Michael Palin's New Europe

Michael Palin explores the countries that were for much of his life hidden behind the Iron Curtain but now are very much part of the new Europe of post-Soviet times. From high in the Julian Alps of Slovenia, along the magical coast of Croatia and deep into Bosnia and Serbia, he discovers new countries coming to terms with the bloody wars that created them and now enjoying the peace that prevails. From Dubrovnik, he sails to Albania where he finds a country adapting to a new openness.

Michael Palin explores the countries that were for much of his life hidden behind the Iron Curtain but now are part of the new Europe. From Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, Palin treks up to the Rila Mountains in Bulgaria where he joins the summer solstice celebrations of the mystical White Brotherhood sect. Crossing into Turkey he admires the great mosques of master architect Sinan in Edirne, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, before witnessing an oil wrestling competition.

From the tiny, breakaway state of Transdniester to the rolling hills of sunny Moldova, across the Carpathians mountains of Northern Romania and through Transylvania to the Danube, this is a journey into some of the poorest and most beautiful parts of south-eastern Europe. Moved by Tatiana's theatre group, who warn teenagers of the dangers of people trafficking, to lunch with Olga and her mum in the sunny south of Moldova, Michael then passes the Byzantine painted churches of Bucovina, eats pork fat and brandy with lumberjacks in the forests of Maramures, and delights in the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta where the painted tombs are witty celebrations of life. In Saxon Sighisoara and the imposing Bran Castle, made famous by Bram Stoker's Dracula, the truth behind the Transylvanian hero is unravelled. In Bucharest he sees for himself Ceausescu's legacy in the People's Palace, but discovers a people who have survived the communist rule and are embracing the freedoms within a united Europe. Tennis ace Ilie Nastase gives him a very personal view of that period, before National Theatre actor Dan Badarau takes him up the Danube through the famous Iron Gates towards the very heart of Europe.

Michael Palin explores the countries that were for much of his life hidden behind the Iron Curtain but are now part of the new Europe. On a journey from Budapest to the Ukrainian resort of Yalta, Michael is engulfed in a swimming pool, shows what he can do on the catwalk, and rides pillion on a Harley. On the more serious side, he contemplates the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and its tragic aftermath, the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine 50 years later, and the Yalta Conference.

A journey through the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, from Tallinn in the north via Riga to Vilnius in the south. Michael Palin tells the story of how the three tiny nations shook themselves free of their neighbour and oppressor, the Soviet Union, reshaping their lives and reclaiming their cultures, which had been forced underground but didn't die. Michael attends a session of hirudotherapy (leech treatment), a session of fire-walking and a frolic with revellers at the pagan festival of Jaani, crowned in a chaplet of oak-leaves. In an impromptu experiment on the streets of Vilnius, he learns why Lithuanians are known as the 'singing nation'. The documentary ends in Kaliningrad, which was once East Prussia. Kaliningrad is a relic of World War II and one of Europe's oddities - a region of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania. It is City Day, a celebration of the 60 years since the region was renamed, and whatever the politics, Michael is determined to enjoy himself before sailing around the Baltic coast to Poland.

Michael Palin journeys through Poland, from the port of Gdansk in the north to the Slovakian border south of the Tatra Mountains. He considers the upheavals that traumatised Poland for 70 years, visiting Auschwitz and the spiritual capital of Poland, Czestechowa, where politics and religion are never far apart. Palin meets the great European maestro, Lech Walesa, whose independent trade union Solidarity lit a fuse under Communism's grip on Eastern Europe. Then he marvels at the miracle of Warsaw, razed to the ground on Hitler's orders and restored to its old glory, brick by brick, from original plans. He also enjoys the pleasures Poland has to offer, accepting a cameo role on stage with one of Poland's most famous cabaret groups, driving a steam loco on the Polish rail network out of Poznan during rush hour, and appearing on Polish breakfast TV, where he takes a Polish lesson from a Londoner who went to work in Poland and learned the language by drinking with Poles.

High in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia, Michael learns how to make sausages before heading off to Turba's mime school in Brno. In the spa town of Karlovy Vary, he has a mud bath with Miss World, followed by a pedalo ride in Prague. Entering the former East Germany in Dresden, he learns from a student that despite Germany's unification there is still a wall inside people's heads, before ending his trip on the Baltic island of Rugen.