Michael Palin talks about Then and Now Tour ahead of Bradford date

The hugely popular presenter, comedy legend, bestselling author and actor is 81-years-old, and twice as busy as people a fraction of his age.

This autumn he’s hitting the road with his new stage show There and Back - The Diary Tour 2024 bringing to life the soon-to-be-published latest volume of his life and times, from 1999-2009.

Drawing on rarely seen photos and video, Sheffield-born Michael looks back at what he calls the most productive decade of his life, which came as the centuries changed and he headed into middle age. In that decade he made four travel series - Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, Himalaya and New Europe - and various documentaries on subjects from art and artists to the last day of the First World War. He watched his family grow at a time of ominous new threats and dangers. The Twin Towers fell, bombs blasted London, banks collapsed, economies teetered on the brink, Tony Blair offered hope with the Good Friday agreement, then embroiled us in Iraq.

As Michael entered his 60s, he encountered grown-up responsibilities. By the end of this diary, he’s in his first year as President of the Royal Geographical Society. His diary reflects his constant struggle against routine and repetition and his irresistible, often nerve-shredding attraction to new challenges.

Like Michael himself, it’s a captivating, compelling, charismatic, charming and comic volume which he describes as “70per cent comedy and 30per cent tragedy - much like life!”

The show is, he says, “Lots of fun as I go through the Noughties, and some dark times too. I constantly surprise myself with the sheer amount I took on.”

Michael Palin looks back on a busy decade (Image: John Swannell)

Reflecting on events such as 9/11, Michael recounts the minutiae of living in a world battered by winds of change. 

He homes in on his domestic life, recounting, how five years after the last of his children flew the nest, he began his most affecting journey yet - as a devoted grandfather. 

Michael, who still writes a daily diary, says of the show. “It covers how my career panned out during that decade. I had no plans to carry on travelling. I wanted to go back to acting and writing. I was writing a novel at the time. But I ended up being tempted back to globetrotting and in the end made a number of TV journeys that turned out to be among the best.

“There were all these other things going on in the background. There was 9/11, 7/7, the CJD crisis, when cattle were burnt in enormous numbers, and the war in Iraq.”

On a happier note, “I was gathering a number of very good friends around me. There are people like David Attenborough, Barry Cryer and Alan Bennett, who feature a lot in the diaries. I always benefited from their wise words, and I feel very privileged to have spent so much time with them.”

Michael with Jim Carter, Alan Bennett and Richard Griffiths at Bradford International Film Festival in 2008 (Image: Newsquest)

Michael will also be talking about his enduring friendship with the Monty Python team: “The best thing is, when we do get together, we still make each other laugh. That’s the basic thing which holds us together, our humour and our delight in laughter and the same kind of jokes.”

Assessing the cultural legacy of Monty Python, he recalls: “ In the early noughties we were persuaded into creating a lot of Python collectibles. One of them was a wine called the Norwegian Blue Red. We actually printed a label with that on it.

"I realise my contribution to the world as it is today is as a parrot salesman. I never forget that!”

Another topic in the show is Michael’s family life. “I think a good diary includes whatever is happening to you at the time, and a lot of my diaries are about being at home and how we all get on and how we are. So in these diaries, our last child leaves home, so it’s just my wife and I together. I turned 60 in 2003 and we discussed whether I would retire. Of course I didn’t, but that was part of the family debate at the time.”

Is there an overarching theme to the tour? “One thing I talk about a lot is learning new things. I discuss what sort of longevity my work might have and whether I can keep going. There is lots of worrying about where I’m going and making mistakes along the way. So it’s a holistic look at 11 years of my life when I was going from youthful exuberance into middle age. But the thing is, although I was middle aged, I didn’t stop. There seemed to be an awful lot going on. And I know that’s how it’s always going to be. I think I’ll die in harness!”

He takes pleasure in interacting with fans on tour, but don’t expect him to hang around afterwards to chat. “I’d love to, but there just isn’t any time really. It’s also difficult because there are lots and lots of people who want to talk,” he says.

“I just make it as friendly and warm as possible during the actual show. I’m 81 now. I have to go straight back home for a mug of Horlicks and sleep in my own bed. It’s not like the old days!”

He adds: “The great thing about doing these shows is that people come along because they know me. They’re not saying, ‘Who is this Michael Palin? He’s just reading bits out of his diary. Come on. He doesn’t jump through any flaming hoops or do any acrobatics’.

"People who enjoy my work will be interested in the background to a lot of the major travel programmes that I did, how I decide what to do next, how I face challenges, and how I deal with getting older in a young person’s world.”

Now master of the TV travelogue, Michael has in recent years made documentaries in countries such as North Korea, Iran and Nigeria. He’s currently in the early stages of planning another trip.

“I’m driven by curiosity,” he says. “It’s the same thing David Attenborough always says drives him. He just wants to know more and learn more. You never, ever come to the stage where you say, ‘Right, I know it all now’. Absolutely not. The more you ask, the more you realise how little you know.

“Making programmes is very good for you mentally. You have to learn about a different way of life in totally different surroundings. You also have to be physically strong to do it. Filming is like a commando raid for three weeks. You just go in, get as much material as you can, then come out again. I find that demanding and very exciting. I’ll do it until someone tells me to stop”.

I don’t think that time will ever come.

* Michael Palin is at the Alhambra on October 4. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk

* There and Back: Diaries 1999-2009 is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on September 26.