Michaels travels in New Europe take him to twenty countries and a world that has changed beyond belief since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Its a journey that sees hope and unity in the place of fear and war… Like all my journeys, New Europe was largely the product of an insatiable curiosity. I thought I knew my own continent, but I realised that almost half of it had been closed to me, by politics and ideology, for most of my life. The closer I looked at the eastern half of Europe the more I felt that it had been misrepresented, or even ignored during this time, lumped together in a great blur called Eastern Europe. The predominant colour was grey, the predominant images were of scarcity or conflict. I couldn’t believe that Eastern Europe was as depressed and lifeless as the clichés portrayed it and set out to make a series which would hopefully show the other side of the far side of the continent… (Michael Palin, London. September 2007)
