8 /10 1 Votes
Country of origin United Kingdom No. of series 1 Executive producer(s) Julian Mercer First episode date 13 October 2009 Narrated by Frank Skinner Languages English, Hindi | 8/10 IMDb Original language(s) English No. of episodes 6 (list of episodes) Producer(s) Kez Margrie Final episode date 17 November 2009 Genre Entertainment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Similar Michael Palin: Around th, Children in Need 2009, Full Circle with Michael P, Himalaya with Michael P, Michael Palin's Hemingw | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Around the world in 80 days 11 11 09 part one
Around the World in 80 Days is a British travel documentary series made to support the annual BBC Children in Need charity appeal in 2009. It sees twelve celebrities attempt to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days without using air transport, recreating the journey of Phileas Fogg and Michael Palin. Like Fogg and Palin, the journey begins and ends at the Reform Club in London. It was first shown on BBC One and BBC HD in October and November 2009.
Contents
around the world in 80 days part one ronald colman oldtime radio drama
Production
The challenge for the celebrities was to travel around the globe in eighty days, starting and ending at the Reform Club in London, re-enacting the challenge made to Phileas Fogg in the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, and Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days. In each episode, a pair of celebrities travels a single leg of the round-the-world journey, trying to meet the next pair at a handover point in sufficient time, in relay race fashion. The journey could be completed by any means except by flight. At the handover, they pass to the succeeding team a carpet bag containing, amongst other items, a journal and a phone. Each of the celebrity pairs contributed to the journal as their leg of the journey progressed, and ahead of the trip Palin wrote an entry containing advice for the travellers.
Throughout the journey, the celebrities collected various items on their leg of the journey. These were then auctioned to raise money for Children in Need, as was the journal completed by the travellers at the end of the trip.
Auction items
UK to Turkey
Turkey to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan to Mongolia
Mongolia to USA
USA (California) to USA (Memphis)
USA to UK
Other
Reception
The series gained between 3.6 and 4.2 million viewers over the six episodes, with the viewership for the first episode described as "decent".
A piece in the Daily Mail criticised the "about £1 million" budget for the production, saying that the money could have instead been donated to the charity. The BBC responded by saying that the series "is raising crucial awareness for the charity in the run-up to Children in Need Night" and that "its budget is in line with other similar prime time shows" on BBC One.