Michael Palin in Nigeria (2024) User Reviews

Bronzed

[owen-watts · 7/10 · 23 May 2024]

Palin's latest series, each one feels like a baffling gift, sees him newly widowed and arriving discombobulated into the sprawling waterlogged slums of Lagos. It's an ominous start but he regains his energy fast and is back in step after that. Nigeria is a fascinating country to focus on and his relentless humanity is on show as always here, despite his increasingly large entourage of minders, guards and fixers. Again it's more of a whistle-stop tour than his epic journeys of old and you get the feeling he's only really scratching the surface of such a vast and complex country, but there are enough fascinating encounters and strange asides to keep it interesting. Where next? Slough?! Hopefully just Slough.

Time to Retire?

[GB65 · 5/10 · 1 May 2024]

I feel that as he's aged, the quality of Michael's travelogues has unsurprisingly diminished with each new series. In his first six major series, when he was engaging with the locals he seemed genuinely interested in their stories and his environment. Here, he looks like what he is, an elderly gentleman looking on in surprise at his surroundings and not really taking in what he's being told. We also had the slavery lecture from him; unnecessary as the lady with whom he travelled to the beach (from where slaves departed) talked so eloquently about it. We didn't need his enforced guilt trip. And while he's here slagging off his own country for events from hundreds of years ago, he cheerily accepts the story about the 35 children fathered by a local 'chief' during the segment in how the Nigerian population is forecast to soar to 440 million within 25yrs, glossing over the poverty that this will cause and the strain it will have on resources. He also cheerily glosses over the beach rule of 'No homosexualism.......gay or lesbianism.' He never looks comfortable here whereas in earlier series he fitted in everywhere despite his obvious eccentric Englishman's presence.

Atrocious

[bertbarrott · 1/10 · 24 April 2024]

I know this country and this parody of a travel show is superficial in the extreme. National Geographic gee gosh american school girl at its worst. Palin has done no homework whatsoever . He adds nothing to the camera. He has read nothing of its history. Knows nothing of its complexity. He frequently and grossly mispronounced names (particularly Kano. Zaria and Lokoja but also Bornu, Benin and others ). It is both arrogant and lazy not to even attempt to pronounce names properly. Palin should retire. Most of Palin travel shows are patronising and superficial but this is the worst one I have had the misfo to view.