Bring back Michael Palin, all is forgiven! Not there was anything to forgive in the first place!
I recently began watching the BBC's new "travel" series, Around the World in 80 Days. But hang on, didn't that Michael Palin do all this back in the late 80s? Yes he did, but this is a new endeavour designed to bring in money for BBC's Children in Need appeal.
Where this program fails is in the direction and editing. The format concentrates almost entirely on the travellers and Children in Need, and glosses over the places they're visiting – which kind of misses the point when it comes to travelling in the first place. While Messrs Mack and Skinner ARE very entertaining, we barely have time to take in the places they're visiting or the people they meet along the way. Yes, they've got a strict time-scale to get the travelling done, but Michael Palin and his team managed to strike a good balance when they did it the first time around. The most we get to see is the Crown Prince & Princess of Serbia. Everything else is too much of a blur and utterly forgettable.
Unfortunately Around the World in 80 Days just comes across as an expensive exercise/advert in getting more money for Children in Need (a worthy charity, of course) whereas the budget for this show might have been better spent putting it directly into the CiN collection tin. This series is just not as inspiring as the one Michael Palin brought to us back in 1988.
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE TOTAL COSTS INVOLVED. IE- AIR FAIRS PUTTING THE COUPLES IN POSSITION,THE MODE OF TRANSPORT USAE, THE COST OF WAGES FOF ALL THE BACKUP TEAM, PLUS ACCOMMODATIN FOR ALL INVOLVED.
AGAINST THE EXSPECTED INCOME EXPECTED TO BE RAISED,
Try a freedom of information request to the BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi
they won’t tell you even under the foi act. I have tried. The show apparently fell under the category of “arts and literature” (though I don’t see how!) and is therefore exempt. One newspaper estimated the cost at over £1million. an utter waste of money.