Brazil With Michael Palin

brian_t

Brazil With Michael Palin starts on BBC1 on Wednesday October 24th at 9.00pm.

I'm a big fan of Michael Palins travelogues and I'm really looking forward to his latest.

Michael Palin has travelled the world for the past 25 years, earning him a reputation as the man who's been everywhere. But there’s one big gap in his passport: Brazil. The fifth-largest country on earth with an abundance of resources and a melting pot of peoples, it’s a nation that's risen almost out of nowhere to become a 21st-century superpower, and is next in line to host both the World Cup and Olympic Games. In this four-part series, Palin sets off to discover a country whose time has come.

Michael begins in the north east – where Europeans first settled and grew rich on slave labour. Here, the mix of indigenous people, African slaves, and relatively few Europeans created many of the characteristic elements of Brazilian life: food, dance, music and a multiplicity of religions.

In Sao Luis, European and African religious rituals come together in typically Brazilian celebrations, and Michael heads to the city’s backstreets to find out about a ceremony based on a 200-year-old slave tale.

He visits one of the region's massive beaches – the country’s great public playgrounds – before heading to the monster sand-dunes of the Lencois Maranhenses National Park. In Recife, Michael tours the city’s striking street art and sculptures, and in Olinda, he gets roped onto the dance floor in a country where everybody dances. Journeying inland, he gets a glimpse of the fast-disappearing world of old-style ‘vaqueiro’ cowboys.

In Salvador, Michael has his fortune read by a priest who practises the local religion of Candomble. He tries his hand at African drumming, samples the Bahian cuisine of a legendary local chef, and is introduced to capoeira in one of the city’s shanty towns.

Leaving Salvador, Michael passes sugar-cane plantations on route to a cigar factory, before finishing the first leg of his journey off the coast on a traditional saveiro boat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2012/43/brazil-with-michael-palin.html

losthorizon

Cant wait for this to be honest although I thought his last series New Europe wasnt quite as good as others that he has done.


Its been a long time since hes done a travel series - I suspect this will be his last.:(

Riddle101

Michael Palin has a wonderful life doesn't he? Would love to have it.

mike65

Only 4 hours to cover a V-A-S-T country but better than nothing I guess. Palins first travelogue was his edition ("Confessions of a Trainspotter") of Great Railway Journeys of the World in 1980. I bet he never imagined that hour would be the template for the rest of his career.

brian_t

mike65 wrote: »

Only 4 hours to cover a V-A-S-T country but better than nothing I guess.

I'm sure his book will fill in some of the rest.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0297866265

mike65

Pleasant. That meal by the Brazilian "sensual cook" (!) looked fabulous.

Just skating over the surface though, and I really do not need to see another local custom dance routine. Plenty else to show us.

bnt

Palin also has a Brazil book out, and he'll be in Dublin on the 24th to sign a few copies: http://www.dubraybooks.ie/news.asp