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All journeys start with a single step ....
Mar. 8th, 2007 07:36 pmI'm in a serious travel mood at the moment ... Unfortunately I dont have the time or money at the moment to do it properly so I'm doing it on DVD .. With Micheal Palin ...
I'm also going to have www.palinstravels.co.uk up on the laptop as I watch which has loads of extra information available as well as the complete text of the companion books for all the adventures (Except that is Great Railway Journeys, but as these were not Palin centric series I can understand why ) - I do recommend this site if your a fan of Palin's ...
Completionist that I am, I'm doing the journeys in order - Which means starting with his first 'Great Railway Journey' from 1980, London - Isle of Skye (Interestingly a lot of people don't know about this one - they only remember the 1994 Ireland one).
This is the first time I've seen this and the thing that has struck me is how young MP looks ... but then - This was 27 years ago...
It was his first travel journal (predates 80 Days by nine years or so) but the easy style he narrates his journeys is already there. Leaving from a soulless Euston on an inter city train he soon finds his way onto Steam - replicas of Stevenson's Rocket and a journey on the Flying Scotsman soon folow which leads to a steam engine graveyard in York. Dressed in Tanktop and anorak (with no trace of irony) His love for both travel and steam engines is apparent even here - I've enjoyed this more than expected, on to 80 Days over the next few days I think. He also manages to find the most indirect route he can with out doubling back on him self - Its amazing how many steam locos he manages to travel on - a lot of them privatly owned lines .. I wonder how many are still there a quarter of a century on - I'm almost inspired to see in the summer...
Of course most of the route is BR but even some of that is on some bizarre DMU's ..
With interviews with signal ladies (these were manual signal boxes which I suspect have also long since gone) and various anecdotes on the history of british railways the program is interesting if not as exciting or up to his expeditions that are to follow this, but then its a single hour program rather than the more indepth, high budget travel series to follow, but still a very personal journey with side looks at the destinations rather than just the travels with stops at the Edinburgh Festival and Military tattoo as he works north to the islands counterpointed with industrial asides on the bridges and looks at Scotland's breathtaking scenary.
Of couse he has to cheat to get from Kyle of Lochalash and take a ferry but we can forgive that.
Next up on the Disc is the 1994 Ireland Journey 'Derry to Kerry'- But i'm going to do them in order - so we have a couple of others to watch first ..
The reason i've not seemn the Railway Journeys before is because they are not available as separate DVD's only in the Complete Palins travel Box set - By the time they released this I already had 80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle so it would be a waste to get it - doubley annoy as the Hemmingway Series is only available in the set too - But thanks to teh Marvels of Amazon Rental I now have the missing disks ...
I'm also going to have www.palinstravels.co.uk up on the laptop as I watch which has loads of extra information available as well as the complete text of the companion books for all the adventures (Except that is Great Railway Journeys, but as these were not Palin centric series I can understand why ) - I do recommend this site if your a fan of Palin's ...
Completionist that I am, I'm doing the journeys in order - Which means starting with his first 'Great Railway Journey' from 1980, London - Isle of Skye (Interestingly a lot of people don't know about this one - they only remember the 1994 Ireland one).
This is the first time I've seen this and the thing that has struck me is how young MP looks ... but then - This was 27 years ago...
It was his first travel journal (predates 80 Days by nine years or so) but the easy style he narrates his journeys is already there. Leaving from a soulless Euston on an inter city train he soon finds his way onto Steam - replicas of Stevenson's Rocket and a journey on the Flying Scotsman soon folow which leads to a steam engine graveyard in York. Dressed in Tanktop and anorak (with no trace of irony) His love for both travel and steam engines is apparent even here - I've enjoyed this more than expected, on to 80 Days over the next few days I think. He also manages to find the most indirect route he can with out doubling back on him self - Its amazing how many steam locos he manages to travel on - a lot of them privatly owned lines .. I wonder how many are still there a quarter of a century on - I'm almost inspired to see in the summer...
Of course most of the route is BR but even some of that is on some bizarre DMU's ..
With interviews with signal ladies (these were manual signal boxes which I suspect have also long since gone) and various anecdotes on the history of british railways the program is interesting if not as exciting or up to his expeditions that are to follow this, but then its a single hour program rather than the more indepth, high budget travel series to follow, but still a very personal journey with side looks at the destinations rather than just the travels with stops at the Edinburgh Festival and Military tattoo as he works north to the islands counterpointed with industrial asides on the bridges and looks at Scotland's breathtaking scenary.
Of couse he has to cheat to get from Kyle of Lochalash and take a ferry but we can forgive that.
Next up on the Disc is the 1994 Ireland Journey 'Derry to Kerry'- But i'm going to do them in order - so we have a couple of others to watch first ..
The reason i've not seemn the Railway Journeys before is because they are not available as separate DVD's only in the Complete Palins travel Box set - By the time they released this I already had 80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle so it would be a waste to get it - doubley annoy as the Hemmingway Series is only available in the set too - But thanks to teh Marvels of Amazon Rental I now have the missing disks ...