5 commissions new journey journey collection with Sir Michael Palin – ITN Productions | Media Centre

5 has commissioned a brand new 3 x 60’ journey journey collection with Sir Michael Palin – Michael Palin within the Philippines produced by ITN Productions. 

Michael Palin’s newest journey takes him into the guts of one of the crucial fascinating, politically-charged and traditionally difficult areas on earth – the Philippines. A spot nonetheless dominated by the legacy of the Marcos household and its most notorious husband and spouse couple Ferdinand and Imelda, whose 21-year rule from 1965-86 ended with an alleged $10 billion theft from the nation’s coffers, as their extravagant regime was uncovered. 

Now half vacationer paradise, it’s nonetheless formed by excessive poverty for a lot of and by political unrest and violence, Michael’s journey will take him throughout your complete, stunning archipelago of the Philippines.

As quickly as he arrives within the capital of Manila, Michael discovers a rustic on the sting.  Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’s son, Bongbong, is now surprisingly President, regardless of his household being exiled 40 years in the past. And the earlier president, Rodrigo Duterte, is underneath arrest within the worldwide legal court docket within the Netherlands, accused of the deaths of 30,000 Filipinos and ‘Crimes against humanity’.  Michael explores life on this vibrant and interesting metropolis challenged underneath this uncommon political scenario, earlier than flying out to the militarised island of Pagasa in the midst of the contested South China Sea.  China is aggressively asserting its claims over one of the crucial necessary delivery lanes on this planet and Michael instantly finds himself in the midst of a battle between a Philippine and Chinese coastguard ship.

Michael Palin says: “I find these journeys for 5 irresistible and revealing. Rarely does anyone have the chance to get as close to the great issues of a country as we did in the Philippines. I was a little nervous of taking on yet another journey, especially one so testing on the energy levels, but what we heard and saw was extraordinary and very different from any of the journeys we’ve done so far. A cracker, though I say it myself.”

Michael can even see among the most stunning elements of the nation’s 7,641 islands, sleeping in distant seashore camps in El Nido, travelling by way of underground rivers and swimming with hundreds of sardines in Moalboal.  But as he arrives within the southern island of Mindanao, Michael will expertise a really completely different a part of The Philippines, a centre of Islamic extremism and an space on the UK Foreign Office’s ‘do not travel’ crimson record.  Under navy escort, Michael explores the extraordinary and haunting stays of the destroyed metropolis of Marawi, and on the island of Jolo he meets a member of the terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf.

It’s the one nation on this planet the place you continue to can’t get divorced, and excessive poverty makes life very exhausting for hundreds of thousands.   But regardless of the challenges and on the finish of this epic journey, Michael discovers the individuals within the Philippines are among the warmest and friendliest he has ever met. 

This collection is Michael’s newest journey for five, after the success of his earlier collection – vastly fashionable  journeys to Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, and North Korea – for the channel. 

Guy Davies, Consultant Editor for Commissioning at 5 added: “Michael’s new series for 5 is as challenging, insightful, and visually stunning. He is energetic and interested in people’s stories as ever. I still can’t believe he’s on his fifth consecutive journey for us, and he’s as energetic, funny, and warm-hearted as ever.”

Neil Ferguson, Series Producer and Director for ITN commented: “This was the most ambitious shoot we’ve ever done with Michael and the Philippines exceeded all our expectations.  It’s a country of stunning contrasts and we often experienced paradise one day, followed by something much darker the next.  And whether it was political protest marches, military flights to remote islands, sleeping on the deck of overnight ferries or swimming with thousands of sardines, Michael took it all in his ridiculously nimble stride.  It’s a real adventure.”

Michael Palin in The Philippines – (3×60’) is commissioned by Guy Davies, Consultant Editor for Commissioning at 5.

 

Produced by ITN – Series Producer and Director, Neil Ferguson.

Executive Producer at ITN Productions, Jeremy Daldry.

The Guardian – “Palin is still effortlessly the best in the travelogue business”

 

The Times – “Michael Palin continues to show us how the TV travel game should be done…”

*Hutchinson Heinemann can even publish a e-book about his travels referred to as Michael Palin within the Philippines this autumn in hardback, e book and audiobook*