It was here the Portuguese explorers first landed and encountered the native Brazilians and where hundreds of thousands of African slaves, more than to the United States and Caribbean, were brought to work on sugar and tobacco plantations.

Palin visits the city of São Luís during the celebration of its own very northeastern festival of Bumba Meu Boi ("Jump My Bull") before travelling down the coast to Recife and Salvador.

In Salvador, Palin learns to drum with the famous Olodum school, experiences the trance and dance of Candomblé, the Afro-Brazilian religion, finds out how to cook Bahian-style and discovers what lies behind the beguiling moves of capoeira dancers.

Anthropologist Emi Ireland helps explain their rich and complex rituals and the threats to their land and way of life from dam building, deemed necessary for the increasing exploitation of Brazil's abundant natural resources.

In Brasília, constructed in only five years, he meets rock star and political activist Dinho Ouro Preto, who believes that, despite its social and environmental problems, the country is on the brink of becoming a superpower.

The policy of "pacification" aims to drive the drug gangs out and fund new infrastructure, such as cable cars, and social programmes to make the favelas truly part of the city.

Palin also finds time to visit some of Rio's best-known locations, learns how to celebrate a goal like a Brazilian radio commentator, and books a room in one of the city's infamous "love hotels".

Palin is then taken to the home of rap star, philosopher and poet Criolo in the slums of São Paulo, who thinks the notion of social equality is a distant dream for most Brazilians.