Michael Palin in the Philippines (2026)

Overview

Michael Palin's latest adventure is an epic 2,500-mile journey across the islands of the Philippines. Known as an idyllic tropical travel hotspot, Michael also delves deeper to reveal a surprising, darker side. The legacy of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos' spending, not just the shoes of legend but billions spent on monumental architecture, still haunts the country forty years on. Their son, Bongbong Marcos, is now President, and forty percent of the urban population lives in poverty, thirty thousand people have been lawlessly killed by vigilante anti-drug 'death squads', and a third of the country is on the UK Foreign Office 'do not travel list'. But despite all of this, Michael also experiences the Philippines as, ironically, one of the happiest and certainly the most beautiful countries he has ever visited.