Michael Palin - live webchat Tues 8 Oct at 11am

Smithy

What a fascinating and really inspiring life you have led. Do you believe that age is a barrier to anyone looking for travelling adventures? (as opposed to just holidaying)

No, I think that provided you're careful and don't try and run up and down Everest, or try and swim the Channel every afternoon, travelling is good for you at any age. I think particularly as you get older and have time to yourself that this is when a well-planned journey can really lift your spirits.

I'm 70 now, and I don't think I shall ever stop travelling. It keeps me up to the mark both mentally and physically and the interaction with the rest of the world and the people I meet makes me feel that there is much more that unites us all, than divides us. This is a useful antidote to media stories which might give you the impression that the world is falling apart.

So, go for it at any age - and if possible, try and be a little adventurous. Choose a tour which gives you some time to yourself, or best of all if you have any friends abroad, let them take you around their country. Nothing better than personal experience!

natasha43

A very big HELLO from Thailand, Mr Michael.

I enjoyed all of your travel programs and I have all of your books, films, and of course Monty Python things. I have two questions for you if that is OK.

The first is: Will you be acting in more television and films again? (I've recently saw The Wipers Times and I was in awe of how amazing you are in that role. I rewatched a lot of your old films many times like The Missionary, Jabberwocky, A Fish Called Wanda, and American Friends. I hope you will continue taking roles because we have been deprived of your amazing acting for so long.)

The second is: It seems to me that the elements in Monty Python, first on Flying Circus and later on films, tend to be philosophical in some way, and then on your travel programs, you are discovering and interacting with new people, culture, traditions, religion, and practices, which in the end can be summed up to something philosophical as well. So, if many, many hundred years from now, your work survives and the people of the future interpret you and the rest of the Pythons as philosophers, what would you say to them? Was working in all these projects (of course in addition to the fun and love you have with and for them) a part of a journey for you to seek a kind of Truth or shall we say 'The Meaning of Life'?

Thank you, Mr Michael for your time and kindness and your lovely silliness. We love you! (And please don't retire!)

Hi Natasha in Thailand! Great to hear from you. Thank you for all the nice things you've said. I've always enjoyed acting, but been tempted away by all the other opportunities to travel or to write books. But after Wipers Times went out, I have had a few enquiries and might get back to some acting - but no plans yet.

In answer to the second question, I don't see any sort of underlying philosophy that unites all the things I've done, except to always ask questions - to keep pushing the boundaries of what you think you know and what you think you can do. It's important never to believe that you've got the answer. Keep asking questions. I shall. Certainly no plans to retire!

Bobbin

i have always loved Monty Python and my children were often encouraged to eat just a bit more of their dinner by saying (assume accent here) 'just a wafer thin bit' etc. Do you get tired of being quoted Monty Python, or is it nice? Do you still see the other Pythons much? Thnk you for doing this web chat-I think you're terrific

Hi Bobbin. Well that's the first I've heard of Monty Python being used to make people eat their dinner! The good thing about Python is that most of us who made the programme can't remember any of the lines whereas people like yourself I bet are really good at quoting Python back.

The other good thing is that Python covered so much ground that you rarely get the same quotes twice. Some people remember it for Ni! Some people for 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!', and others for something obscure like Arthur Putey and the Marriage Guidance Counsellor or even Flying Sheep. It's just nice to be remembered!

redgreenblue

Hello. Can you speak any other languages? Or do you get by on English when you travel?

I'm ashamed to say that I don't speak any other languages apart from a bit of French. It's a real weakness for a traveller because to really understand the country, you have to understand the language. The trouble is that in the last 25 years I've been to nearly 80 countries, and there's no way I could learn 80 languages. So, in a sense, the scope of my travelling has played into the hands of my laziness. I wish I was one of those people who could pick up languages easily and confidently.

I think it's a bit like skiing - you have to start when you're young.

AllieGB

Hello Michael! What is your favourite place to visit in the UK? And if you had to live in a different country, which one would you choose? THankyou, Allie.

I love the area close to where I grew up which is the Peak District, just outside Sheffield. This is where I first learned the wonders of travel, on my bike. There are lakes, hills, rivers - it's all quite dramatic. The west coast of Scotland, with its mixture of lochs, islands, mountains and fine malt whiskeys is another favourite part of the country.

I think I am very lucky to live in the British Isles. There are few places in the world where I have found more landscapes in a smaller area. We may not have the highest mountains, or the longest rivers, but we do have a little of everything.

roundyrose

It must be so nice to now be able to pick and choose the projects you are involved in. Is there anything you haven't done yet that you still want to go after?

There are still parts of the world that I'd still like to see and I still get a thrill from travelling even to places I've been to before. So, I suppose somewhere like the Middle East, where so many of the early civilizations began, is somewhere I should see.

I'd also like to write more - I have a project which is part fact, part fiction, following a member of my family who was killed on the Somme in 1916. I'd love to be able to evoke that time and that period.

And I'd still like to learn to dance.

Pamaga

Hi Michael
We have some of your autobiographical diaries on audiobooks. I wondered if you still keep a diary and whether you religiously make a daily entry. When do you write it up? Did you have to prune your diaries extensively when you converted them to autobiographies or do you generally exclude the minutiae of daily life?

Yes, I started to keep a diary back in 1969 when I gave up smoking and wanted to use my newly-fortified will power to do something else I'd always tried but given up on. So the diary came into being and I have kept it most days for 44 years. It's not always how you write, or what you say that matters so much as the fact that you record a particular day at a particular time. I try and write something every morning about the day before, and I'm always suprised how much it brings back when I read it, 20 or 30 years later. As most honest diary writers would probably say, "I can't believe I DID that!" - but you did, and that's part of the fascination of a diary!

I'm currently preparing a third volume of diaries from 1988 to 1998 which requires a lot of editing. By the time it gets into book form, there's only about 25% of what I originally wrote left. But I try very much to make sure the edit covers all the different things that I've done, and background on family, and personal things. In other words - to accurately represent what I've written all those mornings, all those years. It's also very good discipline for writing, it's sort of like a work out for your brain every morning.

Ian42

Hi Michael,

Have you ever thought of making a film on traveling around Britain in a unusual way? Especially as I cannot afford exotic places abroad.

I've often thought of a documentary set in my own country, but I think I'd miss the the anonymity that I have in places like the Himalayas, or the Sahara. I love being the observer rather than the observed.

But you never know. My father taught me to appreciate the countryside around me - so I might eventually inherit the gene. At least I wouldn't have to have all of the injections.

whenim64

We can't let a provocative statement like 'I'd love to learn to dance' slip by unnoticed! Strictly!!!!! Why isn't Michael Palin in your sights?

Actually, I meant dancing when no one else is looking!

NfkDumpling

Hi, can I throw in a late question? Have you ever thought of producing Life of Brian with a Muslim slant? Could be fun!

No.. I think we'll leave that probably.

mazgoli

This is not so much a question as a thank you. I believe that the media generally can make the public distrust a country even a whole nation of people by its selective reporting. You always seem to actually try to understand the people amongst whom you travel, and not judge them by how 'British' they are or how they conform to the ideas and values that we hold dear on our little island.

I really appreciate your thank you, because if there's one thing I've learned from my travels, is that no one has the answer, or the perfect way to live. We can all learn something from each other. I think that I've been lucky to make direct contact with people from all over the world, and very often you get quite a different view of the way they are and how they feel than you would get from one's own London-centric view.

Sockmonkey79

Hello Michael, i think you're fab. I actually named my 2nd son Samuel Palin - after you (I couldn't have Michael as there's already a Michael in the family).
I'm hoping he turns out as funny and adventurous as you.

You have a reputation for being a very lovely person, what do you do not to let fame & fortune go to your head?

I hope so too, and I hope he's a better footballer! Thanks

Wallygrom

hi Michael
Having traveled the world for various TV series and personal enjoyment, how much of the world do you think you have personally traveled to in your life and is there somewhere you would still desperately like to go to?

There’s still, in the words of the old song, a lot of world to see. And I would very much like to see more of Latin America, Mexico and Nicaragua perhaps. Also, rarely visited islands like Madagascar are very tempting. Whatever happens, I shall keep on going, until I fall over!

JS06

From your recent experiences in Brazil please can you tell us something surprising which you came across which really touched you and also something which shocked you.

Love all your work.

I was very touched by the welcome we were given in a village deep in the Amazon by people who had only very recently made contact with the outside world. They laid on a wonderful dance for me on my arrival, which was not the normal tourist performance.
In the poorest part of the big cities, a lot of working people live in slum areas called favelas, and though they are making successful attempts to improve the quality of life there, there are still children eating beside open sewers, and areas still run by criminal gangs.