Icon: Michael Palin
The Sheffield-born Palin has undoubtedly left his mark on the UK and forced his way into our Icon issue with his contributions to British TV since way back in the 1960s.
Palin studied history at Oxford following a private school education where from an early age he showed his flair for performance, leading in plays throughout his education. Whilst studying at Oxford he met a young man by the name of Robert Hewison, forming a creative team who churned out scripts and writing left, right and centre. Their first gig came at the University of Oxford’s Psychology Society’s Christmas time social. His show largely contained satirical gags and televisual parodies of shows popular at the time.
His writing led to an expansion of his team and inter-university opportunities, where he met John Cleese and Graham Chapman at Cambridge. Some say this was the birth of Monty Python.
Their writing continued and Palin and Hewison made their debut at the Edinburgh Festival all the way back in 1964. It was at that year’s Edinburgh Festival that Michael Palin first met a man by the name of Eric Idle (See where this is going?) Palin’s material was far more bizarre than what the Edinburgh Festival was used to and was a hit, picking up accolades and recognition for his work.
Following his graduation, he found himself with a job in TV, hosting a teen pop show by the name of NOW! However following encouragement from his friend and co-writer, Terry Jones, who had found himself on a BBC directing course; Palin started working in light-entertainment and comedy. The entire nation is glad he did. Meeting up with Idle, Cleese and Chapman, Palin and Jones were all installed as writers.
Then along came 1966 and Barry Took brought the aforementioned rag-tag, motley crew of writers and produced a series by the name of “Monty Python” and that was that. One of the most popular comedic series in UK broadcasting history had been born and it was a platform for Palin’s career to really kick off.
Palin’s first post-Python foray into TV was alongside Terry Jones in a series called ‘Ripping Yarns’ and from there he co-wrote and starred in plenty more televisual hits. He even went from the small screen to the big screen when he starred in “the missionary” His first role in travel came in 1980 when he contributed to the BBC documentary ‘great train journeys of the world’ where he travelled from Euston Station in London to the west of Scotland. The episode in which he contributed was by far the most popular of the series.
It was his popularity on the series that led him to be offered a role on ‘around the world in eighty days’ – a series where he had to circumnavigate the globe using means of transport available only during the days of Phineas Fogg.
Further success with eighty days led him to be offered a new series, ‘Pole to Pole’ in which he had, under the same conditions of eighty days; get from pole to pole travelling along the 39th parallel. From there he cemented his place as a traveller, taking on series such as the Hemmingway Adventure and Full Circle.
He also presented Sahara and Himalaya to great success. It’s his comical, yet gentlemanly style that makes him an icon. A true British treasure for his contributions to TV.