Michael Palin's New Europe

Accompany seasoned globetrotter and timeless comedy icon Michael Palin on his latest adventure, a glimpse behind the once-forbidden Iron Curtain. Collecting over twenty passport stamps this time around, Monty Python alum Palin entertains and educates with his trademark wit and wisdom, as he travels throughout Eastern Europe, through the Baltic States, the former Soviet Union and Turkey, touching cultures largely unfamiliar to Westerners. Of course, no Palin journey would be complete without introducing you to some of the most interesting folks you've never heard of, including a Bulgarian moonshiner, as well as a transvestite folk singer, now a Balkan superstar. Highly recommended for fans of history, travel, European culture and, of course, Michael Palin.

War And Peace - Eschewing the mountains and deserts of his last two series, Michael Palin explores the countries that were for much of his life hidden behind the Iron Curtain and now are very much part of the New Europe of post-Soviet times. From high in the Julian Alps of Slovenia, he heads down to the Dalmatian coast and the ancient port of Split in Croatia, where he finds out just how important nationalism is in these newly created countries. From the paradise Island of Hvar, he travels to Medjugorje in Bosnia, where he speaks to Mirjana Dragicevic, one of the six visionaries who first started having visitations by the Virgin Mary 25 years ago.

Eastern Delight - From Lake Orhid in Macedonia, Michael Palin crosses into Bulgaria where he treks up to the Rila Mountains in to join the summer solstice celebrations of the mystical White Brotherhood sect. En route to Sofia he meets up with Stefan Kitanov and learns how to make Bulgarian moonshine. Aziz, a gay transvestite gypsy whose turbo-folk songs have made him an unlikely Balkan superstar, talks of the difficulties of being a gypsy in Bulgaria and in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city and an ancient Thracian centre, Michael witnesses first hand life in the gypsy quarter, before trucking into Turkey.

Wild East - Tiraspol is the capital of Transdniester, a breakaway state from the Republic of Moldova, and it is here on its National Day celebrations that Michael Palin starts his journey through the wilder reaches of South East Europe.

Danube to Dnieper - Michael journeys by road, rail and river through Hungary, and the Ukraine, ending in the Black Sea resort of Yalta.

Baltic Summer - As a result of the Yalta Conference, many countries’ World War Two experience went on for another half century or so. They were simply forced to swap one tyrant for another. One such victimized group of countries was the Baltic States who endured as colonies of the Soviet Union until they gained their freedom in 1991. Michael Palin travels from Tallinn in the North, through Latvia, to Lithuania in the South, sailing out into the Baltic from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia.

From Pole To Pole - Michael journeys through Poland, from the port of Gdansk southwards to Warsaw, and then through Poznan to Czesechowa, Aushwitz, Krakow and finally via the Tatra mountains to the Slovakian border.

Journey’s End - High in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia, Michael Palin skins a pig and learns how to make sausages, before heading off to famed mime artist Tibor Turba’s school in Brno, the Czech republic’s second city, where he is asked to mime a cock. In the celebrated spa town of Karlovy Vary, he has a mud bath with Miss World, takes the waters with her under the colonnade before being introduced as Mr World at the annual Aristocrats’ Ball.

“Yay! Our favourite explorer Michael Palin returns … Warning: you will want to book a holiday here once you’ve seen this.” Sunday Mirror

“I’m delighted to report that TV’s favourite globetrotter has been persuaded to pack his battered old suitcase for the umpteenth time and embark upon yet another adventure … With 20 [countries] to get through in half a dozen episodes, it’s quite a whistle-stop tour at times but in typical Palin style it’s never less than fascinating, absorbing and richly entertaining.” Mike Ward, Daily Express

“…his unconfrontational, unobtrusive style works a treat in a region that has, until recently, been decimated by warfare. Far better Palin treading sensitively in, say, Sarajevo than someone like Jeremy Clarkson blundering into town … The interest levels really pick up in Albania … There, Palin finds a country that still appears isolated, which ‘looks to the West but feels oriental’. Must-see TV.” Mail On Sunday