Sahara with Michael Palin

The first episode was tremendously boring. It's enough to make you fall asleep. Not so with the others. The deeper Palin goes into the Sahara, the more fascinating it gets.

Keep with it! It's a monstrously well-made series. And Micheal Palin is an added bonus.

The episode where he goes to Tunisia, Liberia and Algeria is the best one of all. He shows where he (and the Monty Python-gang) shot "Monty Python: Life of Brian" which is not really my favorite Python Movie, but seeing where they shot it is an education.

Enjoy the series!

It's hard to imagine that there are any places Michael Palin hasn't visited yet, but this has all the interest of any of his previous travel series.

This time the intrepid adventurer sets out to tackle the Sahara desert, and meets many interesting people along the way. The scenes are bright and full of life, and Michael Palin is as enthusiastic as ever before, and his inimitable humour and informative commentary is simply irresistable.

This time Palin encounters people in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, (where he explains that he was once crucified - a referance to a filming location from "The Life of Brian") and Mauritania. He even witnesses a part of the Paris - Dakha rally.

The mixture of cultures is incredible to see, with considerable educational value, and some are almost entirely isolated from the outside world. Others follow slightly more western ways, but each is beautifully unique, and a pleasure to see.

Personally, I am eagerly anticipating a new journey for the brilliant Michael Palin. Outstanding entertainment.

Why can't American TV make shows like this? Michael Palin traps around the Sahara, always charming, never condescending and always fun to watch. He floats gently from 'moderately amused' to 'mildly irritated' as the train is 10 hours late, but he never stays down too long. Palin seems genuinely at peace with the strangeness of these places, and goes to learn, and not to fix anything, which is so refreshing. The show lightly touches on the Polisario/Morocco Western Sahara conflict, but doesn't stay there too long.

Nice to see Muslim countries on TV, away from the whole 'terrorism, Al Qaeda, whatever' debate. Quite a few discussions on the Polygamy issue -- which looks like a way to stir up a lively opinion from women in that part of the world.

Small warning: 'where meat comes from' is revealed in this show. In case you are trying to keep the kids ignorant of this.

This is a brilliant, exceptional piece of travel film-making and the sort you would expect from the very likeable and interesting Michael Palin.

He lands in Tangiers and from there sets out to cover the whole of the Sahara region, travelling from west to east - typical Michael Palin material, really. This encompasses a series of train, car and river journeys all excellently shown with some very good cinematography. Lots of wide vistas of deserts - along the lines of Lawrence of Arabia and the English Patient, etc. - and lots of town scenes and interviews with musicians, traders, and others.

There's a lot of ethnic music in the programme too (particularly episode 2) which reminds me of Buena Vista Social Club, only this time it's Africa.

The 2 disc DVD is good though with very few additional features. It would've been nice to have some stuff on how they film the series - for instance, Michael Palin is often shown departing on a train yet where do the film crew go? Do they follow in a car or what?

Michael is traveling across the Sahara desert this time. He starts in Gibraltar and heads south and east. He makes a big circle and returns to Gibraltar. This series has only four episodes. The best one is the third episode where he travels with a camel train. It is noteworthy that he is out there in the middle of the desert when 9/11 happens. The camel train is probably comparable to the dhow in 80 Days. The last episode has Palin returning to Life of Brian. That's great for Monty Python fans. The security issues in Algiers foreshadows the post 9/11 era although I don't think he ever mentions it. I'm not sure if he understood its significance at the time. He also tackles the migration issue in another forward thinking moment. It's another interesting transitional moment on TV.