Advantages: The best travel documentaries ever. Disadvantages: Finding enough time to watch it all.
...if as much part of the entertainment as the destinations he visits. Even if you don't like geography, you'll be hard pressed to find exploration of our planet from the comfort of your own sofa any better than this.
Tech Spec: 16 discs covering seven Michael Palin television series filmed for the BBC. A total running time that runs into days not just hours.
Box set contents:
Hemingway Adventure - retracing the footsteps of writer Ernest Hemingway
... ...put to the test
Pole To Pole - from North to South across Northern Europe, Russia & Africa
Full Circle - a 50,000 mile trip around the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean
Sahara - a trek across the worlds largest desert.
Himalaya - the highs and lows of the greatest mountain range of all.
Great Railway Journeys - Palins favorite hobby, train journeys. This time a little closer to home, the UK & Ireland
However, if I have to choose one of the series ...
Advantages: Detailed history of First World War, very educational Disadvantages: Very long and detailed
...a superbly detailed history of the FIrst World War which takes you from the reasons why the war began in 1914 right through to the armastice in 1918.
The disks contain 26 individual 45 minute episodes and describes in great detail the battles and outcomes shown in superb (but grainy) b&w film. The great thing about this series is it tells the story from all points of view (German, English, French etc.) both tactically and from the ordinary "tommy" ... ...and many leading actors from the time the series was made (1960's)voice the parts of the leading generals and politicians.
This boxed set is a must for anyone studying the First World War or with an interest in history and gives a valuable insight into the horrors and carnage of this terrible war.
I highly reccomend it
The Disks :
The boxed set consists of seven disks. The first six disks contain purely the episodes from the series there are ...
Advantages: Superb production, fascinating footage, great music Disadvantages: None whatsoever apart from wanting more
...together booklet, containing full details of all the archive material and pieces played as well as a well written essay on the conductors in "The Art of Conducting" by the journalist Alan Sanders - which has some interesting photos of some of the maestri and musicians on the DVD too. ...
Advantages: makes you think, can be motivating Disadvantages: none
...faced bunch of Royal Marine Commando recruits all the way through 32 weeks of basic training. With complete access to every part of the training process he follows the good times and the bad of each of the recruits and something that I felt made the documentary that little more exciting was that he also took part in the training himself, Chris Terrill was 55 years old. The Program was originally aired in 2007 for ITV; at the beginning you see the ... ...of becoming a Royal Marine Commando and receiving the coveted Green Beret so that they can become elite soldiers that look a million miles away from the guys that they were 32 weeks earlier. After the 32 weeks training Chris follows a few of the successful soldiers when they are posted to Afghanistan for a tour of duty, as well as a new officer who takes up his post in Afghanistan for his first tour with a mainly rookie company of men. I managed ...
Advantages: Cheap prices Disadvantages: Cheap labour
With the slave trade debate raging last year during the 200 commerations its always important to note that not only is that particular trade is still alive and well in the third world but its as good as here in its modern form in companies like Wal-Mart. Well meaning and angry people may well protest alongside some vegetarians banging a drum in London about what happened 200 years ago but most of the labeled clothing we are wearing will have been ... ...the products piled high in the huge shopping arenas of Wal-Mart and the like are the products of cheap and exploited labor somewhere around the world and when the documentary explores those sweat shops in South East Asia our arguments of reparation begin to fragment. In one segment you see young Chinese girls living in cramped dorms in a grubby factory, the gates locked at night, weekly rent and utilities deducted from their meager pay packets, whether ...
