Michael Palin

Early life and education

In 1943 Palin was born in Ranmoor, Sheffield, the second child and only son of Edward Moreton Palin (1900–1977) and Mary Rachel Lockhart (née Ovey; 1903–1990). His father was a Shrewsbury and Cambridge-educated engineer working for a steel firm. His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lockhart Ovey, DSO, was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1927.

Palin was educated at Birkdale school in Sheffield and later at Shrewsbury School. His sister Angela was nine years his senior; despite the age gap the two had a close relationship until her suicide in 1987. The Palin family has ancestral roots in Letterkenny, County Donegal. His great-grandmother fled to America from the Irish Famine and was adopted by a wealthy American family.

When he was five years old, Palin had his first acting experience at Birkdale playing Martha Cratchit in a school performance of A Christmas Carol. At the age of 10, still interested in acting, he made a comedy monologue and read a Shakespeare play to his mother while playing all the parts.

After leaving Shrewsbury school in 1962, he went on to read Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford. Terry Jones, also a student at Oxford, saw that performance and began writing with Hewison and Palin. That year Palin joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Society Players and first gained fame when he won an acting award at a Co-op drama festival. He also performed and wrote in the Oxford Revue (called the Et ceteras) with Jones.

Career

Early career

After finishing university in 1965, Palin became a presenter on a comedy pop show called Now! for the television contractor Television Wales and the West. At the same time, Palin was contacted by Jones, who had left university a year earlier, to help with writing a theatrical documentary about sex through the ages. Although this project was eventually abandoned, it brought Palin and Jones together as a writing duo and led them to write comedy for various BBC programmes, such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and The Illustrated Weekly Hudd. They collaborated in writing lyrics for an album by Barry Booth called Diversions. They were also in the team of writers working for The Frost Report, whose other members included Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle.

Although the members of Monty Python had already encountered each other over the years, The Frost Report was the first time all the British members of Monty Python (its sixth member, Terry Gilliam, was at that time an American citizen) worked together. During the run of The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team contributed material to two shows starring John Bird: The Late Show and A Series of Birds. For A Series of Birds the Palin/Jones team had their first experience of writing narrative instead of the short sketches they were accustomed to conceiving.

Following The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team worked both as actors and writers on the show Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and David Jason. The show also featured musical numbers by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including future Monty Python musical collaborator Neil Innes. The animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set were made by Terry Gilliam. Eager to work with Palin sans Jones, Cleese later asked him to perform in How to Irritate People together with Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The Palin/Jones team were reunited for The Complete and Utter History of Britain.

''Monty Python''

Main article: Monty Python

On the strength of their work on The Frost Report and other programmes, Cleese and Chapman had been offered a show by the BBC, but Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons, among them Chapman's reputedly difficult personality. During this period Cleese contacted Palin about doing the show that ultimately became Monty Python's Flying Circus. At the same time the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set had led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series and, while it was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese's proposal and brought along Idle, Jones and Gilliam. Thus the formation of the Monty Python troupe has been referred to as a result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.

Palin played various roles in Monty Python, which ranged from manic enthusiasm (such as the lumberjack of "The Lumberjack Song", or Herbert Anchovy, host of the game show "Blackmail") to unflappable calmness (such as the dead parrot seller or cheese shop proprietor). As a straight man he was often a foil to the rising ire of characters portrayed by Cleese. He also played timid, socially inept characters such as Arthur Putey, the man who sits quietly as a marriage counsellor (Eric Idle) makes love to his wife (Carol Cleveland), and Mr Anchovy, a chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer. He appeared as the "It's" man (a Robinson Crusoe-type castaway with torn clothes and a long, unkempt beard) at the beginning of most episodes. He also frequently played a Gumby, a character Palin said "had these moronic views that were expressed with extraordinary force".

Palin frequently co-wrote sketches with Terry Jones, including the "Spanish Inquisition sketch", which featured the catchphrase "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!". He also composed songs with Jones including "The Lumberjack Song", "Every Sperm Is Sacred" and "Spam". His solo musical compositions included "Decomposing Composers" and "Finland".

1974–1996: ''Ripping Yarns'' and film roles

In 1971, he co-wrote, with Hugh Leonard and Terence Feely, the film Percy, which depicts a penis transplant.

After the Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over three years from 1976. They had earlier collaborated on the play Secrets from the BBC series Black and Blue in 1973. He played the lead role of the peasant Dennis in Terry Gilliam's 1977 film Jabberwocky. (He had earlier played the cameo role of "Dennis the Peasant" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, also directed by Gilliam.) Palin also appeared in All You Need Is Cash (1978) as Eric Manchester (based on Derek Taylor), the press agent for the Rutles. In 1980, Palin co-wrote Time Bandits with Terry Gilliam. He also acted in the film.

In 1982, Palin wrote and starred in The Missionary, co-starring Maggie Smith. In it, he plays the Reverend Charles Fortescue, who is recalled from Africa to aid prostitutes. He co-starred with Maggie Smith again in the 1984 comedy film A Private Function. In 1984, he reunited with Terry Gilliam to appear in Brazil. He appeared in the comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, which co-starred and was co-written by John Cleese, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Cleese reunited the main cast almost a decade later to make Fierce Creatures. After filming for Fierce Creatures finished, Palin went on a travel journey for a BBC documentary and, returning a year later, found that the end of Fierce Creatures had failed at test screenings and had to be reshot.

1996–present

After Fierce Creatures and a small part in The Wind in the Willows, a film directed by and starring Terry Jones, it was twenty years until Palin's next film role, as Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov in the 2017 satirical black comedy The Death of Stalin. Palin also appeared with John Cleese in his documentary The Human Face. Palin was cast in a supporting role in the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romantic comedy You've Got Mail, but his role was eventually cut entirely.

Palin has also appeared in serious drama. In 1991 he appeared in the film American Friends, which he wrote 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 GBH. In 1994, Palin narrated the English language audiobook version of Esio Trot by children's author Roald Dahl.

In 1997, Palin had a small cameo role in the Australian soap opera Home and Away. He played an English surfer with a fear of sharks, who interrupts a conversation between two main characters to ask whether there were any sharks in the sea. This was filmed while he was in Australia for the Full Circle series, with a segment about the filming of the role featuring in the series. In November 2005, he appeared in the John Peel's Record Box documentary.

In 2013, Palin appeared in a First World War drama titled The Wipers Times written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. At the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, it was announced that Palin was set to star alongside Adam Driver in Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Palin, however, dropped out of the film after it ran into a financial problem.

While speaking at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palin announced that he was presenting the two-part documentary Michael Palin in North Korea to be broadcast on the British television network Channel 5. The documentary was broadcast in September 2018, in two one-hour segments on Channel 5 in the UK and in a single two-hour programme on National Geographic in the United States. It was broadcast again by Channel 5, in a single two-hour programme in December 2018.

In July 2019, Palin performed a one-man stage show at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, Wales, about the loss of HMS Erebus during the third Franklin expedition, which is recounted in his book Erebus: The Story of a Ship.

Television documentaries

Travel

Palin's first travel documentary was episode 4 of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, entitled "Confessions of a Trainspotter". Throughout the hour-long show, Palin humorously reminisces about his childhood hobby of train spotting while he travels throughout the UK by train from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh and Inverness. He rides vintage railway lines and trains including the Flying Scotsman. 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, Palin travelled through Ireland for another episode of the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry". In a quest for family roots, he attempted to trace his great-grandmother – Brita Gallagher – who had set sail from Ireland 150 years earlier during the Great Famine (1845–1849), bound for a new life in Burlington, New Jersey.

Between 1989 and 2012, Palin appeared as a presenter in a series of travel programmes made for the BBC. It was after the veteran TV globetrotter Alan Whicker and journalist Miles Kington turned down presenting the first of these, Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, that gave Palin the opportunity to present his first and subsequent travel shows. In 2018, he was hired by ITN Productions to present travel documentaries commissioned by Channel 5, with journeys to North Korea and Iraq completed by 2022.

• Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin (travel 1988; programme release 1989): travelling as closely as possible the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft.
• Pole to Pole with Michael Palin (travel 1991; programme release 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.
• Full Circle with Michael Palin (travel 1995/96; programme release 1997): in which he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean anti-clockwise; a journey of almost 50000 mi 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 with Michael Palin (travel 2001/02; programme release 2002): in which he trekked around and through the world's largest desert.
• Himalaya with Michael Palin (travel 2003/04; programme release 2004): in which he travels through the Himalaya region.
• Michael Palin's New Europe (travel 2006/07; programme release 2007): in which he travels through Central and Eastern Europe.
• Brazil with Michael Palin (2012) in which he travels through Brazil.
• Michael Palin in North Korea on Channel 5 (2018, this ITN production was released in the US as North Korea from the Inside with Michael Palin) in which he visits North Korea at the time of the April 2018 inter-Korean summit.
• Michael Palin: Into Iraq on Channel 5 (2022).
• Michael Palin in Nigeria on Channel 5 (2024).
• Michael Palin in Venezuela on Channel 5 (2025).

Following each trip, Palin wrote a book about his travels, providing information and insights not included in the TV programme. Each book is illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was on the team. (Exception: the first book, Around the World in 80 Days, contains some pictures by Pao but most are by other photographers.) All of these books were also made available as audiobooks, and all of them are read by Palin himself. Around the World in 80 Days and Hemingway Adventure are unabridged, while the other four books were made in both abridged and unabridged versions.

For four of the trips, a photography book was made by Pao, each with an introduction written by Palin. These are large coffee-table-style books with pictures printed on glossy paper. The majority of the pictures are of various people encountered on the trip, as informal portraits or showing them engaged in some interesting activity. Some of the landscape photos are displayed as two-page spreads.

Palin's travel programmes are responsible for a phenomenon called the "Palin effect", referring to areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions – for example, the significant increase in the number of tourists interested in Peru after Palin visited Machu Picchu. In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer, Palin named Peru's Pongo de Mainique (canyon below the Machu Picchu) his "favourite place in the world".{{cite news | last=Wilkinson | first=Carl | date=8 January 2006 | title=My favourite place in the world |work=The Observer |location=UK | url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2006/jan/08/observerescapesection5 | access-date=18 August 2007 }}

Palin notes in his book of Around the World in 80 Days that the final leg of his journey could originally have taken him and his crew on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction rail crash, but they arrived ahead of schedule and caught an earlier train.

Art and history

Palin has also written and presented occasional documentary programmes about artists who interest him. The first, on Scottish painter Anne Redpath, was Palin on Redpath in 1997. In The Bright Side of Life (2000), Palin continued on a Scottish theme, looking at the work of the Scottish Colourists. Two further programmes followed on European painters; Michael Palin and the Ladies Who Loved Matisse (2004) and Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi (2005), about the French artist Henri Matisse and Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi respectively. The DVD Michael Palin on Art contains all these documentaries except for the Matisse programme. In 2013, he travelled to the United States and filmed in both Maine and Pennsylvania, to write and present "Michael Palin in Wyeth World", which is about the American painter Andrew Wyeth and the people who inspired his paintings.

In November 2008, Palin presented a First World War documentary about Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, when thousands of soldiers lost their lives in battle after the war had officially ended. Palin filmed on the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium for the programme, called the Last Day of World War One, produced for the BBC's Timewatch series.

Personal life

In 1966, Palin married Helen Gibbins (born October 1942), whom he first met in 1959 on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk. This meeting was later fictionalised in Palin's teleplay for the 1987 BBC television drama East of Ipswich. Their marriage lasted for 57 years, until Helen's death from kidney failure on 2 May 2023.

Palin has three adult children: Thomas (born 1969), William (born 1970), and Rachel (born 1975); he also has four grandchildren. Rachel is a BBC TV director, whose work includes MasterChef: The Professionals. William is Director of Conservation at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, and oversaw the 2018–19 restoration of the Painted Hall. A photograph of William as a baby briefly appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as "Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film". Theatre designer Jeremy Herbert is a nephew.

Palin describes his religious belief as "agnostic with doubts". He has lived in Gospel Oak, London, since the 1960s.

Palin is a lifelong supporter of Sheffield United, though has also displayed some sympathies for cross—city rivals Sheffield Wednesday, holding aloft a trophy and shouting the club's name while in Venice shooting Around the World in 80 Days. He has also followed the fortunes of Stenhousemuir F.C.

On turning 80, Palin said,

Activism and charity

Palin assisted Campaign for Better Transport and others with campaigns on sustainable transport, particularly those relating to urban areas, and has been president of the campaign since 1986.

Palin has been a long-time supporter of the urban tree charity, Trees for Cities, and helped plant their one millionth tree outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. He also launched the charity's 'Edible Playground' at Carlton Primary School in 2015 after helping to raise funds for the project, which greens inner city school playgrounds and provides children with food growing opportunities.

On 2 January 2011, he became the first person to sign the UK-based Campaign for Better Transport's Fair Fares Now campaign. In July 2015, he signed an open letter and gave an interview to support "a strong BBC at the centre of British life" at a time when the government was reviewing the corporation's size and activities.

In July 2010, Palin sent a message of support for the Dongria Kondh tribe of India, who were resisting mining on their land by the company Vedanta Resources. Palin said, "I've been to the Nyamgiri Hills in Orissa and seen the forces of money and power that Vedanta Resources have arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government. The tribe I visited simply want to carry on living in the villages that they and their ancestors have always lived in."

Palin is a longstanding Vice President of the National Churches Trust.

Palin is a co-founder of The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering. When it opened in 1993 Palin became Vice President of Action for Stammering Children. Palin's awareness and understanding of stammering stemmed from his father’s experience as a person who stammers. Over the years Palin has provided support and connection to young people and families of people who stammer.

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

• The Weekend (2017, adapted from his 1994 stage play)
• John Finnemore's Double Acts – "The Wroxton Box" (Series 2, Episode 6; 2017)
• Torchwood: Tropical Beach Sounds and Other Relaxing Seascapes #4 (April 2020)

Bibliography

Travel books

• Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
• Pole to Pole (1992)
• Full Circle (1997)
• Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999)
• Sahara (2002)
• Himalaya (2004)
• New Europe (2007)
• Brazil (2012)
• North Korea Journal (2019)
• Into Iraq (2022)
• Michael Palin in Venezuela (2025)

All but the latest two of his travel books can be read with no charge, complete and unabridged, on Palin's Travels website .

Autobiography (contributor)

• The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons (2003)

Diaries

• Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years. 2006.
• Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood – The Film Years. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2009.
• Diaries 1988–1998: Travelling to Work. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2014.
• Diaries 1999–2009: There and Back. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2024.

Fiction

• Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls with Terry Jones, illus Martin Honeysett, Frank Bellamy et al. (1974)
• Dr Fegg's Encyclopaedia of All World Knowledge (1984) (expanded reprint of the above, with Terry Jones and Martin Honeysett)
• Hemingway's Chair (1995)
• The Truth (2012)

Non-fiction

• Erebus: The Story of a Ship (2018, UK)
• Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time (2018, US/Canada)
• Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire (2023)

Children's books

• Small Harry and the Toothache Pills (1982)
• Limerics or The Limerick Book (1985)
• Cyril and the House of Commons (1986)
• Cyril and the Dinner Party (1986)
• The Mirrorstone with Alan Lee and Richard Seymour (1986)

Plays

• The Weekend (1994)

Awards, honours and legacy

Palin was instrumental in setting up the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in 1993. Also in 1993, each member of Monty Python had an asteroid named after them. Palin's is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin. In 2003, inside the Globe Theatre a commemorative stone was placed – Palin has his own stone, to mark donors to the theatre, but it is misspelt as "Michael Pallin". The story goes that John Cleese paid for the stone, and mischievously insisted on misspelling his name.

In honour of his achievements as a traveller, especially rail travel, Palin has two British trains named after him. In 2002, Virgin Trains' new £5 million high-speed Super Voyager train number 221130 was named Michael Palin it carries his name externally and a plaque is located adjacent to the onboard shop with information on Palin and his many journeys. Also, National Express East Anglia named a British Rail Class 153 (unit number 153335) after him. (He is a model railway enthusiast.)

In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society in Dublin. In recognition of his services to the promotion of geography, Palin was awarded the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in March 2009, along with a Fellowship of this Society (FRGS).

In June 2013, he was similarly honoured in Canada with a gold medal for achievements in geography by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In June 2009, Palin was elected for a three-year term as President of the Royal Geographical Society. Because of his self-described "amenable, conciliatory character" Michael Palin has been referred to as unofficially "Britain's Nicest Man". In a 2018 poll for Yorkshire Day he was named the greatest Yorkshireman ever, ahead of Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart.

In September 2013, Moorlands School, Leeds, named one of their school houses "Palin" after him. The University of St Andrews awarded Palin an honorary Doctor of Science degree during their June 2017 graduation ceremonies, with the degree recognising his contribution to the public's understanding of contemporary geography. He joins his fellow Pythons John Cleese and Terry Jones in receiving an honorary degree from the Fife institution. In October 2018, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded Palin the first Louie Kamookak Medal for advances in geography, for his book on the history of the polar exploration vessel HMS Erebus.

Palin was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for "services to television drama and travel documentaries". He then was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 2019 New Year Honours for "services to travel, culture and geography". Palin is the only member of the Monty Python team to receive a knighthood.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.

In 2017, the British Library acquired Palin's archive consisting of project files relating to his work, notebooks, and personal diaries. The papers in the archive (Add MS 89284) relate to his work with Monty Python, his later TV work, and his children's and humorous books.

BAFTA Awards

• 1984 Nominated – BAFTA Award for "Best Original Song" (the award was discontinued after the 1985 ceremonies) for Every Sperm is Sacred from The Meaning of Life (shared with André Jacquemin, Dave Howman and Terry Jones)
• 1989 Won – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Fish Called Wanda (as Ken Pile)
• 1992 Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for GBH
• 2005 Won – BAFTA Special Award
• 2009 Won – BAFTA Special Award as part of the Monty Python team for outstanding contribution to film and television
• 2013 Won – BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award

Other awards

• 2011 Awarded the Aardman Slapstick Visual Comedy Legend award for "significant contributions made to the world of comedy".
• 2020 National Television Awards Special Recognition Award
• 2024 Association for International Broadcasting Lifetime Achievement Award

References

References

1. "PALIN, Michael Edward".
2. (9 September 2018). "The Magazine Interview: Michael Palin on Monty Python, travel and how to stay married". [[The Times]].
3. (2 May 2013). "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship at the Arqiva British Academy Television Awards". bafta.org.
4. (31 December 1999). "Trio of Dames lead showbiz honours". BBC News.
5. (28 December 2018). "New Year Honours 2019: Twiggy, Michael Palin and Gareth Southgate on list".
6. (5 January 2017). ""Ripping Yarns" remembers a Britain that is not yet lost". [[The Economist]].
7. "Film – Actor in a Supporting Role in 1989". BAFTA.
8. (24 July 2019). "Sir Michael Palin to have heart surgery". [[BBC]].
9. "Michael Palin {{!}} British comedian". Encyclopedia Britannica.
10. [http://www.rgs.org/AboutUs/People/People.htm People & Staff] {{webarchive. link. (15 June 2012 Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 June 2012)
11. Scott, Danny. (2 June 2013). "Time and place: Michael Palin". The Sunday Times.
12. (25 July 2019). "Sheffield-born comic legend Sir Michael Palin to undergo heart surgery".
13. Barratt, Nick. (11 November 2006). "Family detective". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
14. Chalmers, Robert. (29 July 2012). "The dark knight rises: Perhaps Michael Palin isn't the nicest chap in Britain after all...". Independent Print Limited.
15. (2005). "The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons". Thomas Dunne Books.
16. Pao, Basil. (23–24 October 2004). "The wandering man". Sing Tao Newspaper Group and Global China Group.
17. Feeny, Seán P.. (14 March 2013). "First Letterkenny heritage magazine launched". North-West News Group.
18. Palin, Michael. (2023). "Great-uncle Harry: a tale of war and empire". Hutchinson Heinemann.
19. (27 March 2008). "Back to his roots Students honour Palin".
20. "Michael Palin biography".
21. "ABC TV Documentaries: Sahara episode 3/4". Australian Broadcasting Company.
22. (17 November 1979). "Michael Palin".
23. Oliver, John. "Michael Palin". BFI Screen Online.
24. Hodgkinson, Tom. (2006). "In Conversation with Michael Palin". The Idler.
25. "Biography".
26. "The Frost Report". BBC Comedy.
27. (8 June 2016). "Jimmy Gilbert, BBC producer who presided over a golden age of light entertainment – obituary". The Daily Telegraph.
28. (13 August 2011). "Marty Feldman: Six Degrees of Separation". [[BBC Two]].
29. "A Series of Bird's". BBC Guide to Comedy.
30. Eggers, Dave. (13 September 2006). "Interview with Eric Idle in The Guardian, with quotes from Terry Jones and Michael Palin". Film.guardian.co.uk.
31. (3 September 2019). "Michael Palin: 'He can't communicate' Monty Python star in emotional Terry Jones admission".
32. (3 September 2019). "John Cleese wants us to revere Monty Python – but he is ruining its legacy". [[The Guardian]].
33. (2 September 2019). "Terry Gilliam says he disagrees with John Cleese's worldview".
34. "Michael Palin interview". Chap.co.uk.
35. Fennessy, Kathleen C.. "Monty Python Sings – Monty Python: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". [[All Media Network]].
36. ten Cate, Hans. (17 January 1999). "Michael Palin Dropped From Final Print of Hanks/Ryan Romantic Comedy". Daily Llama.
37. (22 March 1991). "American Friends".
38. "Michael Palin: my seven of the best".
39. (2013). "Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969–2012, 2d ed.". McFarland.
40. link. (3 October 2018 , 2005.)
41. "Python Palin stars in BBC WWI drama". BBC News.
42. Skinner, Craig. (11 May 2016). "EXCLUSIVE: Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to star Adam Driver and Michael Palin; new concept art uncovered". Flickreel.com.
43. Itzkoff, Dave. (28 June 2017). "Nobody Expects Michael Palin: A Comic Actor in a Dramatic Role". [[The New York Times]].
44. (22 May 2018). "Michael Palin has travelled to North Korea for new Channel 5 series". i.
45. "When is Michael Palin's North Korea travel programme on TV?". Radio Times.
46. "How Michael Palin Introduced North Korea to Monty Python". The Hollywood Reporter.
47. (26 September 2018). "National Geographic Lands Michael Palin's North Korea TV Special". Variety.
48. "What time is the Michael Palin: North Korea special edition on TV?".
49. "Michael Palin brings Erebus: The Story of a Ship to the Torch Theatre". [[Western Telegraph]].
50. Vestey, Michael. (6 August 2005). "Watching over Whicker". Findarticles.com.
51. "'Michael Palin: Into Iraq' series commissioned by Channel 5".
52. Grierson, Jamie. (5 August 2018). "Geography a force for broadening the mind, says Michael Palin". The Guardian.
53. Dunn, Gemma. (13 September 2018). "Michael Palin on North Korea: You can't condemn a whole nation for their leaders". The Irish Times.
54. (15 August 2022). "Michael Palin Travels to Iraq for Channel 5 Series".
55. "Into Iraq – Coming 15th September 2022".
56. Wilson, Tabitha. (9 April 2024). "Michael Palin tells David Attenborough where he found snails 'the size of steaks'". [[The Independent]].
57. (12 March 2025). "Michael Palin Explores Venezuela for Latest Travel Series on 5".
58. Monkey. (14 March 2014). "BBC accountants' shallow pockets gave Michael Palin a global hit {{!}} Media Monkey". The Guardian.
59. Webster, Ben. (14 January 2005). "Globetrotter Palin brought down to earth by eco-lobby". The Times.
60. "Timewatch – The Last Day of World War One". BBC.
61. Badshah, Nadeem. (2 May 2023). "'The bedrock of my life': Michael Palin announces the death of his wife Helen". [[The Guardian]].
62. Pelling, Rowan. (13 November 2015). "Michael Palin: How to stay married for 49 years (sex has nothing to do with it)". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
63. (27 September 2007). "Home truths on Wanderlust". New Journal Enterprises.
64. (1 February 2014). "Will Palin appointed as Conservation Director". Old Royal Naval College Website.
65. (22 March 2019). "Need helping appreciating a museum? Get comfy first". i News.
66. (28 December 2018). "Twiggy, Monty Python's Michael Palin among recipients on New Year's Honors List". [[CBS News]].
67. Palin, Michael. (2014). "Travelling to Work: Diaries 1988–1998". Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
68. Palin, Michael. (22 May 2015). "My seven of the best". The Church Times.
69. "Gospel Oak | Hidden London".
70. (13 May 2023). "Sir Michael Palin's beloved wife Helen dies aged 80". Islington Gazette.
71. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p097cgyx
72. (20 September 2007). "Michael Palin in Venice Around the World in 80 Days BBC Studios". [[BBC Studios]].
73. (9 September 2016). "Michael Palin puts money into his Scottish team".
74. Harari, Fiona. "'Eighty is a weird land to be in': Michael Palin is still looking on the bright side of life".
75. "''Campaign for Better Transport website''".
76. (27 March 2019). "A million trees planted. What next?". Trees for Cities.
77. (16 July 2015). "Michael Palin: 'BBC still lets us experiment'". BBC News.
78. [http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/6269 Michael Palin sends message to support Dongria Kondh] {{Webarchive. link. (25 July 2010 , Survival International)
79. "Our Presidents and Patrons".
80. "The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering".
81. (3 August 1989). "BBC Programme Index".
82. (8 September 2014). "Michael Palin to narrate Clangers". BBC News.
83. Mangan, Lucy. (21 September 2018). "Michael Palin in North Korea review – a soothing look at a sinister regime". The Guardian.
84. "BBC One – Worzel Gummidge, Series 1, The Green Man".
85. "Michael Palin: Travels of a Lifetime". BBC.
86. "Michael Palin's Himalaya: Journey of a Lifetime". BBC.
87. (18 May 2022). "Sir Michael Palin to travel across Iraq in new Channel 5 series".
88. "Michael Palin in Nigeria".
89. "The Secret Life of Trees".
90. (21 May 2025). "BBC commissions new Mackenzie Crook comedy Small Prophets (w/t)".
91. "Palin's centre for stammerers wins £340,000 grant".
92. "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
93. (20 October 2015). "11 Secret Features of Famous London Landmarks". Londonist.
94. "Virgin Trains".
95. "can we attract youth to railway modelling?".
96. "Royal Scottish Geographical Society: Medals & Awards".
97. Ouzounian, Richard. (26 June 2013). "Michael Palin, from Monty Python to travel series host". The Toronto Star.
98. "Michael Palin announced as new president of Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)".
99. "A new journey of exploration for Michael Palin". The Independent.
100. Lee, Marc. (24 August 2009). "Michael Palin: he's not a Messiah, just a very nice man". The Daily Telegraph.
101. "Moorlands School Forms and Houses".
102. (23 June 2017). "Former Python looks on the bright side after uni honour". [[Johnston Press]].
103. [https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2017/title,1283540,en.php] {{Dead link. (November 2018)
104. (20 October 2018). "Michael Palin wows audiences with tale of HMS Erebus". Canadian Geographic.
105. (31 December 1999). "Trio of Dames lead showbiz honours". BBC News.
106. (29 December 2018). "Monty Python's Michael Palin gets knighthood in New Year Honours". Yorkshire Evening Post.
107. (2023-09-01). "Palin, Michael".
108. [http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-003389071] {{Dead link. (November 2023)
109. "BAFTA Film Awards – Best Supporting Actor 1989". [[BAFTA]].
110. "Monty Python Special Award".
111. (12 May 2013). "TV Baftas 2013: all the winners". [[The Guardian]].
112. "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship at the Arqiva British Academy Television Awards". [[BAFTA]].
113. (18 June 2015). "Aardman Slapstick Visual Comedy Award". slapstick.org.uk.