在这部纪录片里，Stephen Fry会带领我们探索如何学习语言，如何写字，为什么有时会觉得难以表达……1）Babel 在第一集中，Stephen向我们揭示了人类语言的起源以及为什么我们是唯一拥有语言能力的物种，通过教猩猩说话、将人类语言基因植入白鼠等实验说明人脑与语言间的独特联系； 2）Identity 我们所讲的语言表明了我们的特征，甚至体现出阶级差异。同时Stephen还探索了英语全球化势不可挡的原因；3）Uses and Abuses 在语言的使用过程中，往往混杂着咒骂等一些不好的词汇。Stephen做了一次核磁共振扫描后发现我们大脑中有一部分是与粗话相联系的，妥瑞综合症和中风患者就不能说粗话；4）Spreading the World 书写让知识的保存和传递得以进行，第四集中Stephen将为我们介绍字母的来源和演化；5）The Power and The Glory 讲故事是人类表达自己情感、相互沟通的方式。通过与作家的交流，Stephen将告诉我们怎样写出更加引人入胜的故事。（松鼠字幕组）

Michael Palin explores the countries that were, for much of his life, hidden behind the Iron Curtain, and now are very much part of the New Europe of post-Soviet times.
1 - War and Peace
Countries visited: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania
In Medjugoree Michael encounters a visionary who first started having visitations from the Virgin Mary 25 years ago. In Dubrovnik he meets with lute maestro Edin Karamazov who made the recent 'Songs from the Labyrinth' album with Sting. Michael ends this visit with a sheep sacrifice which heralds an afternoon of music and hospitality typically Balkan.
2 - Eastern Delight
Countries visited: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey
Michael makes a remarkable visit to Göreme, where the rocks have been carved to form homes and some of the most remarkable churches of the early Christian era. Leaving the Cappodocia region by balloon, he sails east towards the borders of the New Europe, which if Turkey were to join the European Union would include Iran, Iraq and Syria.
3 - Wild East
Countries visited: Trans-Dniester, Romania
Michael travels from Transdniester, a breakaway state from the Republic of Moldova, to the Vaser Valley in Romania, where he joins 80 lumberjacks as they board a wood-fired steam train. He finally ends up at Bran Castle in Transylvania, the ancestral home of Vlad the Impaler and alleged home of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
4 - Danube to Dnieper
Countries visited: Hungary, Ukraine
Michael travels by road, rail and river through Hungary and the Ukraine, ending in the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Along the way he visits Budapest's 'House of Terror', a National Park in Hortobagy, an area which Attila the Hun was reputed to have rampaged across, and ends up meeting a Leeds market trader who married the Ukranian prime minister's daughter.
5 - Baltic Summer
Countries visited: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia
Michael travels from Tallinn in the north, through Latvia, to Lithuania in the south, sailing into the Baltic from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia. In Estonia he visits a pyramid house and samples the medicinal properties of leeches. In Latvia he visits one of the most secretive places of the Communist-era, the astronomical telescope.
6 - From Pole to Pole
Country visited: Poland
Arriving in Gdansk via canal, Michael meets former electrician Lech Walesa who formed 'Solidarity', Poland's first independent trade union, which led to the demise of communism in that country. Heading to Warsaw he visits the Palace of Culture, Stalin's controversial gift to Varsovians. Michael then makes his own personal pilgrimage to Auschwitz.
7 - Journey's End
Countries visited: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany
High in the Tatra mountains of Slovakia, Michael skins a pig, and learns how to make sausages. He then departs to Brno to visit Tibor Turba's famous mime school, where he is asked to mime a cockerel. Travelling in a DC3, used during the Berlin airlift, he visits the island of Rugen, built by Hitler for his KDF ('Strength through Joy') programme.

Stephen Fry journeys through the States in a black London cab.

The Man In The Hat sets off from Marseilles in a small Fiat 500. On the seat beside him is a framed photograph of an unknown woman. Behind him is a 2CV into which is squeezed Five Bald Men. Why are they chasing him? And how can he shake them off?

As he travels North through France, he encounters razeteurs, women with stories to tell, bullfights, plenty of delicious food, a damp man, mechanics, nuns, a convention of Chrystallographers and much more. And always, on his tail, the Five Bald Men.

Though largely silent, the film is interrupted by regular bursts of music, with new songs from Stephen Warbeck, Schubert Lieder sung by the incomparable Mark Padmore, Canteloube aria from the Cevennes, and Try a Lttle Tenderness, amongst others.

As the Fiat 500 wends its way across the mountains, gorges and bridges of France, the 2CV hard behind him, the Thin Man (Ciaran Hinds) comes face to face with the vivid eccentricities of an old country on an old continent.

英国着名演员兼旅游家米高柏林又再起行，展开这个在八十日内完成的撒哈拉之旅，感受当地丰富独特的风土人情，明珠台好评如潮地理节目。
米高柏林又再起行，展开他的长途旅程，这回他深入撒哈拉禁地。 观众看到的不是撒哈拉的荒凉，而是丰富独特的风土人情及源远流长的历史。
米高於摩洛哥出发，他必须横越天然通道 — 壮丽的阿特拉斯山脉，才可踏足撒哈拉。绕山而行，乾旱的撒哈拉渐渐映入眼帘，只见黄沙万里，沙石纷飞。风沙刺面，吹得人睁不开眼睛。
离开西撒哈拉的纷争地区，米高乘坐两公里长的铁矿火车穿越毛里塔西亚，前往塞内加尔及国内古老的法国殖民时期的城镇。然后他拜访戈雷岛，从前数以百万计的奴隶在这里被人肉贩子贩卖，送往欧美等地。在马里，他有幸跟多贡人见面，多贡人之地拥有难得一见的景色，尤其在华氏134度的正午下，一边吃午餐，一边欣赏。
前往延巴克图的渡轮三个月才有一班，米高选了本地货船畅游尼日尔河。他在尼日尔攀越霍加尔山向北行，经过阿尔及利亚丰富的天然气田与石油田，进入利比亚，在当地他难得体验一种对外隔绝已久的文化。突尼斯是米高的最后一站，他曾在这国家拍剧，所以对该地十分熟识。
第一集：踏沙漠之旅
米高由直布罗陀出发，横渡直布罗陀海峡到摩洛哥的丹吉尔。他抵达目的地撒哈拉前，首先必须经过摩洛哥的精神首府非斯及旅游重镇马拉喀什，最后是跨越高耸的阿特拉斯山脉。
米高在位於阿尔及利亚及摩洛哥边界的斯马拉营停留，那儿的营地居住了180,000名逃避27年前摩洛哥之侵占而逃离撒哈拉的难民。
再向西行，米高搭上世上最长的火车，前往伊斯兰教第七神圣城市欣盖提。他在那儿赢了一个叫「狄望」的游戏「是一种沙漠运动，需用上一些竹技及骆驼粪便」，并且在西行时赶上第24届巴黎 — 达喀尔汽车赛的司机。那汽车赛的终点站是塞内加尔的达喀尔，而尽管米高跟他们行走的比赛路线不同，但他亦是准备到达喀尔去。
第二集：廷巴克图
在本集，米高的旅程绵延1000哩，向传奇城市廷巴克图进发。米高横渡塞内加尔河，来到古老法国殖民地首都圣路易，在那儿，他把撒哈拉抛诸脑后，体味兼容并蓄的黑人领域 — 非洲的欢愉。他跟塞内加尔的肥皂戏女王玛丽玛德莲共进午餐，并跟摔跤冠军摩夫会面。
经过两天的火车之旅，米高抵达巴马科，遇上科拉琴「非洲竖琴」手托曼迪亚巴，并在拜会多贡人前，在他的家欣赏了一场私人独奏会。米高在引领下来到最迷人的撒哈拉城市杰内市，欣赏市内漂亮的泥塑清真寺及逛市集。
尼日尔河呼唤着米高，他搭上载他的机动木船。这一段旅程跟200年前，苏格兰探险家蒙戈帕克拟定的路线相同，不过他最后也没发法抵达该处。
第三集：茫茫莎漠
在本集，米高抵达传奇城市廷巴克图。这是16世纪以前，其中一个最大的穆斯林信徒的学术中心。穿越21世纪庭巴克图的碎砖瓦砾，他找到伊玛目，这人让他一看比伽利略的发现要早200年面世的天文古籍。
米高接着东行至沃达阿比人的领土，沃达阿比人是游牧民族，他们的男子选美盛会跟他们的牛一样着名。跟他们共同生活的一段日子里，米高见识过伴随一年一度的「加利沃尔」盛会而来的繁文褥节。在这别开生面的盛会中，女孩会选出最俊朗的男子。然后米高跟随一个沃达阿比家庭到印加尔参加盐疗节。那是一年一度的家族聚会。经过赛骆驼与市集买卖的吵吵闹闹，米高遇上一班图阿雷格人，同意让他跟随绵廷的骆驼商队，横渡沙漠到阿尔及利亚。
第四集：绝处求生
米高来到尼日尔和阿尔及利亚的边界。这一片荒芜的交界处，没有法律，强盗横行。他向北进发。在未到达阿尔及利亚中部的石油及天然气宝地前，他得先经过引人注目的霍加山区。
他在利比亚稍作停留，在未来转向西，沿北部海岸昔日繁华的经典沙漠地区追发，他先参加了托布鲁克西部沙漠居民的最后聚会。
进入突尼斯，米高在昔日的电影拍摄场地蒙那斯蒂尔，艾尔哈德及苏塞，重演「布赖思佳」。然后他乘坐马格列比直通车，到阿尔及利亚的危城险地。
沿岸就是休达，一个位於摩洛哥海岸的西班牙属土。米高在返回出发地直布罗陀前，跟准移民有过一番话。他已经离开了直布罗陀一年，一切改变甚大。