The 2021 live-action adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, made by the European Alliance (a co-production alliance of France Télévisions, Be-Films of Belgium, and the ZDF of Germany and RAI of Italy). The series is set in 1870s Britain and centers on Phileas Fogg (played by David Tennant) and his efforts to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days after making a bet of £20,000 with Nyle Bellamy (Peter Sullivan). During the trip, he is accompanied by his French valet, Jean Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma), and budding journalist Abigail Fortescue (Leonie Benesch).
It aired throughout November 2021 on Be-Films in Belgium, with two back-to-back episodes each week, and in the UK on Boxing Day 2021 on BBC One in the UK. The series was also broadcast in the United States on PBS's Masterpiece. Belgium kept the back-to-back airing format for the rest of the series, but the UK reverted to one episode a week from Episode 5 onwards. Interestingly, all the episodes were uploaded onto their respective channels on demand services (such as BBC iPlayer for the UK) on 2nd January 2022. Before it aired, the show had already been announced to have been renewed
for a second series on November 2021; however, there has been no new information since.
Around the tropes in 80 days:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Bellamy goads Fogg into a bet to travel around the world in 80 days or Fogg loses £10,000. Fogg rebuffs him and confidently doubles the figure for the bet. Adjusting for inflation, Fogg has basically made a bet to travel the globe or lose just short of £2.5 million.
- Accidental Misnaming: In Episode 5, Lady Clemency introduces herself and is a massive fan of the trio's exploits so far due to Fix's coverage in the newspaper. While she gets both Fogg and Fix's names right, she calls Passepartout "Passport" as she couldn't remember his name.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Fix in this iteration is not only female (her full name is Abigail Fortescue; Fix is a pen name) but a budding journalist that is following Fogg to document his progress. The original books had Fix be an Inspector chasing Fogg and his crew down after suspecting he is a thief.
- In the book, Passepartout expects a quiet life as Fogg's valet, and is aghast when Fogg tells him about the bet. In the series, he tricks his way into the valet role because he overheard about the bet, with his main purpose being to get out of the country following an altercation.
- Although the locations which the travellers visit are more or less the same, the adventures that they have there are only very loosely inspired by the novel's versions. For example, in the book, their adventure in India centres around rescuing Fogg's later Love Interest from being sacrificed after her husband has died. Here, it's about a man on trial for deserting the army to marry his love, and about Passepartout's attempt to poison Fogg.
- Adaptation Expansion: This version adds other adventures that Fogg and co get into alongside the ones they had in the original novel. This includes foiling an attempted assassination of the French president whilst in Paris.
- Adaptational Context Change: The series keeps the bit with the collapsed suspension bridge from the novel, but moves it much earlier in the voyage (Italy, rather than the USA) and gives Fogg an active role in solving the problem. It also gives him the further motive of rushing a child to hospital, rather than simply maintaining his timetable.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In addition to the Adaptational Villainy discussed below, Bellamy at least is also characterised as a rather snide bully towards Fogg.
- Adaptation Name Change: The character closest to Bellamy in the book is named Stuart.
- Adaptation Personality Change: The Indian Princess Aouda, who was Fogg's love interest in the tale, simply appears in one episode as the village chief and mother-in-law of an Indian soldier who is tried for desertion.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Reform Club as a whole were in canon very British about the bet, accepting the wager but initially advising Fogg against the idea due to how much he stood to lose if anything went wrong with his plans. Here Bellamy, a fellow member of the club, deliberately takes steps to ensure that Fogg will lose the wager so that he can use the winnings from the bet to pay off his debtors after a series of bad business investments.
- Adaptational Wimp: A downplayed example; Fogg is still a "hero" in the sense of being a genius capable of calculating complex odds and accommodating real-world factors into his calculations, but this version is less confident in his equations than in the original novel, implied to be due to some past event. Furthermore, whereas in the original novel he was characterised simply as a stoic, almost mechanically efficient recluse, this version is established to be a rather timid and shy Cowardly Lion who appears to be slightly phobic of leaving his house.
- Adapted Out: In the novel, Fogg and Passepartout rescue Hindu widow Aouda from Sati (being ceremonially burnt alive at her husband's cremation) and she becomes their travelling companion, eventually falling in love with Fogg. This was considered too controversial for modern audiences, the suppression of Sati considered one of the most positive achievements of British rule in India.
- After Action Patch Up: In episode 2 Abigail and Passepartout have a bonding moment, when she patches him up after he gets in a fist fight on the train.
- Amicable Exes: When Fogg finally reunites with Estella in New York, they have a friendly conversation but ultimately accept that they have moved on from their past relationship.
- And the Adventure Continues: After Fogg has won the bet and he, Passepartout and Abigail are hiding out in a room in the Reform Club, not looking forward to having to part ways, Abigail notices an article about some mysterious animal/war machine that's disrupting shipping. The trio decide to find out what it is, and joyfully slip away from the Club to embark on their next journey.
- Animated Credits Opening: The opening credits are set around a clockwork timepiece that displays moving landscapes around its rim. It can be seen here.
- Artistic License – Geography: Our heroes are in Al-Hudayda, and need to quickly get to Aden to catch their next ship. In the show, this means a perilous overland journey through the "Empty Quarter", a Sea of Sand-type desert where Fogg and Passepartout nearly die. In reality, both these cities are on the south-western corner or the Arabian peninsula, with rather a mountainous region between them (even assuming one wouldn't travel along the coast). The desert starts further east, and just getting to it would require lengthening the journey by several days.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The British Governor of Hong Kong and his wife, Lady Clemency. She complains that he's incredibly dull and lacks any sense of romance whatsoever, and Fogg's interactions with him completely back up that assessment as the man talks only about horse racing and the pubs back in England. However, she does show a philosophical side about men being unable to serve "both Empire and eros" and he he does truly love and appreciate his wife's willingness to go halfway around the world and play a role she doesn't enjoy. It only comes out after the theft of the White Dragon, where his vengeance has much more to do with making "Clemmy" cry than anything else. (Of course, being a high-status British governor in a colony, he saw nothing wrong with expressing his love by gifting his wife a necklace that the British literally stole from a tomb.)
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: A Klansman has Fogg at gunpoint in episode 7 and is about to shoot him, a gunshot rings out—but it's Bass Reeves plugging the Klansman with a shotgun.
- Beneath Notice: When Fogg hires Passepartout, he vaguely wonders if the man looks familiar, but doesn't realise that he was being served lunch by him less than an hour ago.
- He eventually does recognise Passepartout as a former server in the Reform Club when he sees him serving right in front of him in Hong Kong.
- The Bet: Circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days with all the trappings of 19th century technology, or lose £20,000. To put that in context, that translates to about USD $3,000,000 today.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The "menu" at the saloon consist of "bacon, beans, or bacon and beans."
- Breaking the Fellowship: In Episode 6, Fogg briefly orders Passepartout away when he learns that Passepartout briefly accepted a bribe to sabotage the journey, but forgives him after Passepartout becomes ill helping him build a raft.
- Broken Pedestal: Having spent her life trying to win her father's approval and regarding him as an example to aspire to, Abigail is devastated to learn that Fortescue not only had an affair but also ruined Jane Digby's reputation in Britain and took credit for other writers' work during his own time in India.
- Call-Forward: After setting some petroleum on fire to fend off Arabian bandits, Fogg says "This industrial world is going to need some powering! I wonder if we could actually use that stuff!" (Petroleum at that time was regarded as a waste product.)
- Celebrity Paradox: In Episode 2, a young boy asks Fogg if he has read From the Earth to the Moon... which is another novel by Jules Verne, who wrote the novel on which the series is based.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The mysterious woman in Fogg's past gave him a flask which saves his life when it intercepts a bullet fired at the French president; said bullet also damages the engraving on the flask to prevent others reading the woman's name.
- In episode 3 Fogg notes how petroleum just oozes up out of the ground in the Arabian desert. Later, he sets fire to some, giving them the light they need to see and shoot the bandits.
- An actual gun, when Bass Reeves gives Abernathy's gun in episode 7 to an appreciative Fix. Naturally, later in the episode she uses it against the bad guys.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Fogg's elderly butler Greyson doesn't at first seem to be remarkable, and he's left behind to take care of the house in favor of Passepartout since he hasn't left the house in twenty years. However, when Fogg returns home under the belief that he has lost the wager, Greyson reveals there's still time to win and explains the logic behind gaining an extra day by travelling eastward.
- Chekhov's News: Fogg recalls reading about a balloon made by a French man called Lome. Near the end of the first episode, he gets to fly it to escape being chased by policeman.
- Chekhov's Skill: In episode 7 Fix admires the revolver in Bass Reeves's possession and says her father taught her how to shoot. Played straight when she shoots two Klansmen, then subverted when she manages to miss a third Klansman four times.
- Closest Thing We Got: When intervening in a court-martial for an Indian soldier who deserted his post to get married, Fogg is permitted to speak in the soldier's defence because there is only one British officer available and he is already acting as the judge and prosecutor for the court, despite Fogg only being a gentleman rather than an officer himself.
- Composite Character: Abigail Fix is a Gender Flipped combination of Detective Fix (her name, following Fogg on his journey) and the unnamed Telegraph journalist who inspires the wager, and is possibly also inspired by pioneering journalist Nellie Bly, who really did make such a voyage, as recounted in Around the World in Seventy-Two Days.
- Cowardly Lion: This is Fogg in a nutshell. He clearly regrets his rash decision to engage in the bet before he has even reached France yet still manages to continue on his journey despite his self-doubts, even saving the day in some cases. When he is due to be flogged in Hong Kong for stealing the White Dragon (Passepartout was the thief), he faces it stoically.
- Crushing Handshake: Niccolo Moretti does this to Fogg in episode 2 as an intimidation tactic.
- Cue the Rain: The gang is adrift on stormy seas in a lifeboat at the beginning of episode 6, Kneeling the Dirty Cop having forced them off the steamship at gunpoint. Passepartout says "It could be worse." Immediately after Fogg challenges him with "How could this be any worse?", a clap of thunder is heard, and the rain comes seconds later.
- Cut Phone Lines: The Klansmen riding into Battle Mountain in episode 7 cut the telegraph wire, before setting out to free their leader.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Fogg is hinted to have one of these, with the first episode alone offering strong hints that something has been holding him back from past ambitions to travel and those fears involve a woman. He's eventually revealed to have broken an engagement to a woman named Estella because Bellamy got in his head and had him too scared to leave England for their honeymoon.
- More explicitly, the first episode reveals that Passepartout left France almost a decade ago after witnessing his father's execution.
- Several other characters get some degree of a dark past, as well - Passepartout has lost his father and ran away from his family, Abigail lost her mother when she was young and lived with her admired but often absent father, even Lome the balloon inventor is revealed to have turned his back to his invention after having lost his wife in a tragic accident. Bellamy has some elements of this ( he was a rival for Estella's love, and she spurned him, which is at least part of his toxic relationship with Fogg; he also has a slightly deeper motive for wanting to win the bet, as he has found himself in debt and needs the money to cover it, but this is perhaps more of a troubled present) but they don't make him any more sympathetic.
- Decomposite Character: Detective Fix from the original novel has been split into Abigail Fix, who inherited his name and main character status, and Thomas Kneedling, a much less sympathetic Dirty Cop who knows that Fogg isn't actually a criminal.
- Demoted to Extra: With the addition of Fogg's lost love, Aouda's role in the book would get in the way, so while a character of that name appears in the India episode, she doesn't join the travellers or have any reason to do so.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Since it's set in the 1870s, there are quite a lot of less than acceptable attitudes among the cast. Notably, the Reform Club's members are all white while the kitchen workers are majority black, and the conductor on the Italian train immediately shows Passepartout to the back carriages after giving Fogg and Fix their first-class seats. On a minor note, Fogg refers to East Asia as "the Orient", which is generally not considered proper anymore. He also refuses to pay an Arab guide in advance because "I know how you chaps do business," which gets him a look from Passepartout, who trusts the guy even less than Fogg but wouldn't have put it like that.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Since the character of Inspector Fix and the bank robbery subplot were Adapted Out, something else has to happen to get Fogg arrested on his return to England. In this series it's the Hong Kong arrest warrant, cleared up weeks ago in Hong Kong but never withdrawn back in Britain, which gets him put in jail for a day and seemingly costs him his bet.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Passepartout reacts with incredulity when Bass Reeves starts to explain what the Ku Klux Klan is. Reeves warns him that as absurd as their name and costumes may seem, they are deadly dangerous and Passepartout must not take them lightly.
- Everyone Has Standards: Bellamy has often belittled Fogg and was willing to sabotage his chance to win the bet to sort out his own financial woes, but in Episode 6, his reaction to learning that Fogg and the others may have gone overboard makes it clear that he didn't want any of them dead to achieve that goal.
- Failed a Spot Check: Between scenes, one of Abernathy's men somehow manages to infiltrate the saloon, kill the bartender behind the bar, and replace him without Fogg, Passepartout, or Marshal Reeves noticing the switch, despite the "barman" now sporting an eyepatch.
- Fingore: The Ku Klux Klan members who capture Fogg and Passepartout attempt to make Fogg cut off one of Passerpartout's fingers after capturing them both. They manage to stall long enough for Abigail to pull some Horseback Heroism.
- Foreshadowing: Episode 5 opens with Fogg in Hong Kong noting that the local time is ahead of his watch. This idea of Fogg having to set his watch forward as he travels east will, of course, be crucial to the conclusion.
- Friend to All Children: Fogg has shades of this, immediately showing a kinder, more open side of himself to the children he meets on his adventures than he shows to any of the adult characters pre-Character Development. His reaction to being hugged by Aouda's young daughter and being hugged by Abigail moments later show this clearly—with the first he just hugs her back in confusion, the second, he turns into a statue.
- Groin Attack: During a fight in episode 7, Fogg tries to kick someone between the legs from behind, but it doesn't have much effect.
- Hate Sink: The Ku Klux Klan in episode 7 are shown as unrepentantly evil bastards, first attempting to manipulate Fogg into turning on Passerpartout based on race alone, then trying to make him cut off Passepartout's finger, all the while ranting about the "natural order".
- Hidden Depths: Episode 4 sees Fogg first tell anyone about his lost love, Estella (albeit while drugged and hallucinating), and he subsequently gives a passionate plea for leniency in the name of love.
- His Name Is...: A variation of this occurs in episode 7; Abigail is able to send a telegram to London from a small American town confirming that she and her companions are still alive after they were forced off a ship, but the lines are cut before she can reveal their belief that Bellamy is trying to delay their return.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Adolphe Thiers, President of the Third Republic of France, in the first episode.
- Jane Digby, an Englishwoman notorious for her affairs, and her husband Medjuel el Mezrab in the third episode.
- Bass Reeves, greatest lawman in the west and the real-world inspiration for the Lone Ranger, who appears in the seventh episode.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Bellamy's plan to collect the £20,000 from Fogg gets a severe crimp when Kneedling apparently murders him, leaving no way to get the money except through Fortescue, whom Fogg had named as executor in his will. Bellamy suggests that Fogg would want the money handed over for honor's sake, but Fortescue is too broken by his daughter's death to pay attention.
- Idle Rich:
- By his own admission, Fogg has spent 20 years at the Reform Club reading the paper. Of course, as we learn over the course of the series, it's his own fearfulness and insecurity that have kept him in London.
- Likewise, most of the regulars at the Reform Club save Fortescue seem to be trust fund brats—though Bellamy, as we learn, has had his "old money" run out.
- Impairment Shot: Seen in episode 4 as Fogg's vision blurs and distorts while talking to Bathurst, as the drug that Passepartout gave him kicks in.
- Inertial Impalement: How Kneedling meets his end in the last episode, falling down onto a knife during a brawl.
- Innocently Insensitive: Fogg is a very kind man, but as a sheltered Victorian gentleman he has his biases and frequently blunders his way into offending female or non-British characters — which accounts for most of the cast.
- Irony: Fogg and Abigail dismantle the raft so that they have wood to burn to keep Passepartout warm, after he got hypothermia overnight. How did he get hypothermia? As a gesture of friendship and remorse (see Breaking the Fellowship above) he had spent the night out in the rain, collecting vines and using them to secure the raft.
- The Klan: In episode 7 a U.S. Marshal has arrested a Klansman in Nevada. His three flunkies come into town to free him, and capture Fogg and Passepartout in the process.
- Last-Name Basis: Most characters are referred to primarily by their last name, fitting the social convention of the period, but Passepartout takes this to its logical extreme. Even his brother, who presumably has the same last name, calls him Passepartout, and his first name of Jean is only mentioned a handful of times.
- Lawful Stupid: Fogg is not allowed to enter the final train he needs to make it to London because there's a month-old arrest warrant for him that should've been cleared up a long time ago.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Fix and Passepartout develop a mutual attraction over the middle part of the series and even Almost Kiss in episode 6. This being 1872, they attract more than a few raised eyebrows among the extras in episode 7, and Colonel Abernathy (a Klansman) takes Fogg to task for not "protecting" Fix.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Fogg wins the bet, but gives Bellamy the cheque for the prize money anyway, exposing his bankruptcy and the fact that he made the bet without the means to cover it if he lost. Bellamy has to take it, stripping himself of all respectability in the eyes of his fellows, and he's run out of the Club on rails.
- Moment Killer: In episode 6, when they're stranded on a remote Pacific island, Passepartout and Fix are about to kiss for the first time...when Fogg starts yelling. There's a rescue ship.Passepartout: I wish it had come a half an hour later.
- Mushroom Samba: Fogg when he is given datura seed in his tea by Passepartout after Kneedling got to him. He is delirious, giddy, starts seeing things that aren’t there, doesn’t seem to realise he is talking to animals instead of people, and eventually starts to shut down and hallucinate that Fix is Estella, whom he apologises to for his past actions and says he forgives her for leaving him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Bellamy, when Fogg et al. are reported missing at sea while crossing the Pacific. He legitimately didn't want Fogg dead, let alone Abigail or Passepartout, just stopped so Fogg would lose the bet.
- Mythology Gag:
- Abigail Fortescue takes the pen name of "Abigail Fix" for her stories. This is a nod to the character of Inspector Fix from the book, who is Adapted Out of this show.
- The love story between Fogg and Aouda the Indian princess is deleted from this show, as is the sequence where the gang saves Aouda from being sacrificed on her husband's funeral pyre. But there is an Aouda, and Fogg and company encounter her in episode 4. She is an Indian widow of some property, with a daughter that she's trying to get married off to a soldier, which proves a problem when the soldier is arrested for desertion.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Abigail is a high-spirited lady reporter who accompanies Fogg on his trip. She is an obvious analogue for Nellie Bly, the famous lady reporter who repeated Jules Verne's trip in Real Life, and wrote a book about it, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Colonel Abernathy, the Klan leader, attempts to solicit sympathy from Fogg by noting the ostensible "shared values" between the Old South and Great Britain. It appears to work initially, but after Fogg is told more explicitly about the racial terrorism of the Klan, he's utterly appalled.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: The members of the Reform Club ask Bellamy to deliver Fogg's eulogy in episode 6 since he is Fogg's oldest friend aside from Fortescue, and Fortescue is in no condition because his daughter is also believed lost. Bellamy can only agree with an exquisite sense of discomfort, knowing that it was his agent who apparently murdered them.
- Oblivious to Love: Fogg can be forgiven for missing the multiple women who flirt with him given his Single-Target Sexuality towards Estella, but he also misses the obvious tension between Fix and Passepartout until it's pointed out to him.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: The Wild West saloon bartender that Fogg talks with in episode 7 is wiping a glass. The joke is that the barkeep, the rag, and the saloon are all filthy.
- Omniglot: Passepartout can speak French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, a little Cantonese, and can ask "where is the fire escape" in Swahili.
- Parenthetical Swearing: Since this is a family show, they can't exactly have the KKK members in episode 7 hurling around racial slurs, but it's certainly implied from the way Abernathy calls Passepartout "French boy" that he would if he could. While less outright offensive than certain other words, "boy" itself has a derogatory history towards black men.
- Parents as People: Moretti does love his son, but his notions of manhood and filial duty hamper his ability to connect with the boy after the death of his mother.
- Pocket Protector: Fogg gets shot in the chest by a rifle bullet, and is presumed dead by Fortescue. However, his metal alcohol flask protected him from the bullet, much to his relief and amusement.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- A rather loose adaptation of the story. It keeps the Victorian setting and the idea of racing around the world in 80 days, but the character of Inspector Fix and the bank robbery plot is jettisoned. The story of Fogg falling in love with Princess Aouda is also abandoned. Instead there's the new character of Abigail Fortescue, who falls in love with Passepartout rather than Fogg, while Fogg gets a new backstory with an old Love Interest. These changes also require a whole new set of adventures, like in the first episode where Fogg blunders into civil unrest in Paris.
- In the novel, Fogg winds up tearing a ship down to its iron frame, using the wood to feed the boilers, as he approaches England on the home stretch. In this show, he tears a train down to its iron frame, using the wood to feed the boilers, as he makes his way to Brindisi.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Fogg and Bellamy talk like this when setting up the bet, in keeping with their I Am Very British characterisations.
- Race Lift: Passepartout is played by the black Ibrahim Koma.
- A Rare Sentence: Clemency, wife of the governor of Hong Kong, doesn't seem to like her husband very much. She suggests they go over to Fogg at the party, and Abigail (who's trying to keep them apart), says "I think he's more than happy talking to your husband." Clemency shoots back "I don't think anyone's said that sentence before."
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Fogg essentially gives one to Bellamy in Episode 8; when Bellamy tries to get out of the bet by claiming that it was just about honor rather than money, Fogg reveals the cheque he prepared before he left and his discovery of Bellamy's gambling debts. When he offers the cheque to Bellamy to clear up his debts, Fortescue observes that Bellamy can't take the cheque without losing all honor, but Fogg simply observes that Bellamy can't lose what he never had, leaving Bellamy to take the cheque and try to leave the club with his dignity intact.
- The Remnant: While taking a stagecoach to catch up with a Transcontinental Railroad train, Phileas Fogg et al. become entangled with Bass Reeves, a historical black US Marshal pursuing a gang of Klansmen composed of ex-Confederate Army soldiers, led by a former colonel named Abernathy, who fled west after being driven out of Tennessee where they were conducting a terrorist campaign against freedmen.
- Robbing the Dead: Jiang Liei, a businessman (and strongly implied crime lord) in Hong Kong, demands that Passepartout retrieve the White Dragon, a carved jade stone that the governor's wife now uses as a necklace. The British obtained it after breaking open a grave and taking it from the hands of the bodies inside. He himself has made efforts to take it back, but the security was too strong. After Passepartout successfully returns it to him, Jiang Liei is later seen reverently returning it to the grave, placing it back in the hands of the husband and wife who were buried with it.
- Robinsonade: Episode 6 sees Fogg, Passepartout and Abigail trapped on a deserted island for a few days, until they manage to flag down a boat to take them to the next stage of their journey.
- Sadistic Choice: Abernathy tells Fogg at gunpoint he can either cut Passepartout's finger off and walk free, or be shot along with Passepartout and Marshal Reeves. Fogg and Passepartout manage to stall long enough for Fix to burst in on horseback and shoot Abernathy and one of his men.
- Seen It All: In the Western town in episode 7, the telegraph line abruptly goes out while Abigail is relaying a message. The operator says, in a casual tone that implies it's a regular occurrence, that someone must have cut the line to either rob the bank or commit a murder.
- Self-Made Man: Niccolo Moretti in the second episode. Although we don't get details, he worked his way into wealth from a working-class background and is resentful of people who are born wealthy, since he's had plenty of them look down on him when he actually worked for what he now has.
- Sequel Hook: Once Fogg's won the bet in the final episode and the trio are basking in their victory and reluctant to part, Abigail draws attention to an article about something that's been disrupting shipping, and has been variously claimed to be a narwhale, a giant squid, or some sort of mechanical war machine. With their curiosity piqued, the trio gladly set out on a new adventure.
- Shout-Out:
- To Jules Verne's other work From Earth to the Moon as it is the favourite story of the young Italian boy travelling with Fogg, Fix, and Passepartout on the train in Italy.
- The final episode also has Fogg, Passepartout and Abigail discuss an article about a mysterious series of shipwrecks which the French media are blaming on a hitherto unheard of and unparalleled submarine — almost certainly Captain Nemo's Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.
- Sinister Switchblade: One of the Klansmen in episode 7 produces a scary switchblade, which Abernathy the head Klansman demands Fogg use on Passepartout.
- The Smart Guy: Fogg's primary contribution to the journey is his Arbitrarily Large Bank Account and his extensive knowledge of modern science and technology. In the second episode, he calculates exactly how much weight they needed to discard and what was needed to bring a locomotive over a broken bridge and get it to the next town in time to give a young boy urgent medical treatment.
- A Taste of the Lash: Happens to Fogg in Episode 5. Appropriately it is treated as a severe punishment which could be disfiguring or even life-threatening and especially barbaric when the victim is actually innocent. He only gets one lash before he is acquitted.
- These Hands Have Killed: Passepartout is deeply traumatized after he shoots and kills a bandit in the desert in episode 3.Passepartout: I killed a man, monsieur!
- Thirsty Desert: In episode 3, an unscrupulous "guide" steals Fogg and Passepartout's stuff and leaves them stuck in the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula, a very thirsty desert indeed. They almost die, but they are rescued by Fix and Jane Digby.
- Tick Tock Tune: The theme tune incorporates a lot of ticking sounds, as well as Big Ben's chiming, into the melody.
- Toxic Friend Influence: When Passepartout voices his suspicions about Bellamy, he also points out that as a waiter in the club, he never saw Bellamy treat Fogg as a friend—instead sneering at, insulting, demeaning, and humiliating him whenever possible. Fogg eventually sees the truth in this, although he still insists that Bellamy didn't want him dead (which is true: Bellamy wanted Fogg stopped, but Kneedling interpreted his orders much more broadly than intended).
- Translation by Volume: In episode 3, Fogg orders a beer in Port Said. When the waiter stares at him uncomprehendingly (it's the Ottoman Empire, Muslim, so there's no alcohol), he just says "BEER, please."Passepartout: I don't think saying it louder is going to help. (orders coffees)
- True Companions: By the end of the first series, the three main characters are all devoted companions, with Fogg and Passepartout in particular no longer regarding each other as master and servant but as friends. When the three impulsively decide to set out on a new adventure, they stride off into the future embracing each other in sheer joy.
- Unishment: In Episode 4, Fogg's defence of an Indian soldier in the army for deserting because he wanted to get married leads to the soldier in question being dishonorably discharged rather than exiled to the tin mines as originally planned.
- What the Hell, Hero?: While Fogg is railing about Passepartout's betrayal in the previous episode, Abagail points out that neither Fogg nor herself have treated him very well so far, in particular showing no concern for his brother's death or his emotional distress after being forced to kill for the first time.
- What the Romans Have Done for Us: Fogg defends British rule of India to Aouda by pointing out the technological and intellectual advances they brought. She replies that India had universities for 3,000 years before the British arrived. Fogg offers the railway system as an advantage of British occupation, although Aouda points out that he's in her village asking for a guide because the railway is incomplete.
