Michael Palin’s boots were made for walking, and that’s just what they’ve done. The globe-trotting ex-Python has been Around The World In 80 Days, travelled Pole To Pole, trekked across the Sahara, the mountain regions of the Himalaya and has gone Full Circle. His latest adventure, however, takes him to 20 countries in a corner of the world he’s not yet discovered before – New Europe.

The ultimate Englishman abroad tells Sarah Ward why he’s decided to explore this mysterious chunk of Europe that was once off-limits behind the Iron Curtain.

“I decided to do Europe because I’d done almost every other continent, except my own, and it’s very important for me to go somewhere I don’t know because it means my reactions are spontaneous,” says Michael. “And I – like the viewers, hopefully – will be discovering it at the same time, and afresh.

“I know Western Europe fairly well, but Eastern Europe I’m quite the opposite because, during my lifetime, it was part of the Iron Curtain and behind the Iron Curtain and grey and unwelcoming – and no one had ever been there.”

Sunday 23 September 9.00pm BBC ONE