'My Wife Didn't Want Me To Go'

Michael Palin on his eye-opening trip to North Korea…

- Sean Marland

Over the past 30 years, Michael Palin’s TV travelogues have taken him to all four corners of the globe and seen him experience some of the world’s most remarkable and diverse cultures.

Yet nothing could prepare the actor-writer-presenter for a trip to totalitarian North Korea for a landmark Channel 5 documentary, which hits our screens this week.

After two years of complex negotiations, Michael and his team were granted unprecedented access to the country, and the visit coincided with the historic meeting in April between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The two-parter sees Michael – who can also currently be seen playing author William Makepeace Thackeray in ITV’s period drama Vanity Fair – travel more than 1,300 miles from south to north in his quest to discover what life is really like for those who live there.

In this week’s episode, he’s given a tour of the country’s capital city, Pyongyang, before meeting some of the locals. Here, Michael – who celebrated his 75th birthday during filming – tells us more…

How long did the trip take to plan?