Around the World in 80 Days (miniseries)

Plot

The plot centres around Phileas Fogg (Pierce Brosnan) making a £30,000 wager with three members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days. He takes with him his newly employed French valet Passepartout (Eric Idle), and is pursued by Detective Wilbur Fix (Peter Ustinov) who mistakenly thinks Fogg robbed the Bank of England and is using the wager as a cover to escape capture.

Development

Starring Pierce Brosnan as Phileas Fogg, Eric Idle as Passepartout, Julia Nickson as Princess Aouda, and Peter Ustinov as Detective Fix, the miniseries featured multiple cameo appearances, including Patrick Macnee, Simon Ward, and Christopher Lee as members of the Reform Club, and Robert Morley, who had a cameo in the 1956 film adaptation, and Roddy McDowall appear as officials of the Bank of England. Other familiar faces, credited as guest stars and in more substantial roles, include John Hillerman, Jack Klugman, Darren McGavin, Henry Gibson and John Mills.

The heroes travel a slightly different route than in the book, and the script makes several contemporary celebrities part of the story who were not mentioned in the book, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Pasteur, Jesse James, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Queen Victoria.