Inspired by Jules Verne's 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days, in which Phileas Fogg accepts a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less, Palin takes on the same task, prohibited from using aircraft in order to use a combination of trains, boats and other forms of transport, to take him across several countries around his circumnaviation of the world, including Italy, Egypt, China, Japan, and the United States.

With the start and finish line being the Reform Club in London, Palin would be required to not use aircraft, which would not have been around in the late 19th century, instead relying on various modes of transportation, mostly consisting of passenger trains and commercial ships.

In addition, the show also features the various problems and obstacles encountered on the journey that impeded progress, and Palin and his team's efforts to overcome them by negotiations and finding alternative arrangements to keep on track of completing the circumnavigation within the eighty day limit.

With their schedule set back several days due to the trouble crossing over Saudi Arabia, the group find salvation in the crew of a dhow called the Al-Sharma, which can take them to India.

In Bombay, Palin finds himself stuck for the day waiting for his train connection that will take him to the eastern shoreline of India, and so spends it experiencing a quick shave from a blind barber, watching a snake charmer's performance, and meeting astrologer Jagjit Uppal for one of the required items on his list.

Only four members of Palin's film crew completed the circumnavigation: Clem Vallance and Roger Mills (the directors), and Angela Elbourne and Ann Holland (the production assistants).

Two of the original crew members had died in the intervening years, one of them being the older man whom Palin had let listen to Bruce Springsteen on his Walkman.