Mayday
2003 · Documentary · Drama
← Back to discoveries
TV series / 1955
Around the World with Orson Welles
Episode directors
Orson Welles
A six-part British television travel series written, directed, and presented by Orson Welles for ITV in 1955. Filmed entirely in Europe, the series follows Welles through Vienna, the Basque Country, Madrid, Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and London’s Chelsea Pensioners, blending travelogue, cultural portraiture, and personal essay. Moving between documentary observation and reflective commentary, the episodes combine interviews, local history, and Welles’s distinctive narration into a series that functions as both travel film and cinematic essay.
The story
A six-part British television travel series written, directed, and presented by Orson Welles for ITV in 1955. Filmed entirely in Europe, the series follows Welles through Vienna, the Basque Country, Madrid, Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and London’s Chelsea Pensioners, blending travelogue, cultural portraiture, and personal essay. Moving between documentary observation and reflective commentary, the episodes combine interviews, local history, and Welles’s distinctive narration into a series that functions as both travel film and cinematic essay.
Cast
Orson WellesHost: Orson Welles
Chris WertenbakerSelf — Guitarist
Art BuchwaldSelf — Newspaper Columnist
Lael WertenbakerSelf — Author
Raymond DuncanSelf — Artist
Jean-Paul SartreSelf — Author
Simone de BeauvoirSelf — Author
Beñat ToyosSelf
Le père IbarburuSelf
Ferdinand LopSelf — Politician
Jean CocteauSelf (archive footage)
Eddie ConstantineMan in Nightclub (archive footage)
See more cast
Juliette GrécoSelf (archive footage)
Kenneth TynanSelf — Host
Elaine DundySelf — Host
Angel ParadaSelf — Bullfighter
Manolo VázquezSelf — Bullfighter
ManoleteSelf — Bullfighter (archive footage)
Clovis DominiciSelf
Gustave DominiciSelf
Marie DominiciSelf
Yvette DominiciSelf
Lucien BesnardSelf — Writer
Alain PolSelf — Filmmaker
Charles ChenevrierSelf
Paul MailletSelf
Jacques ChapusSelf
Claude DelormeSelf
Isidore IsouSelf — Writer (uncredited)
Maurice LemaîtreSelf — Filmmaker (uncredited)
Jacques SpacagnaSelf — Painter (uncredited)
