Literature’s most famous race against the calendar arrives in 2022 with an innovative new adaption of Jules Verne’s classic novel Around the World in 80 Days. The adaptation is set to premiere on MASTERPIECE on PBS with eight thrilling episodes starting Sunday, January 2 through February 20, 2022 at 8/7c.
The series stars David Tennant (Doctor Who) as Phileas Fogg, an Englishman who bets a fortune of 20,000 British pounds that he can circumnavigate the planet in merely eighty days, which should seem impossible given it takes place in 1872. Ibrahim Koma (As Far as I Can Walk) and Leonie Benesch (Babylon Berlin) costar as his intrepid traveling companions Passepartout, a sharp-witted French wanderer, and Abigail Fix, tenacious daughter of a British newspaper magnate, on an expedition that packs far more adventure than the trio bargained for.
In the story, the idea for the global adventure is sparked when a news article claims that a recently finished railway line in India, completing an unbroken chain of modern transportation links, has made it possible to circumnavigate the planet in eighty days. Fogg rises to the challenge after being goaded by his old antagonist, Nyle Bellamy played by Peter Sullivan (Poldark). The miniseries follows the trio as they head east from London on October 5, 1872, intending to make it back to the reading room of the city’s snobbish Reform Club no later than one o’clock on Christmas Eve. En route, they take ships, trains, balloons, camels, stagecoaches, and other transports as they face increasingly dangerous obstacles.
Among the interesting, helpful, and menacing individuals that make up the eccentric cast are the notorious English libertine Jane Digby (Lindsay Duncan, Sherlock) and her latest husband, Sheik Medjuel el Mezrab (Faical Elkihel, The Spy); dogged U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves (Gary Beadle, Grantchester), who is enforcing the law in the Old West; and ubiquitous private detective Thomas Kneedling (Anthony Flanagan, Gentleman Jack), who is definitely operating outside the law.
Around the World in 80 Days is a classic tale with both adventure and heart as Fogg and companions face revolution, starvation, false arrest, life-threatening attacks, and other perils in an attempt to complete the bet. Simon Crawford Collins serves as executive producer alongside Lionel Uzan, Pascal Breton, and Winnie Serite. MASTERPIECE on PBS will premiere the first of the series' planned eight episodes on Sunday, January 2 at 8/7c. You can watch the trailer for Around the World in 80 Days below: