Pole to Pole
| Pole to Pole | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Written by | Michael Palin |
| Directed by | Roger Mills Clem Vallence |
| Presented by | Michael Palin |
| Composer(s) | Paddy Kingsland |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Clem Vallence |
| Editor(s) | David Thomas |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Prominent Television Passepartout Productions BBC A&E |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 21 October – 9 December 1992 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days |
| Followed by | Full Circle with Michael Palin |
Pole to Pole is an eight-part television documentary travel series made for the BBC, and first broadcast on BBC1 in 1992. The presenter is Michael Palin, this being the second of Palin's major journeys for the BBC. The first was Around the World in 80 Days, a 7-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1989, and the third was Full Circle with Michael Palin, a 10-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1997.
The trip from the North Pole to the South Pole went via Scandinavia, the Soviet Union, parts of Europe, and through the heart of Africa. The intention was to follow the 30 degree east line of longitude, which would cover the most land. A last-minute diversion to Chile included South America in the series. Using aircraft as little as possible, the whole trip lasted 5½ months.
The programme has been sold to many television stations around the world. It was also released on video tape and later on DVD.
Following the trip Michael Palin wrote Pole to Pole describing the trip. This book contains much more detail than could be presented in the TV programme, and Palin's personal views are also more clearly evident. The book contains many pictures from the trip, almost all taken by Basil Pao, the stills photographer on the team.
Palin begins at the North Pole, flying there on a small aeroplane fitted with skis. (The North Pole scene had to be filmed earlier than the rest of the journey due to weather issues.) From there, he heads to Greenland, then the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, where the towns of Ny Ålesund and Longyearbyen are located. From there he sails across the Barents Sea on a supply ship to the Norwegian port city of Tromsø, where he visits a statue of Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole. He also meets some avid Norwegian football fans. In the town of Karasjok, he meets up with the Sami people and pans for gold in the Karasjoka River. From there, Palin travels by bus and crosses the border from Norway to Finland, where he visits Santa Claus at the Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi. He takes an overnight Finnish train to Helsinki; he relaxes in a sauna near Helsinki with Neil Hardwick and Lasse Lehtinen. Then Palin catches a ferry to Tallinn, his first stop in the Soviet Union. He visits with Estonians who sing a song, dreaming of the day when Estonia would again be a free nation. Then Palin catches a train headed for Leningrad.
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Wikipedia