Michael Palin’s archive… and the very angry chiropodist
THE Michael Palin archive at the British Library features some of the most significant moments in 20th-century comedy, in notebooks filled with sketches from The Frost Report to Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
But among the papers that Palin has donated to the institution is something more unexpected: a letter from a very angry chiropodist.
The correspondent, Ronald J Turvey, was furious that Palin had played a chiropodist in the 1984 film, A Very Private Function, and not treated it with sufficient seriousness. Specifically, Palin had joked that chiropodists were mostly concerned with verrucae.
Mr Turvey wrote: “Dear Mr Palin, how dare you denigrate a Profession Supplementary to Medicine. You will probably claim your remark concerning the verruca-scraping chiropodist was just said in jest. I consider it most offensive.
“Playing the part of a professional person is one thing, making derogatory remarks about the profession is another. I have taught and lectured at the London Foot Hospital for 35 years and it is obvious you have scant knowledge of the training and work of a chiropodist… I do hope you are not overcome by a neurological or circulatory disorder, diabetes or one of the other many constitutional disorders which may create secondary conditions in the feet.”
A week later, Palin replied: “Dear Mr Turvey, I do wish people like yourself had a little glimmer of a) humour and b) goodwill. If either of those had applied in your case, I’m sure you would not have ranted on so, but would have seen instead a well-meaning actor who took the part of chiropodist as seriously as he could, without the benefit of 35 years teaching and lecturing on the subject. Yours sincerely, Michael Palin.”