Dearest Ticket Holders

The Passport Team — From left to right: [top row] Harry Stott, Andrés Bartos, Julian Kwasneski [Middle row] Neil Innes, Harriet Davies, Dominique Ferrari [bottom row] Jennifer Carr, Billy Craigan-Toon, Avi Glijansky [not pictured] Stacey Book and Eliza Engel

Our first episode of Passport premiered on May 5th, 2020. We went to Belfast to find out how a genre-defining TV show, Game of Thrones, changed the trajectory of a city. But while we were traveling this year the rest of the world was not.

2020 was a year which looked uncannily like the inside of your house. In fact, 2020 was a year that was the inside of your house.

We launched Passport at a time when suddenly no one could explore, discovery got taken away from us… but making this show gave it back.

We suddenly had a welcome, warm, weekly urgency to discover, to uncover, to write, and to talk. The show kept our love for travelling (albeit without moving) at a steady simmer. For the team, engaged in rooting out these wonderful stories and opening up these remarkable places, making these the show was a way to keep us moving forward…

We hope it did the same for you.

We couldn’t be more proud of it.

Talking each week about a different place, to different people and focusing on a known or unknown, element of a city or a country was our beacon. We read and learned, challenged our preconceptions and every week were blown away. The probing, contemplative, hilarious conversations we had around each episode was like a journey in itself, we looked forward to those chats each week, like it was a holiday.

When the stories came together we could smell the food of Palermo and Taiwan, dance with the artists of Seoul and South Africa, join daring escapades in Amsterdam and London, and wonder at what lies beyond with people in Australia and Oaxaca. It was our hope that you as listeners would too be able to close your eyes and see somewhere else and be moved to laugh, wonder at and feel a different place.

We have loved making Passport Season One.

It has been an escape which we will never forget.

Thanks so much for coming along.

Next season Passport will be more exhilarating, more delicious and more beautiful than ever.

So… Keep an eye on the feed for a Season 2 trailer… Tokyo, Zurich, Istanbul, Marrakech, Buenos Aires, Hawaii, and so much more.

We’ll see you in the next place.

Much love,

Neil, Andrés, and the entire Passport team.

See you next season!

p.s. if you want a taste of the silly and wonderful that went into each episode, look no further than the below.

Our Fearless Hosts

Neil Innes… and friend?

Andrés Bartos, filmmaker, podcast host, and Minimalist Thor Cosplayer.

High Tech Home Recording Studios.

Producer Harry Stott’s padded cell… we mean home recording booth.

Neil and the official, unofficial mascot of Passport…

Neil and the Passport Flamingo