Sean Riley hosts this National Geographic Channel television show that travels the world documenting difficult, monstrous and head-shaking repair jobs in some of the most unique places on some of the most unique things.

A few of the items:
A cruise ship engine, a gigantic telescope mirror, 500,000 kv power lines and a turbine in a nuclear power producing facility.

It's totally engrossing viewing.
You are guaranteed to learn at least a half a dozen things each episode.
You will be amazed that work like this goes on around the world each and every day.

The show's homepage is here.

Michael Palin takes another trip - this time through the Sahara.

I thought this series would take Mr. Palin and his crew across the Sahara Desert.
Boy, was I wrong.

This journey Mr. Palin takes us on is a trip through the Sahara region of Africa.
He does traverse the grand desert (in a most unique way) but most of his travels take him into villages, towns and cities and mingle him in with all kinds and sorts of people groups and people.
Mr. Palin thrives when he meets people and spends any time at all with them. It is evident he enjoys those he meets and most are quite memorable to him.
The sites, locations, ancient ruins and landscapes he travels through are also remarkable.
There is a lot going on in this region, within and around this desert - all vastly varied, unique and mostly amazing.

The production of this series is a more abbreviated, a bit more slick than Mr. Palin's "Around The World In 80 Days" journey.
It seems like BBC felt like they had to rush things up, tighten things up and decided to stay with main parts of the trip and not so much the small details that marked the "80 Days" trip.

The series is still amazing, however.
It should not be missed.

I am not expert on the Sahara, never said I was, but after watching only the first episode of this series I found I knew even less than I thought I did about the great desert.
After viewing the entire series, I have conquered my lack of understanding of the Sahara region and now can safely say I know a little bit about it.
And what I know about the region is not at all what I thought I would know about the region.

This reviewer sums it up:

DVD.net.au | Terry Kemp
If like most people, BBC executives included, you thought the Sahara was just a big sand dune with little in it and certainly nothing of interest, 
then spend some time with Michael Palin on his four month journey and be surprised, interested and amused at the number of wonders that this most desolate of environments has to offer.

Take the trip with Mr. Palin.
Find out what all my fuss is about.


Michael Palin's Travel Homepage.
Find the DVD series here.

This series features Michael Palin attempting to travel around the world in eighty days while emulating the famous route of same circumference and duration as Phineas Fogg in Jules Verne's book.

That is all good and self-explanatory.
There are a few interesting caveats, however: Palin cannot use an airplane, only travels in a hot air balloon on a stop-over and not during his travel route and he is accompanied most of the journey with a crew of three other men (who are rarely seen on screen, but are vital to the production.

The series is so comfortable in its presentation, that as the viewer you are so comfortable watching it all unfold in each far corner (or near corner) of the world.
Although Palin is on a tight schedule and must work and strive to keep pace with the set calendar, the journey is a warm one and completely engrossing.
The hour-long episodes take forever to go by, but never drag on - it seems as you've watched a two-hour show when at the end of an episode only forty-eight minutes have gone by.

Palin is perfect for this duty.
His personality seems shoe-fit for this and he seems to draw out the best and kindest in the people he meets everywhere he goes.
Palin keeps the journey comfortable, sometimes very funny, always interesting, at the proper times a bit profound and always in the proper perspective.

The places travelled through on this journey will sometimes be familiar and sometimes not.
If the place is familiar, it will not at all be explored and experienced in a familiar way.
If the place is not familiar, you will wonder even wider at how life is so different/so similar to your own and how the people however their lives are, are just like you.

This is an excellent series.
It's much more than a travel documentary, and much less than a heavy-handed attempt at an international cross-cultures expose'.

An hour on this journey with Mr. Palin and crew is far and away worth every minute spent.
And as they all travel far and away, you will be very glad you joined along with them.


Palin's Travels Homepage.
Find the DVD series here.

Each time we watch this show, we both think to ourselves and then say out loud: "This is the best show on television."

You probably know all about this show and what this show presets each episode.
The crew finds urban myths, scientific-maybes, internet myths, movie scenarios, movie action sequences, questionable or amazing newspaper accounts, hearsay, long-standing "everybody has heard of this" gossip, suggestions submitted by viewers and any number of other sayings, suppositions and myths that otherwise may or may not be true.
But you knew all that.

The crew is amazing.
Adam and Jamie, I am certain of it, can build, put together, construct, design, piece together anything and then work out coherent and logical methods to use those pieces in a scientific way to find out once and for all (mostly) if a myth is Confirmed, Plausible or Busted.

Grant, Tory and Kari are also immensely skilled and building any apparatus, machine and set of gadgets and thingies needed to conduct their own fact-finding endeavors.

This cast show obvious happiness and fulfillment when working through these scenarios - from the first design sketch to when the last fragment of the final explosion falls to the ground.


Even better than all of the things that are made and put through their paces; the crew working hard, working so well together and enjoying it so much - is the fact that each time you watch an episode, you learn something.
That is a definite bonus.
A certain plus of television. Period.

It is also obvious this gang has the best gig on television.
We always say out loud each episode, "I wish I could do that for a job."

...well, we really couldn't do all that for a job because we surely don't have the skills or the chops to pull it all off.
But we can watch them do it all, and have a great time watching them.

Mythbusters home page.

Far and away our favorite television show, ever.

We watch these episodes and feel like were are visiting old friends.

Tom and Barbara Goode decide to go it alone and become self-sufficient all in their own home and own front and backyard.
Jerry and Margo Ledbetter are the Goode's next-door neighbors and are completely wrapped up in careers and their upwardly mobile society.

The show is gentle, intelligent, friendly, funny, mature, heart-warming and charming.
Down-to-earth and tremendously approachable, the show is a one-of-a-kind gem.
Real issues, real relationships and real resolutions are hallmarks of the series.

Richard Briers, Felicity Kendall, Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith set watermarks for performances.
The show sets watermarks, as well - and they are high marks at that.

We are smiling at the end of each episode - because we have just spent so time with good friends, Good Neighbors.


BBC TV page for the show.

This sharp, tight and highly entertaining BBC television show has been on the air for more than thirteen years, now.

The show has rocketed all types of supercars, unique cars and every-day cars right by its viewers on a regular basis.

The show is not "techy" at all (surprising, because the show's three hosts are all obviously automobile-brilliant), the information given in easily accessible yet deep enough to wet your appetite and leave you waiting to see the cars in action just to find out if they actually will perform like it has been said they would.

Perform, these cars do.
Each drive, test, trial, lap is as fun and intriguing as the next.
The show is all about the cars, and very cool cars - late model, contemporary or prototype, indeed.

The hosts are as integral a part of the show as any host of set of hosts is on any show on television.
The three accomplish a remarkable feat each and every episode: they accentuate and promote the great cars around them, and are so good at what they do and so enjoyable watch as they trade barbs with one another, pick at or praise each other's comments, you are drawn into just how much fun the three of them are having being around these wonderful and fantastic cars.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May make the show what it is.
This would not be Top Gear without them.
These three gentlemen would not be the same without these tremendous cars.
Without these cars, their passion would have no place to focus itself while on set, in the outback or on the tarmac of an aircraft carrier.

This is not a car review show where the autos roll around a soft oval comparing performance and specs to last year's model and similar cars of make and class.
This is about the cars.
And driving them.
And driving them anywhere and everywhere.
Switzerland, the African desert, an RAF airfield, nighttime London and across the English channel.

Top Gear is also home to its own test track.
This track is used to gather raw performance data when the cars are driven by Top Gear's unidentified/mythical pilot, "The Stig".
This shadowy driver is most certainly worth his driving weight in white.

The test track is also party to the weekly celebrity drive as the show's guest-of-the-week is allowed a time trial lap in an ordinary domestic model, strapped securely in, helmeted for safety and all. This is a rousing good time. Any one could take the wheel and has, from Ron Wood to Dame Helen Mirren.

Top Gear's production value is just that, top gear.
The show is an hour long and is such a competent, tight package visibly, audibly and with it's pacing it makes you wonder why all television shows can't do it like this - or just why Top Gear can pull off this excellence week in and week out.

In the end, Top Gear is about one thing:

The cars.

The studio audience knows that.
The hosts know that.
And they work to make sure that at the final turn, we will love these cars as much as they do.


Top Gear homepage.

Veyron versus McLaren F1 video from the show.