travel

Palin travelled over 1300 miles through the secretive country, at a historic moment for the region.

The presenter and his crew were in the country during the momentous meeting of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-In, and captured the reactions of ordinary citizens.

“The visit was an eye-opener for me, and I'm sure it will be the same for others,” said Palin, who returned from his trip earlier this month. “In all my travels around the world I have never had the same sense of fascination and revelation as on this journey to North Korea.”

From hiking through unmapped jungle in South America, to the first descent of a white-water river in the Himalayas and discovering  the deserts of the Middle East;  Steve Backshall, with a team of world-class specialists and a film crew will chart them all, as they venture into new territories.

The crew, which includes divers, kayakers and mountaineers will record their trials and tribulations, and this footage will be at the heart of the story.

The Queen’s Green Planet

Monday: ITV, 9pm

From actor/writer Tom Blasden (Plebs, Fresh Meat), Gap Year tells the story of Sean (Ade Oyefeso) who passes up a sure-fire ‘lads holiday’ to head to smoggy Beijing with his friend Dylan. However Dylan, a hopeless romantic and precocious philosophy student, is secretly scheming, and the Sean find himself travelling the entire continent with his friend.

In 2014 he walked the length of the Nile, and the following year trekked from Afghanistan to Bhutan across the Himalayas. He’s just returned from his latest expedition, a four month walk through Central America from Mexico to Colombia, passing through the notorious Darien Gap.

“I’m pretty lucky because I’ve kind of got everything that I could ever have dreamed of in terms of my career,” says Wood during a break between recording voice overs for his new series Walking the Americas.

The six-part series features a different guest rider every week, as Reedus rides across North America to famous motorcycle hotspots and explores local biker cultures.

Reedus' biking hero, Peter Fonda - star of the epic motorcycle film Easy Rider - joins the adventure as the crew visit a moonshine distillery, ride dune-buggies, race porta-potties, and go to see a high voodoo priestess.

Actor and presenter Griff Rhys Jones is following the success of A Great Welsh Adventure with Griff’s Great Britain, produced by Modern Television for ITV.

The eight part series will see Rhys Jones explore Britain’s landscape, from downs and wolds to coasts and highlands, unearthing quirky facts along the way.

Each week, he will encounter a new, and often bizarre, challenge, from finding a golden eagle to hunting a vampire.

Four sporting giants will leave the world of athletics, rugby and super biking to compete in some the most demanding traditional sports in the world.

Former Wales rugby captain Gareth Thomas, World Champion sprinter Iwan Thomas, Superbike world champion James Toseland and Canadian 100-metre gold medallist Donovan Bailey will travel the globe testing their physical prowess.