As the BBC shows a retrospective of the Monty Python star’s long-running ambitious travel shows, he gives us the rundown on his adventures
These days travel documentaries hosted by a famous face are commonplace. But the gold standard are still Michael Palin’s. Part of that is down to the sheer ambition of the Monty Python star’s series (Pole to Pole took five and a half months; Full Circle 10 months). But much is down to Palin’s connection with people. “I always found that my travels gave me a different perspective and a much wider perspective, away from the west as a centre of the world’s ideas,” he says. “And to see your own country and your own people from a different perspective. Remember, we are all members of the human race.”
With foreign travel more difficult for westerners than it has been at any time in the past 50 years, the BBC is to air a retrospective looking at some of Palin’s travels, which still capture and delight the public’s imagination. “I think it’s very, very important to remember that we are this tiny part of a vast world, in which people right across the globe are suffering in various different ways from the pandemic,” Palin says. “It’s a reminder that there are a lot of things that we do share, that you can’t just cut yourself off in certain countries and say: ‘We’re all right, forget the rest.’”
