just toeing the line
but in fact, when you look more clearly,
it's a number of very eccentric
and independent spirits throughout Russia.
ED BALLS:
These are not documentaries
which have a view or a thesis.
This is not Michael Palin's
version of history.
He doesn't need to say,
"I'm here at a historic moment."
What he's doing is he's capturing the reality
of history as it unfolds.
When I start thinking about the land,
it would be so rich
if it were not for Bolsheviks first
for Chernobyl.
MICHAEL (VO):
As I continued south across Ukraine
which was then still part
of the Soviet Union
a chance encounter
with a young Ukrainian Nationalist
reinforced my sense
that change was in the air.
I see Ukrainian history being revived,
I see Ukrainian culture, you know
the culture which many people
thought is no
is gone forever.
Now, we're getting back to some of our roots,
there is so much to do here.
And he said, you know, it may seem crazy
but I think Ukraine will be
a free, independent country
and it was free and independent
within the next, sort of, three months.
He just seemed to be right next
to these incredibly historic moments
in geopolitics, and it does add
a poignancy to the journey
especially after he goes through Russia
and just after he gets out the other side
there's a coup.
The Soviet Union is back under the control
of hard—line communists tonight.
They took over the country
with the help of the Army
and the KGB before dawn this morning.
They said the country had become
ungovernable and was in mortal danger.
We could hear the radio going
and our interpreter said that is saying
that Gorbachev has gone
that, uh, the Communist Party
is going to be declared illegal.
Extraordinary.
MICHAEL (VO): We had spent 78 days
crossing the Soviet Union
followed by a few days in Turkey.
Then after a short hop to Cyprus,
we docked at Port Said, Egypt.
For our journey south down the Nile,
we swapped Egyptian trains
for something a bit more sedate,
the tourist trail.
At this time in the early'90s, the world
was becoming more open to travel.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Cultural cruises
down the Nile have become big business
in the last ten years.
But the Gulf War has scared customers away
and there are only 30 passengers
aboard the Isis
as we move at a leisurely pace
towards Aswan.
To see Michael,
who didn't feel so different from me
travelling country to country in this way
not with some massively expensive
kind of
package, but finding a boat,
finding a train
I mean
That was the first time I realised
that people like me could do that.
GREG JAMES: It feels like Michael Palin
comes from a better time
where you felt lucky
to go and do a big adventure
and you weren't just doing it
to put it on Instagram.
And unfortunately,
that's how a lot of travel is these days.
Michael never did any of those things
to say he did it.
He always went for a reason
and to find something interesting out
about a person or the place.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL: When we got to Aswan,
the cruises all go back north
because they can't go south
cos there's a huge dam,
Lake Nasser.
We went south
on Lake Nasser into Sudan.
Totally different group of people.
INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMEN
All migrant workers from Egypt
crammed on the deck of a very small ferry
chugging its way across to a town
in Northern Sudan
that no one really had ever heard of
and probably never had
a film crew ever going there.
"We're on our way out of Egypt, at last.
From tomorrow,
we shall cease for a while to be tourists
and become travellers
in a country which my guidebook
describes as
quotes, 'fraught with political turmoil,
economic chaos, civil war
drought, famine, disease,
and a refugee crisis'."
We didn't know really anything
about what happened in Sudan
who populated this enormous great country.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
It was a mystery.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Sudan, the biggest country in Africa
is an overnight ferry ride from Egypt
but life here is very different.
Sudan does not encourage visitors.
MICHAEL: As soon as you landed
off the ship at Wadi Halfa
which is the Northern Sudan
British had been stationed there in the war
and called it "bloody hellfire"
and it wasn't a place with schedules
and timings and all that.
For our journey across Sudan
we had reservations on a legendary service
that looked like it had seen better days.
The Nile Valley Express.
The train didn't leave on time.
The train left when there were enough people
to make it worth leaving.
No one was rioting
because the train left two days late.
Can you imagine that, you know,
sort of Paddington, somewhere like that?
"Excuse me, we've been
two days on this train.
Haven't even reached Reading yet!"
Bye. Thank you!
HE SPEAKS ARABIC
— INDISTINCT CHATTER
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
There are 3,000 to 4,000 passengers
on the Nile Valley Express.
It's like a small town on the move.
The rate of progress is governed
less by timetables
than by the needs of the townsfolk.
TRAIN HORN BLARES
MICHAEL: Every now and then,
the train would have to halt
because it was a desert line
and the wind would blow sand over the track.
So people would have to get out
and dig it out.
No complaints.
People would get off and there'd be
a lot of people do their prayers to Mecca
and all that sort of thing,
people would have food
everyone was prepared for delay.
HE CHUCKLES
And would then get back on again
and off we'd go.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Tea? Tea?
Chai? Thank you.
Cucumber sandwiches, please.
There's something really romantic
about train travel
and the shows he did, I think, capture that.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Roof class have their own catering.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Everyone up here travels free,
and there are plenty of punters
willing to risk sun, sand
and sliding off into the desert.
Sleep well?
MICHAEL: There were students going
to university in Khartoum and all that.
Bright, intelligent, sort of
Interested, the fact that we didn't travel
on the roof in the UK.
So I had to sort of tell them
about bridges and things like that.
There's no way they'd let a presenter
do that now.
Climb up onto the roof of a train
unless they were strapped on.
You know, unless you were put in a
like Hannibal Lecter—style
handcart, and strapped to the roof.
This is what's special
because they just did
get the cameras and just
just do it, you know, like
that's what the local people are doing
and I think it's important to try
you know, what the locals do.
If you start worrying about
health and safety
then you'd you'd miss out all of Africa.
Do you always travel like this,
on top of the train?
Yes, sometimes.
It's better than first class,
you know, you've got a better view.
MICHAEL:
And I thought, this is all new.
This is what's so wonderful
about that kind of travelling
you are learning things all the time.
I think our job is
is all the time,
to be bringing you things that
quite a section of the audience
has never seen before.
Michael brings in
He takes you to places
you've never heard of before and takes risks.
MICHAEL: Some of the most magical moments
of any of my travels
were sitting just watching
the Sudanese Dessert go by.
Just the smell of
of sand, and it was just wonderfully soothing
and it's on a train which is two days late
with an engine which keeps breaking down.
You know, that can be a good thing.
MICHAEL (VO):
We'd now been travelling for 67 days
more than 5, 000 miles
with roughly 74, 000 miles still to go
to the South Pole.
Africa was living up to all my expectations.
This was what I'd hoped for.
"Day 69.
After a weekend of recovery
from the journey into Sudan
it's now time to investigate
how we're going to get out.
This necessitates a visit
to the Ministry of Information.
The threat of violence is more real here
than in any of the other countries
through which we've travelled."
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Here in the capital
are the first signs of trouble ahead.
For the last eight years,
the mainly Christian South has been at war
with the hard—line Muslim government
in Khartoum.
Unfortunately for us, the warzone
lies straight across our path.
Ayusha Travel, a transport company
run by Eritreans
from Northern Ethiopia
could solve our problem of leaving the Sudan.
So which route would you take us?
From Khartoum direct to Madani.
Through Madani to Gedaref.
— Yeah.
From Gedaref to Metema is ruffles.
Rocky road?
— Yeah.
MICHAEL (VO): This new route
to the Ethiopian border
over 300 miles away
took us around the current warzone
but it was still risky
as the conflict had left defeated soldiers
wandering the countryside
looking for trouble.
JOANNA:
A lot of travelling is
seeing which way the wind is blowing.
You go, "Well, let's take that path."
You've got to have that feeling to it.
I think Michael
keeps the feeling of it like that.
There's always something,
a slight element of danger
that he would go off the beaten track.
He doesn't seem biddable.
He doesn't seem to toe the line.
I can see risk, but for some strange reason,
I've always been a complete optimist
and felt we're going to be OK.
I'm glad I feel like that
because it's
I've been in some very, very
dodgy situations
and if I'd known
they were going to be dodgy
that dodgy, I would have never gone.
"Day 76.
At about midday, the scenery
is becoming more picturesque
and we stop to allow Nigel the cameraman
to climb a low hill and get some shots.
The soldiers become very agitated
and order him back.
Apparently both these hills
are full of armed men
who will not hesitate to shoot on sight.
He is the sort of person
you want to travel with
because he wouldn't ever panic.
He never panics,
no matter how hairy it might get
he's always like, "Right!
OK, let's we can work through this,"
type thing.
MICHAEL: It constantly makes you sort of
question how you live at home and all that.
There are five—star hotels in Africa
but to get the feel of Africa
I suppose something like that journey
across the border from Khartoum
sort of, really don't get more basic,
you get close to people.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
In the busy little town of Shashamene
a moody walk through the streets
becomes a major event.
As far as the locals are concerned,
the circus has come to town.
LOUD CHATTER
Behave normally, just carry on!
Do whatever you're doing.
I'll try and behave normally as well.
There's really nothing else to do
but enjoy it as much as they are.
Where did you get that?
Oh! There they are!
He's great at improvising
so none of that stuff when he's just
meeting people on the street
or even if there's a set—up
I would be very surprised if there was
a talking through of
how they're gonna script it
or how the conversation is gonna go.
In his head, he'll have some things
to ask the person
but because he's so instinctively funny
and intelligent and really likes people
and that is crucial, you can't do these
sorts of jobs if you don't like people
then he just goes with stuff,
and he's an amazing improviser.
LOUD CHATTER
— I'll continue my
gentle walk
CROWD CHATTERS
Now
Ho, ho, hum!
Mmm, lots to do here!
CHILDREN LAUGH
MUFFLED SPEECH
— CROWD CHATTERS
Oh, that's very good.
SIMON:
It's the people that you meet on journeys
that really make travel special
hearing their all—too—human stories
and experiences
but just knowing that out there
on this enormous planet
with this ridiculous number of people on it
fundamentally, human beings are warm
and welcoming and friendly.
I think that can never be said
too much or too often.
It's one of the key discoveries,
I think, for anybody who
starts travelling properly around this planet
but it is something you have to learn.
You have to get out there and try it
and experience
and you have to stumble as well.
There will be a few stumbles along the way,
but you trust your instincts
you avoid the dodgy salad at the hotel buffet
you always wear a seatbelt
and basically, you'll be OK.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO:
Journey's end, 27 hours after leaving Dodoma.
A little bit late, but not late enough
to miss the boat which, er, leaves very soon.
That will take me down on the next stage
of the journey south at last
a long way south,
down Lake Tanganyika to Mpulungu!
MICHAEL (VO): We'd now been travelling
and filming for 703 days straight
and that night in the hotel,
the strain was starting to show.
Oh
MICHAEL GIGGLES
MICHAEL GIGGLES
Oh, dear!
Oh, dear. Well, it's my wedding day!
There we are, right. Hey!
I did it!
HE LAUGHS
Gone, I'm cracked
HE LAUGHS
HE GIGGLES
MICHAEL: "If all goes well,
we should be in Lusaka by tonight
then Victoria Falls
then Zimbabwe and South Africa.
I feel a pain of sadness
at the prospect of leaving behind
all I've been through these past months."
I think, during Pole to Pole,
seeing him go through Africa in that way
and spending time in all the countries,
what we see on the news of Africa
is often just the tragic side of it
and these people need help,
and then it's
it can be a very patronising view
that we have
and then just seeing
people's actual lives
and seeing the joy in them,
and what they do
and even the hardships
they have to go through
but how they overcome them
he really facilitated in showing that
and again, didn't impose
these Western views upon it
going, "This is just their lifestyle,"
and lived the way they lived
rather than saying,
"I'm this British TV reporter
I'm gonna do this."
He was just in it, which is a way more
interesting way to view the world
than through our own lens.
MICHAEL:
And then we went into South Africa
and although apartheid
had just been sort of voted out
there was still the attitudes
that sustained apartheid was still there
and I can remember
the swagger of the police
at the border,
and the sort of sticks they had
and the confidence of these sort of
pale, red—headed young men
um, in a country of black people, you know
just made me feel, "God, this is not good."
South Africa seemed to be
Well, was the most like the West.
Was the most organised, the most orderly
the richest, you just felt that
as you were going into the country.
And then we found out
that's a very superficial thing
and in fact, underneath it all
there's great levels of poverty
in South Africa.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: Soweto was set up in 1933
to house a cheap labour force.
Shanty settlements like this one,
known as Mandela Village
are the legacy of that decision.
These are the families of people
who are not wanted
and probably never will be.
MAN: These are the haircuts,
the barbers, street barbers.
Money making, of course.
— MICHAEL: Yes.
MAN: As you can see, it's connected
electrically from the battery.
JOANNA:
He put down a sort of blueprint
of how to behave in foreign countries
which is his great courtesy,
but familiarity and friendliness.
MICHAEL:
Yeah.
Usually, people behave pretty disastrously
because they feel uncomfortable,
strangely enough.
And he's at ease with himself
and he's got no he holds no
bad thoughts, so he's not
he's not starting off with a sneer
in his heart, you know what I mean?
Or trying to make a point.
He goes in, just open enquiry, you know?
MICHAEL (VO): But it was clear that
South Africa's road to true racial equality
would be a long one.
As for me
my epic journey across
the continent was over.
I'd finally reached Cape Town.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: From the top
of Table Mountain, you can see the point
where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.
Beyond that, 2,500 miles
over the horizon is Antarctica.
But the most poignant site of all
is down in the harbour
a red hull supply ship we've chased
through Africa to reach.
In the end, we made it
but our appeal for space
onboard the Agulhas has failed
and when she sails tomorrow
on the only voyage of the year
between Cape Town and the Antarctic
we will still be here.
The journey, it seems
is over.
MICHAEL (VO):
Except it wasn't.
I was determined
not to fall at the final hurdle.
So, after making some calls,
we found another route to the South Pole
not via South Africa but South America.
MICHAEL: I was apprehensive to say the least
about flying into Antarctica.
Day by day, we were made aware
that there were weather conditions
changed very, very fast around there
and we could not get from Punto Arenas
on our plane into Antarctica
unless all the weather conditions were right
for about 48 hours
cos the plane had to go into there
and be able to come back.
So when we took off,
I suppose that was
one of the zones of fear
in all the journeys.
I began to feel,
"Why are we doing this bit?
Why can't we just end here
where we're safe and go back now?"
MICHAEL (VO):
The trip was in two stages.
First, this plane would take me
and a few other intrepid travellers
to a base called Patriot Hills,
600 miles from the Pole.
There, we were to be picked up
by a smaller plane
to take us to the South Pole itself
There's no airfield as such on Antarctica,
where we were going
it's just blue ice,
and the pilot will have to land.
It's quite difficult to land on this ice
without skidding off into the, you know
Tipping over or anything like that,
so everything was hairy.
INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER
The next thing I remember
was getting out of the plane
and finding that
HE LAUGHS
Antarctica was really slippery.
CREW CHATTERS
The bit we've all been warned about!
I know why. Jesus.
Absolutely like glass.
Oh, dear. Too late to go back. Woo!
There's something
about the immensity of it
of the ice and the cold
and just, you feel so
sort of small and insignificant
in many places in the Antarctic.
It is so spectacularly beautiful.
But there's also just a sense
of the greatness of it
and also the possibility of danger
at pretty much every step.
So for me,
I find that incredibly irresistible.
For Michael, he didn't look like he was
particularly at his most comfortable
in that environment,
but I think that's also because he's
he loves being around people
and the Antarctic is a very wide open space
and it is a very, very challenging
place to be.
MICHAEL ON VIDEO: The first thing I learn
is that here in this ice desert
even the most mundane human tasks
take on an epic quality.
HE SIGHS
That is the most extraordinary view
from any lavatory anywhere in the world.
MICHAEL:
"Day 141
1:10am.
We can see the South Pole ahead.
It's somewhere in the middle
of a complex of buildings
dominated by a 150—foot wide geodesic dome."
The disappointing thing about it
was it was very sort of, um
functional.
Underneath the South Pole itself,
there's this great base.
And you open a door and there are people
having blackberry muffins
and listening to Chicago on the sound system.
And this is at the South Pole
and it's awful, it's just awful, you know.
Where's my ideas of heroism
and the great Greek travellers and all that?
The Argonauts have come to this
you know, sort of ordering cheeseburgers
underneath the South Pole.
"Some 50 yards from the main pole
is a ceremonial pole.
The pole itself, a small brass tube
which looks like something
should be about to be plumbed into it.
Poor old South Pole!
But I stand on it at 3:05 in the morning
of December 4th
and thought of Mum and Angela and Dad
and what they would think of me."
HE TUTS
Yeah.
It is the end of the world.
It's also the end of our hare—brain migration
from North to South.
I think the omens
are telling us to stop.
Just a while ago, the camera packed up
because of the cold
and as you can tell, I'm beginning
to pack up because of the cold too.
I think it's just that after five
and a half months on the road
the body is finally saying, "Pack it in!"
MICHAEL: It's much less settled,
much less comfortable
much less predictable
than Around the World in 80 Days
and I think that, to me
I felt a real, much more of a sense of
of adventure,
that'd we'd actually gone into places
that I probably would never have ever gone
in my life otherwise
and come out the other side.
HE CHUCKLES
Full Circle had to be as stunning
if not more so than the others.
— CROWD ROARS
CANE CRACKS
This was a very, very long journey
much, much longer, in fact
I think it was in the end 50,000 miles,
something like that
which was longer than Pole to Pole
and 80 Days put together.