Early career After finishing university in 1965, Palin became a presenter on a comedy pop show called
Now! for the television contractor
Television Wales and the West. At the same time, Palin was contacted by Jones, who had left university a year earlier, to help with writing a theatrical documentary about sex through the ages. Although this project was eventually abandoned, it brought Palin and Jones together as a writing duo and led them to write comedy for various
BBC programmes, such as
The Ken Dodd Show,
The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and
The Illustrated Weekly Hudd. They collaborated in writing lyrics for an album by Barry Booth called
Diversions. They were also in the team of writers working for
The Frost Report, whose other members included
Frank Muir,
Barry Cryer,
Marty Feldman,
Ronnie Barker,
Ronnie Corbett,
Dick Vosburgh and future Monty Python members
Graham Chapman,
John Cleese and
Eric Idle. Although the members of Monty Python had already encountered each other over the years,
The Frost Report was the first time all the British members of Monty Python (its sixth member,
Terry Gilliam, was at that time an American citizen) worked together. Following
The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team worked both as actors and writers on the show
Twice a Fortnight with
Graeme Garden,
Bill Oddie and
Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children's comedy show
Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and
David Jason. The show also featured musical numbers by the
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including future Monty Python musical collaborator
Neil Innes. The animations for
Do Not Adjust Your Set were made by Terry Gilliam. Eager to work with Palin sans Jones, Cleese later asked him to perform in
How to Irritate People together with Chapman and
Tim Brooke-Taylor. The Palin/Jones team were reunited for
The Complete and Utter History of Britain.
Monty Python " sketch at the 2014 reunion,
Monty Python Live (Mostly) On the strength of their work on
The Frost Report and other programmes, Cleese and Chapman had been offered a show by the BBC, but Cleese was reluctant to do a
two-man show for various reasons, among them Chapman's reputedly difficult personality. During this period Cleese contacted Palin about doing the show that ultimately became ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. As a
straight man he was often a foil to the rising ire of characters portrayed by Cleese. He also played timid, socially inept characters such as Arthur Putey, the man who sits quietly as a marriage counsellor (
Eric Idle) makes love to his wife (
Carol Cleveland), and Mr Anchovy, a chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer. He appeared as the
"It's" man (a
Robinson Crusoe-type castaway with torn clothes and a long, unkempt beard) at the beginning of most episodes. He also frequently played a
Gumby, a character Palin said "had these moronic views that were expressed with extraordinary force". Palin frequently co-wrote sketches with
Terry Jones, including the "
Spanish Inquisition sketch", which featured the
catchphrase "Nobody expects the
Spanish Inquisition!". He also composed songs with Jones including "The Lumberjack Song", "
Every Sperm Is Sacred" and "
Spam". His solo musical compositions included "
Decomposing Composers" and "
Finland".
1974–1996: Ripping Yarns and film roles In 1971, he co-wrote, with
Hugh Leonard and
Terence Feely, the film
Percy, which depicts a
penis transplant. After the
Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on
Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over three years from 1976. They had earlier collaborated on the play
Secrets from the BBC series
Black and Blue in 1973. He played the lead role of the peasant Dennis in Terry Gilliam's 1977 film
Jabberwocky. (He had earlier played the cameo role of "Dennis the Peasant" in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, also directed by Gilliam.) Palin also appeared in
All You Need Is Cash (1978) as Eric Manchester (based on
Derek Taylor), the press agent for
the Rutles. In 1980, Palin co-wrote
Time Bandits with Terry Gilliam. He also acted in the film. In 1982, Palin wrote and starred in
The Missionary, co-starring
Maggie Smith. In it, he plays the Reverend Charles Fortescue, who is recalled from Africa to aid prostitutes. He co-starred with Maggie Smith again in the 1984 comedy film
A Private Function. In 1984, he reunited with Terry Gilliam to appear in
Brazil. He appeared in the comedy film
A Fish Called Wanda, which co-starred and was co-written by John Cleese, for which he won the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Palin has also appeared in serious drama. In 1991 he appeared in the film
American Friends, which he wrote based upon a real event in the life of his great-grandfather, a fellow at
St John's College, Oxford. In that same year he also played the part of a headmaster in
Alan Bleasdale's
Channel 4 drama series
GBH. In 1994, Palin narrated the English language
audiobook version of
Esio Trot by children's author
Roald Dahl. In 1997, Palin had a small cameo role in the Australian soap opera
Home and Away. He played an English
surfer with a fear of
sharks, who interrupts a conversation between two main characters to ask whether there were any sharks in the sea. This was filmed while he was in Australia for the
Full Circle series, with a segment about the filming of the role featuring in the series. In November 2005, he appeared in the ''
John Peel's Record Box'' documentary. In 2013, Palin appeared in a
First World War drama titled
The Wipers Times written by
Ian Hislop and
Nick Newman. At the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, it was announced that Palin was set to star alongside
Adam Driver in
Terry Gilliam's
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Palin, however, dropped out of the film after it ran into a financial problem. While speaking at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palin announced that he was presenting the two-part documentary
Michael Palin in North Korea to be broadcast on the British television network
Channel 5. The documentary was broadcast in September 2018, in two one-hour segments on Channel 5 in the UK and in a single two-hour programme on
National Geographic in the United States. It was broadcast again by Channel 5, in a single two-hour programme in December 2018. In July 2019, Palin performed a one-man stage show at the
Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, Wales, about the loss of HMS
Erebus during the
third Franklin expedition, which is recounted in his book
Erebus: The Story of a Ship. ==Television documentaries==