Michael Palin's New Europe

Michael Palin begins his journey of the new Europe of post-Soviet times in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.

From Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, Palin treks up to the Rila Mountains in Bulgaria where he joins the summer solstice celebrations of the mystical White Brotherhood sect.

Michael travels through Transdniester and Moldova, then through northern Romania and Transylvania to the Danube.

On a journey from Budapest to the Ukrainian resort of Yalta, Michael is engulfed in a swimming pool and rides pillion on a Harley. On the more serious side, he contemplates the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and its tragic aftermath.

Michael tells the story of how Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia shook themselves free of their neighbour and oppressor, the Soviet Union, reshaping their lives and reclaiming their cultures, which had been forced underground but didn't die.

Michael Palin journeys through Poland, from the port of Gdansk on the Baltic Sea to the Slovakian border to the south of the Tatra Mountains, considering on his trip the upheavals that have traumatised Poland for 70 years.