Palin's progress

Sir Michael Palin looks back at his globetrotting TV travelogues

- CAREN CLARK, IAN MACEWAN, ELAINE REILLY

When Monty Python star Sir Michael Palin agreed to film the 1989 BBC travelogue Around the World in 80 Days, inspired by Jules Verne novel, he had no idea a new career beckoned. But his warm, personal, and slightly chaotic style was a hit as cameras followed his circumnavigation of the globe and, since then, he’s had many more adventures all over the world.

In the new BBC1 four-parter Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime, the 77-year-old revisits the expeditions featured in that first series as well as subsequent BBC travelogues Pole to Pole 1992), Full Circle (1997) and Sahara