And that’s only half of the series Palin has made. Then, Full Circle: a 50,000-mile trip around the Pacific Ocean, passing through Russia, China, Asia and up the west coast of America. Next Pole to Pole, where Palin did just that. It starts with a look at Around the World in 80 Days, where Palin circumnavigated the world without being able to use a plane. “It’s a reminder that there are a lot of things that we do share, that you can’t just cut yourself off in certain countries and say: ‘We’re all right, forget the rest.’”

“I think it’s very, very important to remember that we are this tiny part of a vast world, in which people right across the globe are suffering in various different ways from the pandemic,” Palin says. With foreign travel more difficult for westerners than it has been at any time in the past 50 years, the BBC is to air a retrospective looking at some of Palin’s travels, which still capture and delight the public’s imagination. Remember, we are all members of the human race.” “And to see your own country and your own people from a different perspective. “I always found that my travels gave me a different perspective and a much wider perspective, away from the west as a centre of the world’s ideas,” he says.

But much is down to Palin’s connection with people. Part of that is down to the sheer ambition of the Monty Python star’s series (Pole to Pole took five and a half months Full Circle 10 months). But the gold standard are still Michael Palin’s. T hese days travel documentaries hosted by a famous face are commonplace.

Pole to pole palin