Encore Sundays, April 14 - May 5, 2024 from Noon - 2 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream the series now with KPBS Passport!
Literature’s most famous race against the calendar comes to MASTERPIECE in 2022 with an innovative new adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, airing on MASTERPIECE in eight thrilling episodes.
David Tennant (DOCTOR WHO) stars as the Englishman who bets a fortune that he can circumnavigate the planet in a mere eighty days — quite a feat, considering that it’s 1872. Ibrahim Koma ("As Far as I Can Walk") and Leonie Benesch (BABYLON BERLIN) costar as his intrepid traveling companions on an expedition that packs far more adventure than the trio bargained for. Updating Verne’s enduringly popular tale, MASTERPIECE introduces new themes, characters, and stories, drawing in part on the author’s own personal history of disappointment in love, and also echoing the record- breaking around-the-world trip in 1890 by journalist Nellie Bly in emulation of Verne’s plot.
Related: "Five Intriguing Facts About David Tennant"
Shot on location on two continents, the miniseries follows our heroes as they head east from London on Oct. 5, 1872, intending to make it back to the reading room of the city’s snobbish Reform Club no later than one o’clock on Christmas Eve. En route, they take ships, trains, balloons, camels, stagecoaches, and other conveyances, while meeting increasingly dangerous obstacles. At stake is a wager of 20,000 British pounds, equal to over $3 million in today’s U.S. currency.
The idea for the trip is sparked by a news article reporting a recently finished railway line in India that completes an unbroken chain of modern transportation links spanning the globe, making it possible to circle the planet in eighty days — at least, in theory. Phileas Fogg (Tennant), a diffident bachelor and regular at the Reform Club, muses longingly about the possibility and is goaded by his old antagonist, Nyle Bellamy (Peter Sullivan, POLDARK), into undertaking the journey, with a hefty bet riding on the outcome.
Deciding that his octogenarian butler (Richard Wilson, MERLIN) is not up to the voyage, Fogg recruits a new valet, Passepartout (Koma), who is a sharp-witted French wanderer, and they immediately set forth. Doggedly following their trail is the ambitious reporter of the story that launched the adventure, Abigail “Fix” Fortescue (Benesch), daughter of British newspaper magnate Bernard Fortescue (Jason Watkins, THE CROWN). Fogg soon concludes that he can’t get rid of Abigail and enlists her as an official member of the expedition. Little do they know but Abigail has made a crucial error in her original article.
However, that is the least of their worries as Fogg, Passepartout, and Abigail experience revolution, starvation, false arrest, surreptitious drugging, life-threatening attacks, and stranding on a desert island, among other perils. Clearly, fate — or somebody — does not want Fogg to win his bet!
Among the interesting, helpful, and menacing individuals they meet are the notorious English libertine Jane Digby (Lindsay Duncan, SHERLOCK) and her latest husband, Sheik Medjuel el Mezrab (Faical Elkihel, THE SPY); dogged U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves (Gary Beadle, GRANTCHESTER), who is enforcing the law in the Old West; and ubiquitous private detective Thomas Kneedling (Anthony Flanagan, GENTLEMAN JACK), who is definitely operating outside the law.
Furthermore, since even the most remote excursion invariably reconnects by chance with a long- lost acquaintance, Fogg runs into an old friend who wastes no time giving him a piece of her mind (Dolly Wells, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and "Zombies"). A good thing too, since time is of the essence on this trip!
EPISODE GUIDE:
Episode 1: Encore Sunday, April 14 at Noon on KPBS TV - Phileas Fogg bets a fortune that he can circle the Earth in no more than 80 days. He enlists a new valet and attracts a persistent reporter. The three run amok in Paris.
Episode 2: Encore Sunday, April 14 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Having survived mayhem in France, Fogg and his party are crossing Italy when their train comes to a screeching halt. Can they continue and save a boy's life in the process?
Episode 3: Encore Sunday, April 21 at Noon on KPBS TV - To meet their connection in Aden, Fogg and Passepartout hire a camel driver to cross the desert. Bad idea! Can Abigail and her new acquaintances rescue them?
Episode 4: Encore Sunday, April 21 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Invited to a wedding in India, Fogg has his diplomatic skill tested when a British officer arrests the groom. Unwittingly drugged, Fogg spills his true motivation for the trip to Abigail.
Episode 5: Encore Sunday, April 28 at Noon on KPBS TV - Though wealthy, Fogg discovers that someone has put a hold on his credit in Hong Kong, making further progress impossible. Passepartout puts his larceny skills to use.
Episode 6: Encore Sunday, April 28 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Facing starvation on a desert island, Fogg and Passepartout have a falling out. The valet’s superior survival skills are desperately needed to save their lives, much less the round-the-world wager.
Episode 7: Encore Tuesday, May 5 at Noon on KPBS TV - Arrived in the Old West, the three adventurers meet a lawman with his fugitive captive. Making their next train connection hinges on Abigail’s journalistic cool in a shootout.
Episode 8: Encore Tuesday, May 5 at 1 p.m. on KPBS TV - Fogg meets an old friend at New York’s Grand Central Depot and must decide whether to continue his trip. Unbeknownst to him, astronomical effects will decide the outcome.
Watch On Your Schedule:
Episodes are now available to stream on demand with KPBS Passport.
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Credits:
This captivating tale is brought to life by UK production house Slim Film + Television and French production company Federation Entertainment. Co- production for France Télévisions, ZDF and RAI, in co-production with Peu Communications, MASTERPIECE, Be-FILMS and RTBF in association with The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited, Daro Films, and BBC. It is executive produced by Simon Crawford Collins for Slim, Lionel Uzan and Pascal Breton for Federation, and Winnie Serite for Peu Communications. Susanne Simpson is the executive producer of MASTERPIECE.
