Himalaya with Michael Palin: Bhutan to Bay of Bengal (BBC Four Saturday 27 May 2023)

Himalaya with Michael Palin: Bhutan to Bay of Bengal airs Saturday 27 May 2023 on BBC Four.

Michael Palin visits Bhutan for one final view of the Himalayas and finds himself back in yak country. Before heading down to Paro to experience the Buddhist festival or Tsechu, he treks to Chomolhari base camp and meets a nomad with a penchant for yak songs. He meets the king’s cousins, Benji and Khendum, in a bar in Thimphu, where they talk about reincarnation and the meaning of life, and Benji later takes him to Bangladesh to see the endangered black-necked cranes.

Michael travels south through Bangladesh, stopping at the ship-breaking beaches of Chittagong and the congested streets of Dhaka. In Birmingham, he meets a man who became wealthy through the poultry industry, as well as a woman who lends money exclusively to other women. His epic Himalayan journey concludes on a fishing boat that takes him out into the Bay of Bengal and a westering sun, where he is serenaded by the words of Bengal’s Shakespeare, who lived in the 1920s.

Season 1 Episode 6

Himalaya with Michael Palin: Bhutan to Bay of Bengal airs Saturday 27 May 2023 at 7.00pm on BBC Four

Featured Image Credit: BBC Four