Talk:Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin

Transsiberian Railway
If he had used the Transsiberian Railway (not existing 1872), he could have made the journey much faster and more reliable, approximately 40 days. Has someone done this journey ? -- BIL 19:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC)


 * {Please be aware that the point of the journey was to recreate Fogg's journey as much as possible and Verne's character did not go through Russia. That doew bring up a question of whether any of the railway that you mention existed at the time of Verne's book though. MarnetteD | Talk 21:26, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

The Name
I remember watching this at the time. I cannot remember it ever being called "Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days". The IMDB, the DVD and video boxes, and the original book cover call it "Around the World in 80 Days", although Palin's name is very prominent on the cover. On the internet it is occasionally called "Michael Palin's Around he World in 80 Days", but I believe this is an understandable mistake. The BBC's DVD webshop does however use the colon title, but I believe this is an artifact of the BBC's webshop database formatting rather than an official name (compare with "David Attenborough: Trials of Life"  or "Robert Winston: The Story of God" ). -Ashley Pomeroy 20:54, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Moved to correct name as shown on the show's title screen, nearly 12 years later. 21:09, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

I'll try to get this page as comprehensive as I can...
I recently started converting my old copies of Palin documentaries onto DVD and Divx and as avid Wiki user wanted to help update this section to best of my ability. Jagdterrier 20:14, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Presenters
It's well known that Alan Whicker was first choice presenter for the series, and Palin was fourth. Does anyone know who were asked in between? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Piaecantiones (talk • contribs) 22:40, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Error?
Why does the article's lede say "Palin was given the same deadline, and not allowed to use any kind of transportation that did not exist in Jules Verne's time, in particular aircraft."? It's clear from the text of the article that he uses, among other things, a car and a speedboat. Did they really make the frankly ridiculous claim that an automobile was "available to Phileas Fogg", whose travels would have taken place in the late 1860s/early 1870s (yes, I know, there were patents on steam automobiles at the time, but surely that's an excessive stretch)? Or is it that Palin decided not to use airplanes, and somehow we've misrepresented this as a vow to use only Fogg's transportation? Jwrosenzweig (talk) 07:29, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

The IDEA was to follow Fogg. Flying is cheating, obviously. When they were stuck in Jeddah, they faced the alternative of either giving up, flying (i.e. cheating) or going by car through Saudi-Arabia. --188.97.132.120 (talk) 23:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, I do understand that, of course. But you'd agree it would be preferable for the lede to be accurate in describing what happened, and not the "IDEA", as you put it?  I don't see that taking an automobile out of necessity is acceptable if it was "not allowed" to use transportation not existing when the book was written.  I'm not criticizing the decision.  But I think we ought to rewrite that portion of the lede, shouldn't we?  Any ideas for how to phrase this, anyone? Jwrosenzweig (talk) 22:36, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

I took out the blurb about not allowing transport unavailable in Verne's time. Personally, I have always felt that the advantage gained by Palin with the use of automobiles essentially made up for the lack of horse and stagecoach transport that would have been available in the 1880s, as well as the rail networks and oceangoing passenger ships that have been largely mothballed with the rise of automobiles and air travel. (I believe Palin mentions he has to cross the Pacific on a freighter because the trans-Pacific passenger ships of Fogg's day no longer exist.) But in any case it is wrong to say that Palin didn't use any transport not available to Fogg, so that is out of the lede. Vidor (talk) 19:14, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Why didn’t Michael use trans Siberian route?
Around the world via Moscow and Vladivostok would have saved 30 days!!! 77.100.102.135 (talk) 20:49, 26 January 2022 (UTC)


 * He followed Phileas Fogg's route, from the book, as closely as possible. U003F? 10:26, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Error in map
Countries visited during Around the World in 80 Days. This map which is in the page is wrong. Switzerland and Singapore should be coloured red in this list. Avi :D (talk) 08:02, 31 March 2022 (UTC)