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MICHAEL PALIN'S MEMORY PALACES: TERRY GILLIAM (320kbs-m4a/63mb/27mins)
BBC Radio4 Extra broadcast: 21st November 2025
An odyssey set inside the strange and wonderful mind of Terry Gilliam. Michael Palin invents fantastical new interview technology to fire James Peak deep inside Terry Gilliam's 'memory palace'.
Join them for an encounter that takes in Terry's films, the Monty Python foot, what it is like to have your obituary published in Variety magazine before you're dead, and why it always pays to have a Beatle on your side.
Starring Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Andre Jacquemin and James Peak
Produced by Andre Jacquemin and James Peak
An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
REWINDER - LIVE FROM SHEFFIELD WITH MICHAEL PALIN (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 19th July 2025
Greg James is back for another trip deep into the BBC Archives, and into the past, as he uses current stories and overlooked anniversaries to guide him to audio gold.
This week, for the first time ever, Rewinder comes to you in front of a live audience at the Crossed Wires Festival in Sheffield, and features a very special star guest....Sir Michael Palin!
Michael helps Greg on his archive quest, uncovering the time Michael was interviewed live on Radio Sheffield in the back of a cab as the taxi dispatch radio kept cutting in. They look back to when floundering Sheffield Wednesday, languishing in the third division, tried to turn things around by bringing in a consultant clairvoyant, and they listen to the worries of ordinary Sheffield residents from 1959 - dogs, buses and students were on one woman's mind.
Michael relives moments from his childhood, as he remembers being terrified by the BBC's early crime and sci-fi dramas like Fabian of the Yard and Quatermass and the Pit. Greg digs out Michael's first ever travel documentary, Confessions of a Trainspotter, which was the programme that led to all of Michael's subsequent travel adventures.
And a trail of letters takes us back to Michael's first ever appearance on the BBC when, aged 21, two sketches he co-wrote and starred in were broadcast on television. But the letters suggest he might never have been paid.
Plus there's Python, cutlery, pork pies and much more...
Producer: Tim Bano
Series archivist: Tariq Hussain
An EcoAudio Certified production
TERRY JONES - STARSHIP TITANIC (320kbs-m4a/129mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 21st December 2024
A tale of interstellar skulduggery, romance and unhinged robots based in Douglas Adams's universe.
Michael Palin stars in Terry Jones's comic novel.
Far off in the centre of one of the less well-chartered quadrants of the universe, a vast civilisation is preparing to launch the most technologically advanced starship ever - Starship Titanic.
While the galaxy's media looks on, it unfortunately undergoes SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure) and disappears.
Leovinus, the designer of the ship, uncovers shoddy workmanship, poor cybernetics and a series of increasingly eccentric robots. The owners, Scraliontis and Brobostigan, were intent on destroying the ship and claiming the insurance.
Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, four humans are inspecting a property they intend buying, only to see it crushed under the re-materialising Starship. This disaster is swiftly followed by an invitation from an over-attentive robot to come aboard, and Lucy, Dan and Nettie are catapulted into a series of increasingly bizarre encounters.
Stylistically emulating the work of the great Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the late Terry Jones weaves a fabulously mad and comic tale.
Adapted by Ian Billings.
With a special guest appearance by Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Encyclopedia Galatica .... Michael Palin
Scraliontis .... Simon Jones
Leovinus .... Nicholas Boulton
Brobostigan .... Nicholas Boulton
Dan .... Rupert Degas
Hackett .... Rupert Degas
The Parrot .... Rupert Degas
The Journalist .... Philip Pope
The Gondolier .... Philip Pope
Nettie .... Alana Ramsey
The Computer .... Alana Ramsey
The LiftBot .... Ian Billings
The Engine Room Door .... Ian Billings
Loss Adjuster One .... Ian Billings
Lucy .... Rebecca Yeo
Loss Adjuster Two .... Rebecca Yeo
Nigel .... Tom Alexander
The Gondolier .... Tom Alexander
The Bomb .... Tom Alexander
Titania .... Laura Lithgow
Music by Philip Pope.
Director: Dirk Maggs
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2021.
TAILENDERS - THE MICHAEL PALIN SPECIAL (320kbs-m4a/166mb/1hr12mins)
BBC Radio 5 broadcast: 25th April 2024
Writer, comedian, broadcaster, documentary maker, presenter and all round genius Sir Michael Palin joins Greg, Jimmy and Felix for a very special episode of Tailenders.
In a wide-ranging interview he discussed his career with Monty Python, his legendary travelogues including his new series on Nigeria, his films and his love of cricket. Included are tales about George Harrison, Keith Miller, watching cricket around the world, his first job at the BBC and the perils of eating rotten camel meat. Plus, what happened when Jimmy was invited to meet the Dalai Lama.
THIS CULTURAL LIFE - 84. MICHAEL PALIN (320kbs-m4a/100mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 6th April 2024
John Wilson talks to actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer Sir Michael Palin. A founding member of the hugely influential comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus, he wrote and performed in its five television series and three feature films including The Life Of Brian. Other big screen credits include A Fish Called Wanda, Brazil, The Missionary and The Death of Stalin. Michael is also a globetrotting documentary presenter and bestselling author.
Michael recalls the early influence of listening to radio comedy as a child, especially the absurdist humour of The Goon Show devised by Spike Milligan. Meeting Terry Jones at Oxford University in 1962 proved to be a life-changing event as the two soon started working on sketches together and after graduating were hired for David Frost's satirical television show The Frost Report. It was on this programme that the duo first worked with future Python members John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.
Starring in Alan Bleasdale's 1991 ground breaking television drama GBH allowed Michael a departure from comedy but also set the bar high for future acting roles which he increasingly forwent in favour of writing and presenting documentaries, including a particular favourite about the Danish Painter Vilhelm Hammershøi.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Archive :
A Fish Called Wanda, Charles Crichton, 1988
Take It From Here, BBC Light Programme, 1954
The Goon Show, The Man Who Never Was, BBC Light Programme, 1958
Comic Roots, BBC1, 1983
That Was The Week That Was, BBC, 1963
The Frost Report, BBC1, 1966
Do Not Adjust Your Set, ITV, 1967
Monty Python's Flying Circus, BBC1, 1969-1970
The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones, 1983
Friday Night, Saturday Morning, BBC2, 1979
The Life of Brian, Terry Jones, 1979
GBH, Alan Bleasdale, Channel 4, 1991
The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci, 2017
Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi, BBC4, 2008
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: REVISITED - MICHAEL PALIN (320kbs-m4a/92mb/40mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 30th April 2023
Sheffield-born comedian, actor, writer and TV presenter Michael Palin shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.
Palin's theatrical career began at Oxford University where he wrote and performed with friends. David Frost saw Palin and Terry Jones perform at the Edinburgh Festival and brought all future members of Monty Python together, first as writers for satirical TV show The Frost Report.
After finishing at Oxford, Palin compered a TV comedy show in Bristol, much to his parents' disappointment, but eventually convinced the BBC to commission Monty Python's Flying Circus.
This surreal TV sketch show series starred Palin, along with John Cleese, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.
After a bumpy start, Python became a huge influence on British comedy.
BOOK CHOICE: Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
LUXURY CHOICE: Bed
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX "Nimrod" - London Symphony Orchestra
Producer: Derek Drescher
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1979.
Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - Things Ain't What They Used To Be
The Goons - Tales of Men's Shirts
Black Dyke Band - Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)
Elvis Presley - You're A Heartbreaker
The Rita Williams Singers - And When They Ask Us
Dick Powell & Wini Shaw - Lullaby of Broadway
The Beatles - Things We Said Today
London Symphony Orchestra - Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX "Nimrod"
MICHAEL PALIN'S RADIO ADVENTURES (320kbs-m4a/412mb/2hrs59mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 19th October 2019
In a completely different broadcast from London's Radio Theatre John McCarthy meets with Michael Palin to celebrate the actor-adventurer's remarkable life and career as heard on BBC radio.
Michael Palin has been a Python, a world traveller, author, actor and screenwriter, and often described as "Britain's Nicest Man". However one area which is often overlooked from his long and impressive career are his fascinating radio contributions.
In this programme we hear extracts from his mighty canon of work including his famous diaries, interviews about his comedy and travel work, documentaries about mental illness and dramas. We also hear rare footage of the time he tried his hand as a BBC disc jockey, his charity work and a hilarious pythonesque local radio broadcast from a taxi rank.
Recorded in front an enthusiastic audience the celebration features contributions from comedians Barry Cryer and John Finnermore, broadcasters Paul Gambaccini and John Waite and throughout we discover Palin's love for radio as we hear a treasure trove of archives on an eclectic mix of subjects and plenty memories of Monty Python.
Producer: Stephen Garner
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra and first broadcast in December 2017.