This website is an archive from 2016

This site was actively maintained from 2006 to 2016. Since then I have kept it online for historical interest, but have made no further updates. Much of the information in these pages is now incorrect or obsolete.

Palin's New Europe: series begins this Sunday

14 September 2007

I’ve already mentioned in this blog that Michael Palin’s latest travel series will visit some of my favourite places in the Balkans, and in the wider Eastern Europe. The seven-part series will air on BBC1 on Sundays at 9pm, starting this Sunday.

According to the BBC’s detailed guide to the series, the first episode will be a fast-paced trip through the Western Balkans, taking in Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. The second program will also have a Balkan feel, covering Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, while Romania is included in episode 3.

With only 7 hours in total to cover 20 countries, we obviously can’t expect much in-depth coverage. Even so the series will hopefully achieve the aim of introducing viewers, in Palin’s words, to “the vigour and vitality of that half of Europe which has, for most of my lifetime been seen as grey, secretive and unwelcoming”. On Palin’s own site he comments that “I’m just sorry, that even in seven episodes, we haven’t had time to do justice to every one of the twenty countries we passed through, but those that don’t get much on-screen time are in the book and on the DVD”.