# Pole to Pole (1992)

> Michael Palin travels roughly 23,000 miles overland from the North Pole to the South Pole on a tight deadline, crossing 17 countries with minimal air travel.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/811

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Michael Palin, Lasse Lehtinen, Graham Hancock
- TMDB rating: 8.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103514/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: genial, wistful, observational, warm, wry, adventurous

## Synopsis

Pole to Pole (1992) is a British travel documentary miniseries created for BBC One. Presenter Michael Palin, the genial and curious host at the center of every episode, undertakes an overland journey of roughly 23,000 miles from the North Pole to the South Pole. Across eight episodes of about fifty minutes each, he crosses seventeen countries while avoiding air travel wherever possible, working against a tight schedule that forces him onto trains, buses, boats and ferries. Each episode is built from the encounters along the way: local communities, shifting landscapes from Arctic ice to tropical heat and African savannah, and the everyday rhythms of the places he passes through. The engine is simple and charming, a traveler moving steadily southward while curiosity pulls him into the detail of each place. The register is warm, observational and wryly humorous, with a reflective sense of how the world changes from one border to the next. Fans of Around the World in 80 Days, Long Way Round and Michael Palin's Himalaya will find the same mix of gentle adventure, geography and human warmth.

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