AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
Michael Palin is a Russian revelation in a compelling film about Stalin’s last days
The pain of seeing his old pal Terry Jones suffer from dementia. Why he turned down millions to take the Pythons on tour. And how Donald Trump has a whiff of Stalin. A tearful Michael Palin gives More the full Monty
Michael Palin has travelled the world but he won’t be invited to the White House any time soon, because he’s just compared Donald Trump to Joseph Stalin. ‘Since Trump’s election I can see there are similarities with Stalin’s style, trying to be the strong man who can say anything,’ says Palin, the legendary funnyman and actor who stars in The
Death Of Stalin, a black comedy about the Kremlin inner circle’s jostle for power after the dictator’s 1953 death.
‘But Trump didn’t quite know what he was doing [after he was elected]. He was suddenly in power and having to get these people around him who are rather like himself. Shouty people. Stalin was much more skilful at choosing who was going to be with him.’
So hang on, Palin is saying that the current US President can’t be compared to the monstrous, murderous Stalin because he’s too stupid? ‘I don’t think he can. He’s a salesman really, Trump. That’s what he’s good at, doing deals.’
That’s a breathtaking insult from the normally affable Palin, founder member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and famous for movies such as Brazil and A
Fish Called Wanda as well as the many spectacular travel programmes he has made all over the globe.
Today he’ll talk movingly about the plight of his fellow Python Terry Jones, who has a form of dementia that is robbing him of speech. But for now we’re discussing his superb new movie from Armando Iannucci, creator of the political satires Veep and The Thick Of It, so comparisons with the modern day and Trump are inevitable. And Palin has a punchline, an even bigger insult for the President.
‘I see Trump as more like Mussolini. Mussolini always juts his chin out and turns away at the end of a speech. It’s frightening actually how similar it is.’
He says Trump’s personal style is similarly over the top to the Italian dictator’s. ‘Yes, slightly puppety, it doesn’t quite feel real. It’s like Trump has read five rules of “Being In Power”. Shout a lot. Turn away so it looks as though you’ve said something of enormous consequence. And jut the chin out. Mussolini was always leading with his chin, and it made him look rather ridiculous. Stalin would never have done that.’
Despite that faint praise for a man who murdered millions of his fellow Soviets, the new movie ensures Palin won’t be welcome in the Kremlin either. He is brilliant as Molotov, a loyalist who can’t bring himself to speak up against Stalin even after death.
Stalin’s crimes were many but he is still adored by some Russians. ‘Well, yes, the film has upset a few people already. There was a report of concerns at a high level in the Kremlin that this is being deliberately released to provoke a reaction, to destabilise the current Russian government. It will make some enemies somewhere, but fair enough.’
As we sip tea together in the quiet study of Palin’s north London home, with the trees rustling outside and the sound of schoolchildren playing in the distance, I ask this mild-mannered chap if he would like to confirm that he is not part of a Western conspiracy to overthrow Vladimir Putin? ‘Yes!’
Palin doesn’t look like a troublemaker in his cream slacks and Frenchblue shirt, with his swept-back hair silver at the temples. He doesn’t look 74 either, by the way. But he is very proud of this controversial movie.
‘It’s quite unlike any other film I’ve ever been involved in or even seen. To get that mixture of a fairly solid historical basis and the savagery of what went on, and at the same time make it very funny, is a great feat. It’s marvellous.’
He was, of course, in
Life Of Brian, which provoked protests by people who thought, wrongly, it was blasphemous about Christ – so Palin knows what he’s talking about when it comes to upsetting the faithful with satirical versions of real events.
‘My only worry is, you know, how will people take it? Will they worry it’s not serious enough, or not funny enough?’
The cast is incredible, with Steve Buscemi (a Tarantino and Coen brothers favourite) and Jeffrey Tambor
(Taxi, The Larry Sanders Show and Arrested Development) alongside Paul
Whitehouse of The Fast Show and stage actor Simon Russell Beale now given the movie role his talent deserves as the icecold head of the Soviet security services. Andrea Riseborough (Made In
Dagenham) is magnificent as Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, and Rupert Friend plays his wayward son Vasily. Despite being set in Russia, it was mostly shot in Britain. So did that fabulously funny cast get to socialise together?
‘Well, we did have a few nights at a sort of motel near the M40 where we all stayed. That was as debauched as we got. Lots of different people started appearing at different times, as happens on a film. You’ve been in the bar for an hour and you’re about to go home and suddenly Steve Buscemi appears and you’ve got to have another drink.’
Palin unexpectedly turns into a bit of a fanboy when he talks about co-star Paul Whitehouse. ‘Paul is a very good character actor, which is what I always find the funniest thing. Not someone telling endless jokes. I find that quite wearying.’
But then Palin was always the nicest of the Pythons, particularly compared to the irascible John Cleese, the Lennon to his McCartney. They had as much of an impact on comedy as The Beatles did on pop music. Their reunion show in 2014 sold out ten nights at London’s O2. ‘We came on stage and there was a kind of roar. It enveloped you completely. It wasn’t just one or two people standing up and clapping, it was a great surge, the vocal equivalent of a small explosion.’
They were offered eyewatering sums to tour. ‘There were so many offers… that we could have gone on and done Australia, America, Sweden, Germany. Sold out everywhere.’
Palin reveals that it was him that said no. Was that easy to do? ‘Easy for me, yeah. The money thing wasn’t so important to me because I didn’t have quite so many outgoings as John did, because of his divorce and that. Poor old Terry Jones had bought a house and he’d divorced and had quite a lot of expenses. For me it was just the sheer enjoyment of it that would have been the main thing. And I felt we couldn’t surpass what we’d done at the O2. London was the place where Python was created. It seemed the right place to be at the end.’
Poor old Terry Jones, as he calls him, has since been revealed to be suffering from dementia. There will definitely be no more reunions now. Palin’s eyes fill with tears as we talk about him.
‘Terry’s got a progressive form of dementia so he’s never going to get better. It’s not going to suddenly be reversed, so really it’s a question of just how much contact one can make with him, and that is tricky because the symptoms of his form of dementia are to close down your speech for a start.
‘For someone like Terry, debating, talking, joking, arguing, it was all absolutely part of his life. That’s a very difficult thing. And it’s also extremely difficult, if you’re with him, to know whether he’s taking in what you say or not. He’s quite strong and healthy anyway. He walks over the Heath still. But the communication system is closing down.
‘I think the difficult thing would be if he didn’t know who I was. I still see him and he gives me a big hug. He knows who I am and I assume that things are going in so I just talk about whatever’s been going on. And chat away. Whether he’s taking it in or not I don’t know. It’s very, very tough.
‘It’s not like somebody with a physical illness or even a cancer or something like that, where you can see their determination. With this, it closes you down. They’re kind of receding into the distance. Oh it’s horrible.’
Does it make him think of his own mortality? ‘I do think about that, but only occasionally. I’ll come into my room here and think, “My God, I’m never going to read all these books.” I’ve only got another 10 years, maybe not even that. So that gives you a jolt. But I kind of ignore it and try to carry on in