Taking the Michael
1 While he’s revered for his acting now, the first time Michael stepped on a stage to perform he fell off! He was only five when he played Martha Cratchit in a production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol... and came a cropper.
Down Under to film travel
2 documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin, the star’s acting chops helped him land a cameo in Aussie soap Home And Away. Michael played a surfer who was afraid of sharks.
He has two trains named
3 after him – a Virgin Super Voyager and a National Express East Anglia British Rail Class 153. But Michael is afraid of using the toilet on trains because he doesn’t trust the self-locking mechanisms.
Out-of-this-worldly
4 popular Palin and his Monty Python pals have their own asteroids. Michael’s is named 9621 Michaelpalin.
He could afford to eat in the fanciest
5 of restaurants but Michael’s favourite food is… burnt toast.
His stammering character Ken in
6 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda was based on his dad, who had the condition. In 1993, The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children opened in Islington, north London.
David Beckham was branded “a
7 wimp” by Michael after the former pro footballer freaked out when he found a frog on his tent while making a documentary in the Amazon.
8 QI producer John Lloyd tried to woo Michael into fronting the show alongside team captains Stephen Fry and Alan Davies, but he said no. In 2015 Michael took over as the
9 narrator of knitted space creatures cartoon Clangers.
Inspired by The Goon Show,
10 Michael names Spike Milligan as his main comedy inspiration, and was thrilled to get a card from him when his show Ripping Yarns aired, asking for more to be made.
The Lumberjack Song is
11 one of the most popular tunes and sketches in Python history, sung by the pet shop owner from the dead parrot sketch and co-written by Michael. It aired for the first time in the ninth episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus on December 14, 1969.
When Python members
12 started to go their separate ways after the third Flying Circus series, Michael says it was amicable as John Cleese wanted out: “There’s no point in trying to force people to be part of the group. Python didn’t work on contracts, it worked on material.”
13 They reunited in 2014 for a 10-night stint at London’s 02 Arena.
He was disappointed playing the
14 nice guy in 1991 TV series GBH after auditioning for Robert Lindsay’s bad guy Michael Murray.
15 On his bucket list of things still to achieve Michael has taking over as manager of QPR football club.