Hello, everybody. Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit.

Everybody is currently talking about the Terra.

Everyone's watching it. When I say everyone, I mean some of the people that I see on social media.

The Terra is a hugely powerful drama series, horror series,

and it's a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's expedition to the Arctic,

where they got lost in the 1840s.

Now friends of mine have watched it and are disappointed because they're apparently

are monsters in it, which seems to me unnecessary.

I don't want to be historically all boring and prudish about things,

but if you've got a story as dramatic as Franklin's expedition, why do you need the monsters?

You know what? I walked out of Pirates the Caribbean.

I couldn't believe my excitement. Hollywood is doing a big budget 18th century maritime history film.

I mean, I'm keen and then those are ghosts turned up.

Why? No need for it. Anyway, we thought to accompany this TV series.

We'd repeat one of our best episodes in the past. Michael Palin,

you all know, he's a national treasure. He's one of Monty Python.

He's a legend. He travels around the world, most successful and brilliant television broadcaster of our lifetime.

And he's a total legend and it's a huge honor to have him on the podcast.

We interviewed him because he wrote a book on the Arabus,

which was one of the ships on Franklin's expedition.

He wrote the kind of biography of that ship. And obviously we talked to him about the expedition to find the Northwest passage.

And the fact that the wreck has recently been found.

...