The series consists of four 60-minute episodes, as follows:
A Line in the Sand The programme starts in
Gibraltar, shown to be a bit of the United Kingdom only a few miles from Africa. In
Tangier, Morocco, Palin rides a camel on the beach, and then plays football with some youths and hurts himself. He's somewhat revived by visiting a
hammam, a public bath house. He attends a church service at
St. Andrew's Anglican Church together with some Nigerians who are trying to gain access to Europe. He also visits Jonathan Dawson, an expatriate Englishman, and his pet
cockerel Birdie. To get to the Sahara it is necessary to travel over the
Atlas Mountains. Along the way Palin visits
Fez and sees the old-fashioned way to dye leather. Then in
Marrakesh, he visits the
souk (market). In the mountains near Marrakesh Palin visits a
Berber village, experiencing a "courtship dance". Before leaving the mountains he passes through
Ait Benhaddou, an old town used as the location for many movies. Finally having reached the Sahara, in
Algeria, Palin visits the
Smara refugee camp for people who fled from
Western Sahara. A member of the
Polisario Front shows him around and he sees their equipment, mainly old Russian tanks. After several days travel, Palin makes it to
Mauritania, to the town of
Zouerat. From there he takes the iron ore train south to
Choûm, then by road on to
Atar, where he encounters the
Paris – Dakar rally and talks to Dave Hammond, the only remaining British entrant at that point. In the closing credits, Palin says that Hammond had moved up to twelfth position before suffering an injury, from which he slowly recovered.
Destination Timbuktu The episode starts with Palin crossing the
Sénégal River, leaving Mauritania and entering the town of
Saint-Louis in
Senegal. He has left
Arab Africa and entered
Black Africa, and the French influence, from the colonial past, is strongly felt here. He interviews the artist Jacob Yakouba and his soap-opera-star wife Marie-Madeleine, talking to them about
polygamy, which is prevalent here. Palin also visits
Gorée Island, the main departure point for black slaves sold to America. Palin moves on to
Dakar and watches (and takes part in) a late-night wrestling match, and then talks to the owner of a jazz café. Then he takes the Bamako Express train to
Bamako in
Mali, talking to a native woman about polygamy along the way. In Bamako he talks to the musician
Toumani Diabate. Palin visits the town of Tirelli on the
Bandiagara Escarpment where the
Dogon people live. The Dogons are a tribe of people who kept themselves isolated from the rest of the world until fairly recently, and have a culture unlike any other. While with the Dogons, Palin experiences getting gunpowder blown into his face from the Dogon hunter's old
blunderbuss, eats a meal in a sweltering 56 degree (134 °F) location, witnesses a funeral dance, and is introduced to the blacksmith, whose secondary job is to circumcise the boys (his wife performs
female genital cutting on the girls). In
Djenne, Palin talks to a local man whose nickname is Pigmy and experiences the Muslim
Tabaski ritual of slaughtering a sheep, first at the huge mosque and later at Pigmy's house. At the town of
Mopti Palin tries to get ferry passage up the
Niger River, but the low water level makes this impossible. Taking a smaller and very primitive boat instead, Palin meets Kristin, a Norwegian Christian missionary who has lived in Mali for six years, and they talk about female genital cutting and Kristin's attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity. Then the boat runs aground, and it is unsure if and when Palin will arrive in
Timbuktu.
Absolute Desert Michael Palin did make it to the mysterious Timbuktu, and this episode opens with views of the famous mosque built of mud. Palin talks to the imam, who shows Palin documents indicating that Muslim scholars had discovered that the Earth circled the Sun at least 100 years before Europeans figured it out. After this, Palin joins a tribe of
Wodaabe nomads on their way to Ingal (in
Niger) to participate in the
Cure Salée festival. He talks to a young Wodaabe man named Doulla and to Céline, a young French woman who is also following along with the group. The subject of polygamy is again raised, and we see the unusual courting rituals of the Wodaabe. Here the young girls choose the man they would like to try out, while the young men stand in a line dancing and rolling their eyes and looking very feminine (by Western standards) with much makeup. At Tabelot, Palin visits an
oasis, where a camel is used to raise water from a deep well using a long rope and a goatskin bucket. Palin visits the home of Omar and his four wives and 15 children. That evening there is a party before the departure of the camel caravan the next day. The rest of the episode follows Palin as he follows the camel caravan on its way across the
Tenere Desert, which the French had called "absolute desert". There is nothing here but sand, sand, and more sand. Finding a tree is cause for celebration. Palin shares conditions with the camel drivers, walking with them and eating their food. He tries to talk to them, but they speak no English or French, and they end up attempting to teach each other their native languages. "Bottoms up" is a favourite expression. After five days, Palin leaves the camel caravan, to return in the next episode.
Dire Straits This episode starts with Palin crossing the border from Niger to
Algeria, a desolate border with nothing but sand. A bit north of here are the
Hoggar Mountains. At
Assekrem he gets up early to view the sunrise from . Next, he boards an Algerian passenger plane and flies north to
Hassi-Messaoud, an oil extraction and refining town; a man-made luxury oasis in the middle of the desert. From here the trip jumps to
Libya, normally closed to western TV crews. To gain entry, Michael Palin and his team have joined up with a British veterans' tour, and he mingles with the 80-year-old former "
Desert Rats" who reminisce about the
Battle of Tobruk. He also visits
Benghazi and the ruins of
Apollonia, once a Greek port, and the ruins of
Leptis Magna, once a Roman city. Leaving Libya, Palin arrives in
Tunisia. He joins an octopus fishing crew on a small boat at
Djerba, visits a family who live in caves at
El Haddej (the scene of his crucifixion in
Life of Brian) and tries smoking a
shisha (a large water pipe) in a café in
Sousse. Then it's back to Algeria, travelling along the northern coast. Here the security is so tight (Palin is always accompanied by armed police) that there's not much chance for spontaneity. The last two days are spent in
Ceuta visiting an
EU-operated detention facility for Africans trying to reach Europe, and talking to a woman on a Spanish beach about the illegal immigrants who die trying to make it across the "dire straits" to the "promised land". A final shot shows Palin back in Gibraltar, philosophising about the Gibraltar situation (Spain vs. Britain) and the impoverished
Third World vs. the rich West. ==External links==