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MICHAEL PALIN'S HEMINGWAY ADVENTURE
Wednesdays, May 3-10, 2000, 9:00 p.m. ET (Check local listings.)
Michael Palin turns his wandering eye to the life and locales of Ernest
Hemingway. The series moves in and out of past and present to the places that
meant so much to Hemingway: Chicago, his birthplace; Italy, scene of his
injuries in World War I; Paris; Pamplona and the running of the bulls; his
beloved Havana; Key West, where his presence is still felt today; Uganda, where
he went on safari; and Ketchum, Idaho, where he died.
Producer: BBC. Contact: PBS Program Press Relations
Tel.: 212/708-3000; Fax: 212/708-3018
Episode One (5/3, 9:00 p.m. ET)
This program goes straight to the heart of Hemingway: his passion for the
Spanish way of life and its bullfighting rituals and his freedom to spend months
at a time on the plains of Kenya and in the "Green Hills of Africa." Palin
attends an essentially Spanish festival, the Fallas of Valencia, and goes to
bullfighting school to find out what all the fuss is about. From Spain, he heads
south to the Amboseli plains in Kenya, where Hemingway hunted lion and rhino. He
visits a Masai village and goes out on poaching patrol with an Honorary Game
Warden, a job Hemingway also did during a 1950s safari. He glimpses the snows of
Kilimanjaro from the window of a plane and heads for the Green Hills.
Episode Two (5/3, 10:00 p.m. ET)
The second episode alternates between America and Europe. Palin investigates the
busy streets of Chicago and the suburb of Oak Park, where the Hemingway myth
began. He follows the trail from the house where Hemingway was born and his
songwriting mother dressed him as a girl, to the family's summer cottage in
Michigan. In Europe, he travels to the Italian Front where Hemingway was shot
and badly wounded. In Paris, he drives a tank towards the Champs Elysees - and
nearly gets arrested. He visits the writer's tiny first apartment, then sets out
to sample the bars and brasseries, much as Hemingway did, before he ends up in
the hospital after an encounter with a broken lavatory chain and a falling
skylight.
Episode Three (5/10, 9:00 p.m. ET)
Palin travels to Florida's Key West to visit Hemingway's house and witness the
antics of the men who fight each year to win the Hemingway Look-Alike contest.
From Florida, Palin goes to Uganda, where Hemingway and his wife suffered two
near-fatal crashes. Despite the obituaries, Hemingway and Mary came back to life
and to Venice, where Palin shows up in time for carnival and to hear how
Hemingway found a new hobby - duck shooting - which Palin tries with an epic
lack of success.
Episode Four (5/10, 10:00 p.m. ET)
Palin visits Cuba, examining the charms of Havana that captivated Hemingway for
20 years. After marlin fishing and bar-hopping, he spends time with a Havana
hangover. He visits with 102-year-old Gregorio Fuentes, who captained
Hemingway's boat, and tours Hemingway's house, preserved as if Papa had left it
that morning. Hemingway departed his beloved Cuba after Castro's communist
revolution and returned to the open spaces of the American West, where Palin
tries his hand at rounding up cattle ... and helping out at a Montana
taxidermist's before heading, via Yellowstone Park, to Hemingway's last home in
Ketchum, Idaho. Confronted with Hemingway's simple grave in the Ketchum
cemetery, Palin pays his last respects to his traveling companion, describing
"an odd feeling of emptiness, like a good party after the host's gone." But what
a party.
CREDITS
Executive Producer
Anne James served as executive producer for the
previous two Palin series, Full Circle with Michael Palin and Pole to Pole, for which she
received a CableAce award. In 1990, she formed Prominent Television with the Python team
and partner Steve Abbott. She is also co-founder of Prominent Features, the London-based
company responsible for six feature films, including the Oscar-winning A Fish Called Wanda.
Executive Producer
Edward Mirzoeff has produced and directed
numerous documentaries for the BBC during his more than 30 years in television.
His credits include Elizabeth R, a 110-minute portrait of the Queen to celebrate
her 40th anniversary on the throne and The Ritz, an award-winning look at London's
exclusive luxury hotel. He also served as executive producer for Full Circle with
Michael Palin.
Producer
Martha Wailes is a 13-year veteran of the television industry, having produced
and directed programs for PBS, the BBC, The Discovery Channel and The Learning
Channel. Her credits include Battle Alert In The Gulf, a one-hour program for
PBS's NOVA series.
Series Director
David F. Turnbull has produced and directed a
wide range of award-winning documentary and entertainment programs, many of which
have been shown on PBS and A&E. His credits include a psychology series with
Jonathan Miller and a film featuring astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
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