Michael Palin | A Life in Television

Listen to Michael Palin CBE the BAFTA award winning actor, writer, presenter and BAFTA Fellow discuss his remarkable career and craft.

In a career spanning five decades, BAFTA-winner Michael Palin has entertained and enthralled television, film and stage audiences as a writer and performer in comedy, drama and documentary.

He started his career working with fellow writer and performer Terry Jones, co-writing comedy shows such as The Frost Report, The Two Ronnies and Do Not Adjust Your Television Set. It was the BAFTA-winning comedy sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones which firmly established Palin’s comic reputation.

Palin has demonstrated his extraordinary ability to adapt his craft across a wide range of genres, from comedy to serious dramas to factual documentaries. Dramatic roles on television have included political drama GBH, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA in 1992. He has also written and presented a host of critically-acclaimed travel documentaries, including BAFTA-winning programmes Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure and Sahara, and BAFTA-nominated Full Circle, Himalaya, New Europe and Brazil, and also the arts documentary Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi.

Most recently, Michael Palin has been seen in the lead role of the BBC One three-part drama Remember Me. He is currently narrating a new version of the classic children's television series The Clangers.