Michael Palin's New Europe: Wild East

Michael Palin explores the countries that were for much of his life hidden behind the Iron Curtain but now are part of the new Europe. From the tiny, breakaway state of Transdniester to the rolling hills of Moldova, across the Carpathian Mountains of northern Romania and through Transylvania to the Danube, this is a journey into some of the poorest and most beautiful parts of south-eastern Europe. Moved by Tatiana's theatre group, who warn teenagers of the dangers of people trafficking, to lunch with Olga and her mum in the sunny south of Moldova, Michael then passes the Byzantine painted churches of Bucovina, eats pork fat and brandy with lumberjacks in the forests of Maramures, and delights in the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta where the painted tombs are witty celebrations of life. In Saxon Sighisoara and the imposing Bran Castle, made famous by Bram Stoker's Dracula, the truth behind the Transylvanian hero is unravelled. In Bucharest he sees Ceausescu's legacy in the People's Palace.