The plot of Around the World in 80 Days is, I suspect, well known to most of the earth’s population. A gentleman of considerable means (Phileas Fogg) wagers that he can traverse across the globe in 80 days. Three friends bet against him, and off he goes on his journey with his newly-arrived valet, Passepartout. On their travels around the world, they encounter danger, excitement, romance, etc etc, and find out more about themselves than they ever thought existed. Their journey takes them across Europe, Asia, the Americas, travelling by boat, ship, train, and even elephant! Along the way Fogg shows just what a jolly good chap he really is and rescues a princess, despite being terribly British and never taking advantage of her gratitude in any way whatsoever. What a good egg, hey what?

In this BBC mini-series, many changes to the original book are made, which is relatively unusual for a BBC series. I guess they just wanted to get as many star names in as possible, and had to create their roles. Well I assume they were star names at the time, at least in terms of British TV, as many are unfamiliar to me. Among those I do recognise are Robert Wagner as Mr Alfred Bennett, Roddy McDowall as Gerald McBaines, Robert Morley in ultra-over-the-top mode as Sir Forbes-Keith Wentworth (Governor of the Bank of England), Christopher Lee as Andrew Sturart, and Patrick MacNee as Gauthier Ralph. If the character’s names don’t seem familiar to you then I wouldn’t really worry – apart from the main four characters mentioned below, almost everyone in the series is fairly superfluous anyway.

Phileas Fogg is played by Pierce Brosnan, who is quite well suited to the role as far as being debonair goes, but seems a little too austere even for Fogg as we know him from the book. Still, not terrible. Eric Idle plays his man-servant Jean Passepartout, and I must say that I really did enjoy the former Python’s interpretation of the character – probably a bit too surreal and erratic for some people, but it seemed to fit well with the style of the production and he made me laugh on numerous occasions. Peter Ustinov as Detective Fix, I’m afraid, was truly annoying, and very rarely funny – which considerably lessened my enjoyment of the series. With Julia Nickson as Princess Aouda perfectly adequate but hardly stretched by the role, and Brosnan’s extreme dryness in his role, much fell on the shoulders of Idle and Ustinov – who, for once, disappointed.

As I mentioned, the script meandered greatly from the book, and in many cases the changes were… extremely odd. Not necessarily surreal, but downright barking. (In fact, as far as authenticity to the original goes, it’s possibly even further out than the 2004 Jackie Chan version!!) Parts of it were enjoyable but overall it just didn’t flow very well – almost as if it had been slung together in a hurry. On the other hand, some of the photography – particularly in Asia – was superb. A few decent action scenes and some funny moments help it to get a “recommended” rating. It was enjoyable to watch the first time, though never excelling, and I probably wouldn’t bother to watch it again.

Around the World in 80 Days is available in a 2-DVD edition (approx runtime 4 hours 40 minutes) and comes with a few extras; production notes, cast biographies, production stills, and a trailer. Worth getting if you can get it cheap ($10 or less), particularly if you like Pierce Brosnan (though you may not like him as much in this!)

Related Links

The 2004 Movie starring Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan

The classic book by Jules Verne


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day