Directing
Michael Palin attempts to copy the exploits of fictional character Phileas Fogg, by trying to travel around the world (without flying) in 80 days.
40 Minutes was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. The documentaries could be on any possible subject, the only connection being that they last forty minutes. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, Forty Minutes On.
A BBC documentary film strand, with the focus on investigative journalism.
BBC series exploring cultures around the world.
Whicker's World is an award-winning British television documentary series that ran from 1958 to 1994, presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker. Originally a segment on the BBC's Tonight programme in 1958, Whicker's World became a fully-fledged television series in its own right in the 1960s. The series was first shown by the BBC until 1968, and then by ITV from 1969 to 1983, when it was produced by Yorkshire Television, in which Whicker himself was a shareholder. The series returned to the BBC in 1984, and to ITV again in 1992.
Michael Palin undertakes an epic journey of 23,000 miles, traveling from the North to the South Pole across 17 countries with a minimum of air travel, all on a tight deadline.
Michael Palin travels to 18 countries around the rim of the Pacific Ocean.
Just Another Day is a BBC documentary series, shown over twenty thirty minute episodes. The series follows John Pitman observing a typical day in the life of places, businesses and institutions that are considered part of the British way of life.
Intrepid adventurer Michael Palin takes a journey through the Himalayas.
Michael Palin explores European countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain.
In this four-part BBC documentary, former Monty Python funnyman and renowned globe-trotter Michael Palin sets off from Gibraltar to travel across the Sahara, his witty humor downplaying the hardships he faces along the arduous journey. He travels to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and beyond, across some of the harshest terrain on the planet.
Groundbreaking BBC series that follows transgender activist Julia Grant from her first year living as a woman to her experience of gender reassignment surgery and beyond.
Portrait of a fractious Welsh village near Merthyr Tydfil. Life in the valley isn't what it was, there's no pit in Deri now, but the humour survives, and it's amazingly peaceful considering.
Salim Amin, son and only child of Mohamed "Mo" Amin, undertakes a journey of recollection and reflection into the life of the frequently absent, globe-trotting father he loved, revered and feared. In his late teens, Mohamed Amin abandons his studies to pursue a career in photography which, over the course of thirty years, will turn him into a front-line cameraman extraordinaire - and, arguably, the most renowned photojournalist of his era. Training his candid lens across continents, Mo Amin's thirst for breaking news puts him repeatedly in harm's way - enduring weeks of torture, automatic arms fire, explosives and, ultimately, the amputation of his left arm - to become one of the most decorated news camera-man of all time. The documentary depicts Mo as an unbending, unforgiving and unapologetically rambunctious paterfamilias whose hunger for "the story" propels him to ever greater professional heights - often at the expense of those he cherishes.
1988 follow-up to an acclaimed 40 Minutes film about Alison French, who has athetoid cerebral palsy. Alison is getting married and must adapt to being a clergyman's wife in south Wales.
This special one-hour documentary reflects on Michael Palin's fascinating career as a BAFTA-winning actor, writer and presenter.
A documentary portrait of one of Belfast's 300 firemen. For five years Leading Fireman Dynes and the Brigade have carried out their duties in a city at war. This film was shot during a fairly quiet week - by Belfast standards. Brian Dynes, married with four children, lives in a small Protestant enclave in the Catholic Ardoyne. Even when he is at home, the shooting in the adjoining streets is a reminder that at no time can he or his family feel truly safe. When he is at the Fire Station, Brian Dynes faces unprecedented dangers. As an everyday event he may have to cope with booby traps and explosions, with physical threats from capricious mobs, and from crossfire between terrorists and the Army. It is a job in which, as Dynes says, 'humanity rises above religion or creed or class.' (BBC Genome)
To mark the twentieth anniversary of "Around the World in 80 Days" we went back to Dubai and India to retrace our steps and to see if we could find any of the crew of Al Shama. The result was a one-hour documentary and an account of our return and a whole stack of new pictures. Now they join all my other traveller's tales.
Documentary film, without commentary, looking at events in Sheffield on 5th September 1973. Steelworkers retire, babies are born, there are fashion shows and council meetings, crashed lorries and policemen on the beat.
