Inside The Hermit Kingdom

Veteran traveller Michael Palin on his most challenging trip yet – to the totalitarian state of North Korea…

- Claire Crick, Olly Grant, Sean Marland

NEW FACTUAL

Michael Palin in North Korea

Thursday, channel 5 HD, 9pm

Over the years, Michael Palin has travelled to all four corners of the globe and experienced some of the world’s most remarkable cultures – yet nothing could prepare him for a trip to North Korea.

The Monty Python star heads to the totalitarian state, which is ruled by dictator Kim Jong-un, to find out what the secretive country – known as the ‘hermit kingdom’ – is really like, and whether its reputation for brutally repressing its population is deserved.

Despite facing strict rules on what he and his crew could film, in this week’s first episode, Palin, 75, is given a tour of the country’s capital city, Pyongyang, before meeting some of the North Korean people. Here, he tells us more about the two-part series…