Michael Palin

Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943 in Broomhill, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Early career

Michael Palin was educated at Birkdale School, Sheffield, and Shrewsbury School. He went on to read History at Brasenose College, Oxford.

While performing onstage at the ETC in Oxford, Palin met Terry Jones, and together they wrote sketches for various BBC comedy shows. He married his wife, Helen Gibbins, in 1966, and they remain together to this day.

He worked with future Pythons and other Oxbridge comedians on projects such as How to Irritate People with John Cleese and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and Do Not Adjust Your Set with Eric Idle, Terry Jones and David Jason, and Twice a Fortnight with Terry Jones, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn. It was during this time that John Cleese called up Michael Palin and wondered whether he was interested in doing a show with him, which would become Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Monty Python

In Monty Python, Palin played various roles, showing the range of his acting abilities. Roles go from manic enthusiasm, (such as the lumberjack of the Lumberjack Song), or unflappable calmness (such as the Dead Parrot vendor or Cheese Shop proprietor). As the latter, he was often a foil to the rising ire of characters portrayed by John Cleese.

Palin frequently wrote with Terry Jones for the sketches, some of the most memorable being the Lumberjack Song and Spam. But some sketches Palin wrote by himself, (or began the sketch by himself) such as the Spanish Inquisition, in which a fairly widespread catchphrase was created- "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Other Performances

After Python ended, Palin collaborated with Python writing partner Terry Jones on the television comedy series Ripping Yarns and the play Secrets, from the BBC series Black and Blue. He also appeared in All You Need Is Cash as the lawyer and press agent for The Rutles.

In 1982, Palin wrote and starred in his first solo project after Python, The Missionary. In it, he plays the Reverend Charles Fortesque who is recalled back from Africa to England to aid prostitutes. This also starred Maggie Smith.

As Bugsy Malone, Michael once commented that Cleese had thought it amusing to give him a character that wouldn't shut up, when his character in A Fish Called Wanda hardly talked at all. Five days after, Michael went on another travel journey and returned a year later, only to find that the end of Fierce Creatures had been unsatisfactory and that the ending had to be reshot.

Although this role in Fierce Creatures was his official last big role on screen, Palin had a small part in Wind in the Willows, or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a film directed and starring Pythonite Terry Jones. Palin also appeared with John Cleese in his documentary, The Human Face.

He assisted Transport 2000 and others with campaigns on transport policy issues, particularly those relating to urban areas, and has now become president of Transport 2000.

Palin has also appeared as a "straight" actor in serious drama. In 1991 Palin worked as producer and actor in the film American Friends based upon a real event in the life of his great grandfather, a fellow at St John's College, Oxford. In that same year he also played the part of a headmaster in Alan Bleasdale's Channel 4 drama series G.B.H..

Travel documentaries

Palin's first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which — humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting — he travelled throughout the UK by train, from London to Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Inverness. At the Kyle of Lochalsh, Palin bought the station's long metal platform sign and is seen lugging it back to London with him. In 1994, a second journey of Palin's for the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry", went through Ireland. More recently, he has presented several series of travel programmes on television:

Around the World in 80 Days (1989): travelling as closely as possible the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft.
Pole to Pole (1992): travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible, i.e., through Europe and Africa.
Derry to Kerry (1994): a quest for family roots, an attempt to trace his great grandmother — Brita Gallagher — who set sail from Ireland 150 years ago during the potato famine, bound for a new life in Burlington, New Jersey,USA. It is a trip along the Palin family line.
Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997): in which he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean counter-clockwise. A journey of 80,000 kilometres starting on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait and taking him through Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999): retracing the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway through the United States, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
Sahara (2002): in which he trekked through the world's largest desert.
Michael Palin (2004): in which he travels through the Himalaya region.

Palin's travel programmes are responsible for a phenomenon termed the "Palin effect": how areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions — for example, the significant increase in the number of British holidaymakers interested in journeying to the Sahara region in 2003.

In 2005, he presented Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi, about the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi, whose work he collects.

In May 2006, he has embarked on a new project, currently called "Palin's New Europe", which includes visits to several countries in Eastern Europe. The travels are planned to produce 6 one-hour programmes for BBC-1.

All his travel books can be read at no charge, complete and unabridged, on his website.

Trivia

The Globe Theatre in London has a "Supporting Wall" which bears the names of individual donors to the Shakespeare's Globe Trust. John Cleese bought two "signatures" on the wall, one for himself and one for Palin, whose name he intentionally mis-spelled as "Michael Pallin".

Much has been argued over which football team Palin supports. He has often mentioned both major Sheffield teams, Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United, in his travel programmes as well as occasionally going to the matches of both. In fact, Palin has himself admitted that he supports whichever team is doing better at the particular moment; following Sheffield Wednesday's 1991 League Cup victory, he mentioned his support for the club in Pole to Pole. Several years later, on the DVD commentary for the Ripping Yarns episode Golden Gordon, he stated that his "current" team was Sheffield United, The commentary was recorded in 2003, the year United reached the Play-Off Final, and two major cup semi-finals..

Palin spent a week in New York filming his role in You've Got Mail as the long-time customer of Meg Ryan's bookshop, but his role was cut from the movie.

His middle son William briefly appears in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film.

He was approached to play The Book in the radio production of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but he turned it down.

According to Carol Cleveland, when Monty Python performed at the Hollywood Bowl, a young woman ran up to Palin as they were exiting backstage, screamed, "Oh, Michael!" and fainted into his arms. In shock, Palin had to pass the girl to the others for help. ^*

During his 1995 journey around the Pacific Rim, Palin made a guest appearance on the Australian television soap opera Home and Away, playing a surfer.

Palin is an acquaintance of David Attenborough, and interviewed the naturalist about his career for the 2002 documentary Life on Air.

An asteroid, 9621 Michaelpalin, is named in his honour.

His next door neighbours include Bill Oddie and Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman and appeared on the Colin & Edith show in September 2005 broadcast from Edith's house.

Palin had the same housemaster, R. H. J. Brooke, at the Shrewsbury School as John Peel. Both speak fondly of Brooke; Palin in the Monty Python's Flying Circus biography The Python's on The Pythons and Peel in his autobiography Margrave of the Marshes.

Palin, in addition to authoring many travel books about his exploits, is also a novelist. His first (and only) fictional novel is titled "Hemmingway's Chair".

British Undergraduate Gurdeep Nagra was voted Michael Palin's Greatest Fan in the Michael Palin Fan Club Awards of 2006. Gurdeep selected to take Michael Palin to Pizza Hut as his prize.

Palin was voted as the most handsome Python in a British poll.

External links

Michael Palin - BBC Guide to Comedy
Michael Palin - Comedy Zone
Palin's Travels - official website for the travel series
Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children
Michael Palin - Himalaya

Do Not Adjust Your Set
Denise Coffey — Eric Idle — David Jason — Terry Jones — Michael Palin
Twice a Fortnight
Graeme Garden — Terry Jones — Jonathan Lynn — Bill Oddie — Michael Palin