AROUND THE WORLD IN 20 YEARS

BBC Knowledge premiers Michael Palin programme.

Michael Palin celebrates the 20th anniversary of his TV classic, Around The World In 80 Days, in a one-hour special to be screened on April 24 at 19h30 on BBC Knowledge (channel 251 on DStv).

One of the most memorable segments of Michael’s famous circumnavigation was the open dhow voyage from Dubai to Bombay. As he said goodbye to the crew and their trusted boat, Al Shama (meaning candlelight), Michael made a forecast. “At this point”, he said, “it is impossible to accept that I shall never see them again”.

In Around The World In 20 Years, Michael goes in search of that very same dhow and its captain and crew. He begins in Dubai, which has now transformed from a dusty trading port to a mini-Manhattan, and reacquaints himself with the city. He then meets two officials who helped organise the original voyage.

They don’t know what has happened to Captain Hassan Sulyman, however, and there have been no sightings of the dhow in Dubai in 20 years. But Michael has more leads to follow up… His search moves to Bombay. Fortunately, the broking firm which handled Al Shama's cargo all those years ago is still in existence. Its new owner, Digant Joshi, agrees to ask around. This gives Michael an opportunity to take a second look at the city in which he arrived first time round as an unshaven and exhausted traveller. He takes his laundry to the open-air dhobi-ghats, wonders anew at the daily miracle of the tiffin-wallahs and has a brief encounter with a Bollywood mogul.

Eventually, Joshi has some answers. The good news is that the captain and some of the crew are living in a village called Mandvi in Gujerat Province, north-west India. The bad news is that Al Shama sank just five months before Michael’s arrival. He hastens North by rail and is delighted to discover that Mandvi is a completely unspoiled town, given over entirely to the construction of wooden dhows.
After his long search, Michael walks up to a house lying in the shadow of a dhow under construction. It is the moment of truth, as his bleak prediction all those years ago is put to the final test…