Dhow update

I would also like to know what happened to the crew of the Al Sharma. The piece of narration Palin delivers as they move away from the boat is wonderful and he is really genuine when he says that he can't believe he will see them again.

The fact that the crew were willing to give all the time and space for Palin and his camera crew was nothing short of amazing.

Daily Telegraph

Michael Palin revisits Around the World in 80 Days

Michael Palin is to mark the 20th anniversary of his travel series, Around the World in 80 Days, by attempting to find the Indian sailors who helped him on his journey.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Last Updated: 5:56PM GMT 27 Oct 2008

The presenter hopes to be reunited with the crew of the Al-Shama, whose kindness and hospitality moved him almost to tears.

In one of the most memorable sequences from Palin's televised adventure, he sailed across the Persian Gulf from Dubai to Mumbai in a traditional dhow.

Although the impoverished Gujarati crew could not speak English, by the end of the week-long journey they and Palin had become firm friends.

When he waved them goodbye twenty years ago at the Gateway of India, Palin said: "It's almost impossible to accept that I shall never see them again."

In a new BBC1 special, the former Monty Python star, accompanied by his original cameraman, will return to the sub-continent in search of the crew.

The new journey takes in Dubai, Mumbai and the sailors' home island in the Indian Ocean.

Filming is under way and the programme, Eighty Days Revisited, will be broadcast on BBC1 later this year.

A BBC spokesman said: "Michael hopes to make contact with as many as possible of his old shipmates to reminisce and share stories of their slow but happy way from the Middle East to India. This return journey, the first Michael has ever attempted, will no doubt be as much of a challenge as the original, but it is precisely the unknown aspects which make this trip all the more exciting for him."

Like everyone else here I’ve waited a long time for this follow up, even if it was rather more travelogue than detective story. I suspect one plane journey and a taxi ride could have tracked down Captain Suloman (?) but the BBC had to get an hours programming from it, and enough plugs of hotels and whatnot in Dubai to recover the costs!

Sad to see Al Shama actually sank just a few months before Palin’s programme, but at least enough of the original crew survived to make the last few minutes of the programme when they actually all met up quite a warm occasion. I remember feeling quite melancholy when Palin said goodbye to them all 20 years ago. Perhaps I was a expecting a little more than 55 minutes of hotels revisited, with a 5 minute tea party looking at a handheld DVD at the end of it.

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