Beyond the Palin
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But where this time?
He’s already gone Around The World in Eighty Days, gone from Pole to Pole, and has travelled Full Circle; each time producing highly successful books and television series.
So….. where this time?
Well, actually, he’s heading out around the UK to celebrate his new book and to talk about his career so far.
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Hide AdNow 71, Michael’s new book is the third volume of his diaries, entitled ‘Travelling to Work: Diaries 1988-1998.
“It covers the ten years beginning with my misgivings about having embarked on Around The World in Eighty Days,” he says.
“I discovered some notes I’d written which seemed to suggest I was deeply worried about what I'd taken on,” he continues.
“I was going to be away for longer than I'd ever been away before — and there was no script.
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Hide Ad“So the book starts there, and ends — rather ironically — with the decision in 1998 not to do a Monty Python reunion.”
And it was also a busy decade for Sheffield-born Michael.
“That’s right, I wrote my first novel, my first — and last — play, appeared in at least three films and did three travel series.
“They're the diaries of someone pretty much working flat-out.”
So the first half of the show is talking about the new book.
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Hide Ad“Well, yes basically. Over the years I’ve done a lot of one-man shows, usually one evening here and there and I’ve really quite enjoyed them.
“It’s a nice format and I like talking to a live audience; so with the book coming out I thought ‘What can we do that's a little bit different?’ and we came up with the idea of a tour.”
The second half of the show has Michael reminiscing about his 50 years in showbusiness.
“Yes, it’ll be the 50th anniversary, and I have to say that my fondest memory is of being in Edinburgh in August and September of 1964.
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Hide Ad“I appeared in an Oxford University Revue with (fellow future Python) Terry Jones and others. It was the first time I’d actually been on a stage night after night to perform comedy, some of which I’d written and it was such a great thrill to do that.
“It was then that I realised that I could make people laugh. It was quite life-changing.”
Therefore Michael will be taking us on a trip through his life from a Sheffield schoolboy, to selling out the O2 in London in 43 seconds.
And his story seems set to continue as he has no plans to retire.
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Hide Ad“Retire from what?” he asks. “I work at home every day, so I don’t feel that I have to go to the office, as it were.
“I’ll work till I drop and possibly afterwards, you know? A travel series set in Heaven perhaps!”
Michael Palin will be travelling to work at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield on October 22.
Tickets are available from the box office on 0114 249 6000 and from all the usual agencies.
His book, Travelling To Work: Diaries 1988-98 will be published by Orion Books on September 11.