Idler | Michael Palin in conversation with Tom Hodgkinson

[Music] good evening idlers thank you all very much indeed for coming along tonight to see our talk about philosophical issues with mr. Michael Palin it's really lovely to see so many of you here there was see about 200 I only wish we had a similar sort of turnout for our class on Latin grammar and the history of English buildings and so on we are trying to educate you you know so um so I'm going to slip in a bit of Education into this evenings ports it don't expect me to entertained well I won't keep talking now I'll just introduce you to Michael Palin and the lovely big round of applause please top top man absolutely top man he's very kind very kind of man fake charming Michael thanks so much for coming along to torture our audience of idlers a bit worried about the philosophical side of it but I'll do my best well I was thinking we could reframe this is a kind of careers advice talk ah wait for me now they you're you're what sizing them where you're advising them all right I'll try and not talk too much because that you've probably come mainly to see Michael Palin so I'll keep my answer my questions as quick as possible but I would just like to say very quickly by way of introduction that I interviewed Michael I suppose about 9 or 10 years ago for the Idol magazine and the sort of spur of Act if you like was that Michael had done a show called 30 years without a proper job and so I was fascinated to think through this idea because the point really of the idler is to find a path through life which is a free autonomous part and perhaps avoid conventional work altogether so clearly when someone has done that so successfully and with such apparent ease you want to meet them and try and sort of find out what's going on we want to try and talk about some of these ideas this evening but that was you then that was 30 years without a proper job how many uses it now about 48 I think you know someone asked me if I was give a title to a talk and I thought what you know what sums up my life it's very difficult because I've done lots of different things which I'm eternally grateful and I think the fact is that I've been continually indecisive and never been actually required to take significant decisions affecting large periods of my life as people some people have to go in they say for the next 10 years 20 years 30 years I'm going to be doing this I've never done anything more than about the next two years maximum but I've signed a contract I've never been under under contract to anyone for longer than that and I regard that is not having a proper job and I felt well it also it kind of reflects my own attitude which is that that's rather a good thing to not have a proper job I mean I mean it made slightly Flannery O'Connor about things I did have a proper job but it's it also means that your minds open you're still aware that there are lots of other things you you could possibly do and that you acknowledge the doubt that you have about the things you're doing anyway and the the latest volume of Diaries which is coming out in September October which deals with 1988 to 1998 it's just this crazed man around middle age you know just turned 50 suddenly wanting to try and do everything you know novel West End play and all that sort of thing it was liberating and I thought kind of Irish attitude where does that attitude come from do you think you were you were born with it did it develop at school did you have free-thinking parents or was it a kind of reaction against the possibility of becoming a lawyer or something like that I was never any possibility me becoming a lawyer I just didn't have those particular talents I'm not really good with numbers I'm not good with sort of debates and all that sort of thing what I can do and what I always was able to do was to enjoy and make people laugh or at least sort of be with people who laughed a lot I like that that's what I did at school you know as a mischief mischievous boy but like you know I was quite sort of you know III didn't sort of cause a lot of trouble I wasn't a revolutionary anything like that but I was definitely sort of what I would do at school I remember when I was my prep school in Sheffield in 1953 it was because it was the coronation and join the milk break at certain time the I did a little sauce show for people which is all about the coronation the coronation ceremony and you know it's embarrassing really but it was all the beauty of being caught short memory toilet paper has his inside pocket oh just an awful things like that but they will loved it because it was just it was just sort of something fresh and silly and different and and so I could improvise but I think there was always the feeling that I saw the world out there the the absurdity of the world always seemed to come out to me because straw demand clarity I could see the masters talking and and I loved some of my teachers they were excellent others were complete bullshitters and I could see it I could see what they were doing you know coming though okay read around the class Napoleonic Wars and I just I could do that instantly after they were gone I would do read around the class Napoleonic Wars never told Hayden's very clever he's noted that so I think it's a certain sort of restlessness there yeah what you're talking about sounds like a kind of almost Buddhist detachment from the world I mean we're sort of built into it people go and meditate on the top of a mountain for 30 years to try to reach the state they clearly had an age cut off from the world I needed the world around me it's a bit like the one of my favorite Monty Python sketch is which doesn't get played very often but it was the Hermits who all live together up on the hill are you a hermit yes where when you hermit you're SMAP yes moved in yes we're just down there you must come back we've got it's a study group at 11 o'clock and them immediate meeting and we all have a drink oh that's very nice so these are Hermits they be there for 12 years so even the Hermits but it's like detachment is something which I would have made fun or what to her misty will nettled their day off kind of thing yeah exactly figure have you ever studied any peace terminal you you know you've been around the world not being around yeah yeah have you attractive like mindfulness meditation or you know I've never really had the concentration to follow that through I can see it and understand it and it's great deal in Buddhism that I think is sensible and reasonable and a good sort of pathway in life but I've never gone the whole hog I've realized that I am what I am which is probably someone who plucks a little bit here a little bit there and so yeah I wouldn't say I've ever and this may be part of why I've done so many things is if I'm actually not terribly good at intense concentration on philosophical issues you know I'm sorry to inflate your heads would like to do so I'll go now if you want so what was killing how I said like them to you know we want a bit of celebrity gossip Oh George was George was a philosopher George was very philosophical and he did of course as you know very very interested in in Indian Hindu religion and the Indian Way of life and the bad detour and all that sort of thing and George was was you know would bend your ear for quite some considerable time about the means of life and afterlife what does it mean it doesn't mean anything that's what happens after that means something and of course actually although I may laugh it apparently really helped him and the family when he was dying he just said you know it doesn't matter I'm just going to another state of being you know it's where we all end at some place but we don't end forever we go on made that seem very attractive and I think it helped him so you normally win them you meet people who have really very successful there's a kind of restlessness or a kind of lack of something they're trying to make up for and either sort of colossal ego but these aspects of the successful person seems to be kind of absent from you is that true or are you just hiding them you're hiding them very well you know do you wake up in the middle and I can sort of worry about things yeah sure yeah yeah I mean doubt is very very important I think everything you do everything an interesting because with all the Python reunion happening and there's a lot of talk about Python and a lot of it is getting to race silly stage of saying you know the greatest comedy group ever gracing our capital for ten shows you know and this is going to be unbeatable the best thing I think people just get almonds this hagu IKEA is it hanging a graphic oh I had geographical hagiographic I think hacky anyone anyway it's you know it's a little bit over the top and I think suddenly god this is not what pythons about Python was actually about not taking things seriously about questioning everything and suddenly if you're not very careful people want you to be the establishment they want you to be the messenger nor think that's I think you've got to be very careful of and remember where we all started where I started a school I supposed of a little mischievous jokes at the back of the class Python was a sort of embodiment of that but what kept them together there was a view of the world as of it's essentially a rather absurd place but people do very silly things and and so one's got to sort of remember that that's what keeps you going and that's all to do with that knowledge in doubt all the time you know I never okay well I mean if I went home and started playing the star I mean that would begin my family bring me firmly down to earth my wife especially which is excellent so it does mean that everything I do I think you know even coming here tonight Here I am what right have I to sit and talk to all new people have probably all got stories to tell you've probably got all got kids you become a sit here and talk about and I'm the one who's who's there so you deal with that by saying well you're here because you know my work and I've had a chance to share the work and maybe that's brought you here but me myself now as being an authority on anything I think is extremely wobbly grounds so I'm sorry you can get now if you want I'm just expressing my doubts in an Irish way because I asked you about the creative process there's something like posted in fact all the things you've been involved with as you said pie that was very much about attacking the established systems of checks mistakes and so on and satirizing them would you sit around and say okay we're going to satirize Church in the state today I mean did you couldn't agree on a political angle or was it just do you go sit in a room and make each other laugh and write it down and see what happens the latter that's exactly what it was no I don't think we'd ever take it serious enough to say this is going to be our target or the church if I did bit easier for a while or milli we'll show them a thing or two we just jumped up little comedians being paid very little money to do a BBC show that was put out late on on a Saturday night and taken off and Horse of the Year Show every round you know that's what we were doing now people look back and say my god this is Python oh we were like the sort of Rembrandt's of comedy or that either though of course we weren't at the time and we consider ourselves to be just very small fry doing a show which we were allowed to create ourselves and that's a very very important thing part of the reason for going you know part of the advance you've been getting out late at night on a Saturday and being taken off a horse of the air show was that the BBC didn't bother us at all and I think now we would be very very lucky to get a series of 13 shows without having to present you know a synopsis of what we were going to do a detailed analysis of what the shows we're going to do how we were going to do it all that sort of thing what's the demographic for this show that kind of thing yes exactly like that yeah you didn't take you understand what I meant you just you just made me realize haven't voted today I usually photographic you were going to vote you kid presumably absolutely a fan of Europe I don't vote I'm probably both the Spanish Liberal Party I'm so keen on Europe so now you're Farage do I do like as I think is a wonderful character and has entertained us amazingly but I just don't like if it's around I think if I don't can I have a little rant yeah branch away this is a ranting renting you know I mean yeah I don't want to get all political but just the one thing that since you're left out of the debate and I know this because I've done a series in Europe you look at the history of Europe over the last century it's hideous infighting lots of people have lost their lives has been cruel it's been vicious of people full of racial hatred and since you the end of the Second World War because of the efforts of the European Commission of European come market is a sort of adjunct of that but Europe has held together and there's not been all the pain and all the agony and all that ferocious hatreds of the past I think you know yes or say oh well we don't like the European Union I don't like it in lots of aspects the way money's wasted and all that sort of thing but you have to see this kept the peace in Europe and it's kept countries you know away from each other's throats and I just think that people don't kind of realize that they just talk about our country and you know what it means to us well a lot of other things mean something to us it's us in relation to the rest of the world it's quite important end-of-round okay [Applause] the the Python movies you know they must have been a strain because you were working with small budgets was it difficult was it much more difficult to make a film than to make the TV shows well no the TV shows are quite demanding we were doing 13 shows in a sort of seven month period that was writing and performing doing well so actually with the TV shows we were very often strapped for good material and I recently got terrible panning for people for saying that some fightin was crap and all people racing how dare Michael Palin say that well I dare cuz I wrote the stuff yes my material thank you very much but the difference with the film were that we we actually we were in control of the films we have our own director we had together ourselves the budget was very very small I mean but the Holy Grail was made for just over two hundred thousand pounds altogether and I would say yes there was some strain in the making of the film but we felt it was all working to the right goal this was something we really wanted to do we'd planned it we've got the best sketches we could together it wasn't like the 13 shows in a weekly shows turnover we actually had some time to think and a life of Brian actually was quite well funded thanks to dear George who put in five million quid just because he wanted to see the film and you know that that was almost comfortable but there was something about the films which we enjoyed because I think we had more control and we'd put them together ourselves and they've been and they were commercially successful obviously you know they were in the end I mean Holy Grail we weren't sure about we had some screenings of it very early on and people walked you know these are the investors I remember at the time and people were shocked they were shocked by the final scene on the crosses in someone even my parents for brandy oh sorry yeah but not for prayin I'm leaving my parents if we consider themselves to be you know kind of seventies eighties Bohemians I remember them saying I shocked but some people wouldn't find it shocking today I don't know they're probably still some people who work most of America still seem to find his shocking it doesn't really get many plays there the life of Brad but yes it was it was shocking but I thinking quite a good way that's all I'd say because people people tended to have a knee-jerk reaction to Brian and say well they were they just mocking Christianity they're mocking faith they're mocking the story of Jesus which actually was not what we were doing which is why we deliberately put in the character was Jesus separate from Brian and the stables at the beginning then the Sermon on the Mount so Brian wasn't Jesus that she physically wasn't in the film and all that but it was pretty close to the Berlin because what we were doing our premise was we'd research what happened what's happening in Judea at that time and there was Messiah fever for a start everybody was looking for the next Messiah they heard it was about so the idea oh you're Brian and he just says one thing you're the Messiah that that seemed nice basis for comedy and also I mean even dealing with the crucifixion okay it's very significant in people's religious belief but historically it happened a day in day out on a regular basis in Judea at that time that's just the way you got rid of of criminals so it wasn't like there was one crucifixion ever and that was Jesus which is why one of my favorite characters in Python is the in life of Brian is the Roman officer has to send people off to collect their crossings you know one crossing on the left one cross each and all that because you play him not as a sort it's not just for a joke there's actually character there there's this tortured liberal who's been brought up the very nice family probably like your own living just outside Rome slightly bohemian and he sent out to Judea this god-awful place where it's terribly hot they're all to each other's throats and he has to sell them to be crucified he doesn't believe in this sort of thing but yeah so when Eric comes along and says no nice it's all right let me told up and going live on a desert island and he Jen you says ah ah that's terrific and then Eric says now that it's crucifixion really my favorite little exchange in that in the film I mean obviously if we can't know but it's probably a lot more realistic than someone the other Christ movies because they don't have any human well there wasn't much competition you know there were always people with Cody even teeth and Jesus were always played by somebody from Northern California the best ones were the Pasolini did an amazing anyway fantastic brilliant they asked you funding can I all skill fees on a really contentious issue and if you don't want to talk about it that's just fine should grammar be taught in schools grandma grandma grandma English a tremor yeah absolutely we've had this issue where we sorry to talk about myself here I know you're more interested in Michael because for one tiny second we set up a thing called the bad grammar award and we awarded the prize for a company or a politician who'd used the worst grammar and for attacked as being part of some kind of go bike conspiracy so the following year we got some Guardian Easter people on the panel and we were still attacked as being part of some kind of right-wing conspiracy for saying that killed me should be taught where to put the apostrophe and so on what is your view on this well you know I'm very traditional in a way I just think it's a matter of making your point clearly and being able to say what you want to say or write what you want to say in a way that can be understood so sometimes a comma is very very important and I know well the writer of comedy pauses little pause it very very important it means what you want to say just a whole run of words doesn't necessarily mean anything and I do like to have prepositions not hanging in the end but you know in the middle and infinitives that much you fascist so but I you know things have all changed I'm so fully aware that the way people use words and communication now with the internet it's all utterly changed and speed is seems to be the main thing and also informality and I feel well maybe I'm being a crusty old person saying you know we should have upper and lower case well there's all that sort of thing because it why why do you need that just say what you're gonna say all along what I would say here this is contentious is that how you write it is how you say it and how you think it to and if you're just a blur and just I wouldn't do this cause can't think of anything else that seems to me a bit for ways to be a brain and it's not really putting in anything across and perhaps discourteous to I mean to put a put some effort into your written communication and spoken communication shows courtesy to the other person he's going to be reading it depends who the other person is really but yeah I mean I've I mean all my travels around the world I do realize that there's so many different ways of communication and I've talked to people who don't whose language I don't know at all we somehow get on via gesture and all that so what I think is most important is that you talk to somebody or you express something which means something and is some communication between you and the other person if it's just a way of using language to you know sort of block heel block the communication you know make it too formal then I think you're missing you're missing something out the main thing is just to get people to express themselves clearly and you know some relate to you in some shape or form yeah that's important where do you throw the you talk about your own career as the kind of accidental flow in the sense things come along and you say yes or no I mean yeah has there ever been any sort of plan have you thought well okay I'm gonna do some creative visualization I'm going to read the seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen arte V I'm going to see my kind of you know strengths and weaknesses quadrant and this sort of thing and plan to be here in five years clearly not no no no I I never think like that I just I really have been extraordinarily key that I've never been pinned down and then someone said what do you want to do I've never be able to answer that I mean my father felt that I should be able to say I'm going to do this in what are you going to do that's what you mean what you going to do meaning when you grow up that's what I'm not sure yet but you've got to think of something so you know I went to school a school careers master like we all did and he was obviously what I was fascinated by was the actual character of the careers master rather than what he was saying he was obviously as a man called Arnold earliest and muninn akili didn't he beamed stuck with his rotten job of the careers master and he would talk to you whatever interested in well I'm interested in sort of deep-sea diving what he was in well I'm interested in theology oh you know what buddy what I'm interested in in in painting I'm interested in banking whatever and he would everyone he would say well I think the best thing for you is gonna interview for Pilkington's glass and he would open this drawer and he had all these little brochures from Pilkington's and he would everybody despite what the particular talents were but they don't brochure about tokens jars obviously you know this was his column I'm just saying this because this is what interests me not like whole business of careers I was fascinated by Harlan Ellis and the position he was in this make me feel calm this is interesting is he on a retainer from Pilkington it worked it did your school friends and end up tilted ways where all of us ran I don't know of any of my friends who rented Pilkington's but again I'd not I've not actually had to be pinned down say what do you want to do it even when people ask me now well I do a bit of writing okay I do a bit of comedy I do a bit of acting but still you know it's still just that the career path if there is one is essentially blown by the wind so I I would do something so I work quite hard and I would do something and that will usually start a string of events which leads me on to something else or else we'll just be ignore do you know what never do that again but used is something you do and especially if it's a team effort they are doing it someone will say oh why don't you try this why don't you try that because there's something in what you've done which is essentially interesting which some someone will pick out and that's the way I'd been very fortunate to to live and have my career in doing things which people sort of say oh well he could do this he can do that the way they travel and my soul travels began was entirely through this process I was writing Time Bandits with Terry Gilliam in 1980 and we have a deal with a Hollywood studio and there was a Hollywood producer and halfway through the writing process I got asked by BBC producer if I'd like to present a railway documentary the series of railway documentary ound the world not that this sounded great so I I said yes sure and then the next morning around me I said most of them have been taken as only one left that's London to Crewe so what I did it the Lama short as I did it and this producer there's some Hollywood producer what are you doing you know I'll be paying you enough a lot why'd you go off and do this and I was only getting 1500 pounds for three and a half weeks filming plus a book and he said well you know if you're gonna do it I'm gonna I'm gonna make sure he get you get paid the least enough for this so who's who's in charge I said what's a lady called Betty I can't read the second name she's in BBC contracts anyway went and a week later I've never seen this producer soar so ashen-faced and they said thought I've talked to Betty and I said well what we discussed your fee unless what he forgot it up to it 1,500 pounds and he just could not believe it he'd been out done by this Betty would not move on a single single pound but long short so I did that documentary against everyone thought was completely balmy and I did it and about eight years later someone looking for a presenter for around the world in 80 days saw this railway documentary I said oh you know Michael pay me does he can do serious documentaries as well as sending them up maybe we should ask him to do around the world in 80 days so that's the way things have gone rather than me sit down saying here is my game plan it requires you to be very open and he but I have a lot of friends and people you trust that's that's really it's really important could you tell when you were being offered that show that that could be something really really good yes I think I did I wouldn't have taken it on in the diaries that come out of the 1988 to 98 Diaries they start I found a little private diary that has never been published before what's not not being in the book of around the world later days and it was just covered the the first few days of around the world in 80 days and I was terrified I was on this boat we were going across the Mediterranean there was no script there was you know at least 80 days stretching ahead of us it all depended on me encountering people and talking to people and I'd never done this sort of thing before the BBC invested money in it I thought why am I doing this but there must have been something when it was first mentioned that made me feel this is going to bring something out of me that I that I know will will sort of work in a certain sense and almost everything I've ever done even though I'm nervous as hell before I do them and even while I'm doing them I realized that in most cases I'm doing them because there's something in me which I know can make it work to a modest but that's just that's just the way it is I I've rarely done anything where I think I should never have started that in the first place everything I've done even things that have not been successful I've learned something from and I'm very glad that I've taken them all and that's that's quite unusual tell us about some of those well young successful ones well no I mean there are all right Dara's lots of them there's a television series called Palin's column and I had the reason I did this and this is a page thinking because I was I had a friend who was very interested in the politics of television all that sort of thing and the licenses were being reapportioned in ninety-two or something like that and he said Michael we're going to go for a new license for the southern television region would you be on board help us out we want to we want you know quality television we want good programmer good documentaries what the best not the source stuff that they've had before and I thought well that's good yes I'll join it and then I got more and more political and in the end I was on the board and had to sit through these tedious board meetings we're all about sort of finance and all that sort of thing and I said well I didn't really want to do all this they said well no the best thing you can do is to do a series for us I said well I haven't got much time anyway well I thought it was we got together this series for Meridian television where I would go to the Isle of Wight and it was quite a good idea and it was called peleas column because I would be taken on by the local newspaper to write to do things during the week which would be filmed and now I would write a column you'd see me writing it then I would go to the editor and he would look it through and say Michael well this is interesting that's not an interesting bubble and that would be the editor so it's a week week's program ending with me writing the column which would be approved by this guy anyway didn't it just didn't really work partly because the editor was rather a dull man and he went mad no rather a dull man a dull no no he would never go mad you know he's the sort of person that would never go mad that's how dolly was I like someone who can go mad whoa.good yeah on the way now you're putting it on a bit now but anyway so he was a bit dull so when me came to the bit with the column he would just say Oh Michel yes that's good and the director would say come on say something well and and also with just some of the things we did you were not quite up to scratch you know taking part in conquer competitions and things like that and it just wasn't it wasn't great there are some memorable things in it the closing titles particularly but there we are but but the problem with that just talk about it now I can see that was because actually I did it as part of a deal for a situation I was not happy with which is me being a board member for a company I was happy that they got the license then it was up to them to make what they wanted and so you know the motivation was kind of wrong another one which is comes up in the the Diaries is my play the weekend which I did quite like and I thought some very good stuff in that and we got Richard Wilson to do it and it was put on in the West End and it was really slated we had a horrible first night everything went wrong and all the reviews are really sort of absolutely horrible really are you do you ever think do you ever think in about it or do you find a setting no of course I don't ever think skin you know when someone says this is the worst load of stuff you know thank God for Richard Wilson he's made this tired old rubbish work you know people say things like that later and those phrases are burned into your on the back of your mind it's rather interesting again observation of the world you have met some of these people these critics and they are the most creepy people they come up what are you doing next all that jolly good oh it's so nice to meet ya oh you wrote that thing did I say something awful yes you did a little of course I never say that because I'm far too nice there I think I mean that's good that's beside the point it was I could see a bisque x2 critics you know Python sketch the critics together like the hermit's or something yes critics and I mean that's actually a side at issue the fact was it wasn't as successful as I hoped it would be and I wanted it to be and so I had to think about that I think about well was it badly written went wrong with it and I can I learn from the things that were that were wrong and it was there were bits in it that could have been written better but also things in the casting quite right and the good thing is that that it played in this great theater called The Strand it would call them there's about 1500 people in or something like that and it just wasn't right for that big theater a small place would have been fine because it's quite into a thing about a marriage of old marriage old married couple going to each other and you know the people who came to see it when were talking roots of ladies from the Midlands who wanted to see des O'Connor basically or they want to see Richard Wilson doing one foot in the grave and that didn't help but the fact is that unlike Palin's column which I was doing for the wrong reasons I'm doing this for the right reasons because I wanted to write it and it still does very very well in amateur and round companies love it so people were saying to me well you know we're putting on we're putting on the weekend and scum for you know and I think great good for you it had a lovely life in a way yes it still goes on yeah well I believe the tourism they're all a terrific read and you're a great writer how do you find the time to work and could you give us some kind of insight into you know a working day let's say Lizzie when you've got to get down and write a novel or a book that you say yourself yeah how many hours a day will you work what time to get up do you have any sort of routine I'm quite disciplined and I do have a I do have a routine I'm not able to get up at 5:00 in the morning like some people are able to do and do three hours work I'm sure it'd be a good idea about my wife would probably divorce me you know I'm not ticklish eat at me in bed for the extra three hours it's just you know the disruption don't leave me but doors banging and all that sort of being a crash bang but it's partly cuz I don't want to get up at 5:00 in the morning so I do starts if I'm writing well if I'm if I'm writing one of the travel books it's very disciplined because I know that the book is has to come out with the series the series is in the autumn the book has to be delivered by June I have to start in March I work out exactly how many words I have to deliver per week and I try and keep about how many words could he live in a week oh well I mean with the boy I could if I want to do 20,000 words at one week I did at the end it was Justin but that's absolutely absolutely the tops I wouldn't say usually about six thousand seven thousand a week so there'll be about 1,500 to 2,000 a day so we know that I'm sorry to disappoint you but I mean they're fun these things fascinating and how many how many hours could you actually write for per day in that conversation I start I sit at my desk about nine o'clock and I start writing then and I carry on and with the novel which I did a second novel last year that's very very different that's a really complete different process because with the travel books I've got a lot of Diaries so I've got the material the difficult thing is how do you make it interesting how do you make it exciting how do you select the various stories how do you get the facts right you know what what's the word for this in this country what's the length of this this lake you've sailed down all that they've got to get those code of facts with the novel you just sit there and some days just nothing happens you just nothing happens at all you've got these characters he got the story and you sit there anything why what am i doing and I I was writing my first novel Hemingway's chair one morning and I've taken a flat away from the house which just completely unfurnished just had things on the wall related to the book and I was just nothing would happen when I was at the window one day and I saw these this telecom van drove up and they put a little screen around and pulled them the manhole happened the guys got a little lost I've seen be lots of wires and all that and it took him an hour they took the screen down put it in the van off they went I thought well wonderful in one other done they've done an hour's work and I could do nothing because I'm stuck with these characters who don't want to go anywhere or say anything they don't want to fall in love they don't want to kill each other they're just stuck and here's a guy doing here these guys doing a job of work and I found that really kind of quiet that's maybe sends you a bit mad I think I spend of all novelists to like that and then around about five o'clock just when you about to back up you get you get on stream and in an hour or now another hour and a half you couldn't really you all make sense and you push on but I used to take I mean the lots of writers who give advice on writing and Hemingway an issue wouldn't people like that they all say do something there's a great quote from Isherwood you know every day just get after it and Hemingway says the same whatever you write just the very act of writing something will help you just have to get your Bob on the seat at 9:00 and start doing it and also probably to recognise as well that those periods of nothing happening yes a key part of the creative process yeah yeah yeah finally the third in my in the second novel the truth actually wrote the character looks out of a window and he looks at this with telephone men coming along and make a hole in the road so I used it nothing's wasted wasted Brazil is on sale after the talk and so is the tree stand so the first two volumes of Michel stories and the third volume is coming out in the September yeah yeah we now have about 10 or 15 minutes for some questions well can we have a quick round of applause thank you so much we've got about 10 or 15 minutes for for questions from you guys and then there'll be the chance to line up and buy books at the back of the bookstore at about 8:30 so can someone we're gonna have this I should have put a ringer in there's always that awkward moment when no one know there's a hand over there yeah and can we have the radio mic in the audience yeah the question would be at the very furthest point anyone the front row we got this question we're trying to pack them in sir so please hurry the bangle questions quite quick we don't really want to hear about giving your life or anything yes was that a subversive moment or was it a historical moment no it was to give was to give terry gilliam some work because he wasn't actually quite as involved as he was in the in the holy grail I think that was really was part of it he wants to go off and make a little film of his own and it was a subversive movement I suppose Terry would say but that's why it was there thank you Bobby Oh is there's another one there just get up and shout we can probably hear if you want those questions stand up start shouting yes shout your quest kid - after something irrelevant oh how much of me was in my character in GBH some of you in everything that you do I think it wasn't certainly wasn't deliberate and that's the way your bits of your own character slip Eden really and I discuss I mean the cat it was written by Bleasdale and an Alan it was partly Alan Alan being a teacher himself Alan had a fear of bridges had all sorts of phobias and worries and anxieties which is what you know that my character had to have as well but I couldn't be Alan you know I just couldn't do Alan nor did he want me to be Alan and there were lots of Liverpudlian little wisecracks that I couldn't deliver particularly well so I had to yeah I had to tailor it just supposed something that was true to the character as it was written but had perhaps a little more more of myself in it but there was one scene where I had to grab a breakdown and they're all totally impressed about that and I cut it out in the end it was so realistic so dog but you haven't yourself had a breakdown have you ever been depressed ever no no but so yes there probably were things there but it wasn't deliberate certainly either you're 71 now and so you've come a long way since you were five playing Martha Cratchit haha or entertaining your mother doing Shakespearean roles but is there any possibility you might want to take on a serious theatrical Shakespearean role at some time in the future well you know this goes back to what we've been talking about yeah I could do I mean I I'm quite enjoy acting for a long time I was sidetracked into traveling and the great joy of making the travel programs I found was not just the travel and seeing the world and meeting people all that it was working with a very small team of people absolutely everyone was involved every single minute of the day as soon as we got up to the end the evening everyone you know the sound the camera we all had to work flat on everyone it's very demanding work and I really really enjoyed that by the end of the evening you felt exhausted but exhilarated you've got through this thing whereas with acting certainly film acting and all that and I've done a fair bit of that there's a lot of waiting around you really are a cog in a great big machine and you called it six in the morning but you're not used to four in the afternoon sometimes and that gets wears you down so for a while I wasn't really looking for doing any acting but earlier this year I received a very good script called remember me by the lady called Gwyneth use as a modern ghost story set in Yorkshire and which they wanted me to play the central character and I I accepted that I suddenly thought well this is a really good script and I think I could do it and it's be a challenge and there I was you know been called at 6 o'clock in the morning and sitting in my Caravan at 4:00 in the afternoon not quite as bad as that but there was that element to it but I did enjoy the acting part of it and now you know one or two people have been asking me the perennial thing will I go and do some stage work I keep getting keep getting asked but people do ask would you do stage work and I don't know that that's a partly need a lot of bottles especially to do Shakespeare all those words but also it's a completely different way of life you work in the evenings and and it's different the way I've organized my life and also it would mean I mean I've been offered something for next year and Alan Bennett revival and it would mean like nine months or something like that and so you'd have to decide if you're going to do it that's my mouth you and you can't go traveling you can't go just go off and write a book and I've had a lot of freedom really so um it's a rather convoluted way of saying yeah I would like to do some acting and I'm not sure whether I could really make the leap to to doing a long-term stage role but I would never dismiss it was a question about some a friend of yours who I met I got a email from the BBC and they said Michael Palin would like you to go in warned around Sheffield for day being a flaner doing nothing so hugely flattened thank you for asking me and the third member of our little group of planners surprisingly but charmingly was Peter Stringfellow yeah yeah and at the end of the after the thing was all over he sent me a VIP gold card to Stringfellow's I have not been yet but that's what we should like though maybe we should get a since in my mind I've been wondering you know does how did Michael become how did Michael Palin become friends of Peter Stringfellow does he go to Stringfellow's with John Cleese you know at the end of the working day to wind down how did this all happen with Sheffield connect it's the most serendipitous thing and it's a lovely sort of just an example of why hang loose a bit not being too confined to one particular group one particular idea can work I was at Brasenose College at Oxford we had to organise a college ball friend of mine and I everyone at that time was looking to get the Rolling Stones you know to play at the ball of course we couldn't afford it so people are looking for alternative bands and I was in Sheffield when I heard of a band called the Sheffield and they were managed by Peter Stringfellow and his brother so I went along and said look can we do a deal could you could the Sheffield come and play at Fresno's college ball and he said yes and they came along and they were absolutely terrific R&B band they broke up almost immediately after I think but they were fantastic that end of story i every every for the last four or five years we've taken them filler of Majorca for a week to go there with my son and his wife and our two grandsons and my wife it's lovely thing we do cuz of New Yorker Airport on the way back I think you know dear all the day's over and there was a lot of sad looking bloke very very panel sitting at the table and it was must be the string fellow so he pale he looked for the free pass yes not Sun worship my baby looks a bit like he said Oh Michael hello and I said you know I've never really thanked you for providing you the Sheffield's what happened to them so we felt talking about the show feels and he loved that you know it was not to doing this club or anything like that but he hadn't rather engaging way of talking about Sheffield so when I decided to do the item about Flanders because you know I was able to be a guest protected a program because I wasn't doing lots of other things so the nice thing to be able to do I suggested you because you know all about planets that's what the idler sort of it's a compiler kind of character the person who just looks around and has a good time since the cafe isn't all that not good time just coming so we decided to go to Sheffield and then oh yes Sheffield connection get Peter along so it was you and me and Peter it was rather a wonderful combination wasn't it became quite emotional mind you since then he hasn't sent me a girl card I did see him in the street the other day and he said you know when you're coming to the club as well my wife's strange she's not puritanical in any shape or form but she doesn't make a strictly good idea for me to go to Stringfellow's it's not my sort of thing they said we're not going to go out there later yeah well yeah yeah we can discuss it okay from the audience yes sir yeah is it true that there was an alternative ending to the Holy Grail where the brave knights having many leads and faced many dangers came finally to that place where the Grail might be found and that place was called heroines oh yes Harrods yeah I can't quite remember I mean it might might have been yes yeah no no that's interesting I can never remember quite why we ending and ending things are quite difficult all that why we put things in why we don't put things in and it probably would to be funnier than the ending although quite like the police the modern police coming in but it was all like the in in life of Brian when we were joy this is going off me but things that weren't in the film we were discussing how you do it how you write a film about life Christ more than that that particular time and we have some some rather nice ideas came up that we couldn't eventually use and one of them was decided ringing up to book a table for the Last Supper and you know they say well we can't do 12 but we do we can do you three tables of four or we can do twelve at lunch time okay we'll have twelve at lunch time oh there is one other thing we all want to be on the same side putting tables together I mean it's good fun very fun we laughed a lot of that we still do but it just wasn't right for the film if you put that in the film that would have been you know kind of just having jokes about Jesus which wasn't quite wasn't quite what the film was about anymore rather than anything to do religion if you were to transpose yourselves to today would you look to make something like the Life of Brian today and would you actually be willing to tackle sort of wider sort of religious and sort of historical religious stories and targets well no probably we wouldn't do the life of Muhammad I don't think not without black jackets but I mean it's interesting really and I'm gonna have to be honest life of brian was a comedy film that's primarily what it is how can we make people laugh for 90 minutes we worked with the Grail because we created this kind of the story of the Grail is fairly a more person and we can just use it as a narrative and lots of things can happen what other kind of story is that well there's the Bible story and I mean I think that was the way we first approached it there's a certain period a certain feel to it certain things happened how can we make as many people laugh as often as possible in a film so that was the primary thing that we were doing it wasn't really a brave attempt to take on the religious establishment and show them how wrong they were and how awful they were and all that sort of thing we came out with this a bit later on because we sort of needed to have some justification for doing it but I think you have to remember that it was primarily a comedy film I think nowadays you'd be it would be very tricky because because you know people said we'd laugh run i seventy seventy eight it was a brief flaw in between times when people killed each other because of their religion people were killing each other much then now they are you see it all the time you know some of these and shares or whatever and previously Nazis and Jews or whatever it was you know it's it's it's just not a not really a comedy subject and we were able to just use that source Light beer where we could use religion as the basis of the religion of the story that we're all told about the Bible as a basis for comedy about human behavior and that's really what it is it's just like the it's just like all the Python stuff you know it's about the sort of the characters in it so it's about the censure it's about the Roman centurion who's to test terrible doubts about what he's it has to do it anyway it's the cheery cockney who says I know I know it does Ireland really and all that sort of thing it's about people who can't hear what are blessings of what best of the cheesemakers I think he said No so that's what it's about really it's not really taking apart the docma of religion other any TV comedies there's a around now at contemporary ones that you that stand out for you that make you laugh well I mean there are certain there are certain things make me laugh I mean it's a technique they use certainly the thick of it and particularly 2012 I thought wonderful business observation marvellous not just the acting but the script the speak the way people speak now in committees the way they say nothing and in a very calmly yeah it's very good Idol of stuff you know they were just saying what's wrong and w1a I thought was good but I'm London again I quite like sketch shows and I like sketches and I'm very glad that the fast chair which I'm very fond of is coming back on Friday yeah we've got time I think for one more question so it's got to be a really good interesting intelligent witty funny question would anyone like to ask that with the creative process the peers when you're doing nothing is part of that process but when I'm trying to achieve something and I'm not doing anything it's because I'm reading all the articles on the Guardian or I'm on Facebook so I don't that's not contributing to my creative process so I'm wondering whether the first thing you procrastinate and if you do what are you doing when you're procrastinating because and my mother here has had all of the games on having Peter deleted for that reason oh yeah well it's just a whole huge thing we get into procrastination just fantastic because it's very close to just dreaming it's very close to just staring into the you know the world around you which I'm think it's terribly terribly important and it's all feeling nowadays it's gonna be doing something all the time right on the phone you're looking at this or you're checking what procrastination means you know on the website and all that just sit there and look at it all and it starts to rain and you get wet and you go indoors and yes somewhere else and you see someone over in the cafe doing something rather strange you take that in and all that I mean I just love watching the world go by I think it's very very important so I think procrastination is is a very good thing and and you can do it you can practice it very easily at like airports I travel you know I've go through airports and all that and I mean I there are a pretty awful places to go but then with something to see behavior and love seeing the behavior of people in airports even it's just people are sort of doing that all the time yeah and another thing I've seen recently which fascinates me which is couples who go out together and he's at the table they each have a laptop and the history are they talking to each other by the laptop but they're doing something very different mean that mean love meet each other you're just doing their thing I mean that's kind of really weird what is what worries means what is everybody talking about for God's why are they coding the phone that go down the street has to be said the great thing about going down the street is you catch someone's eye or something like that or you see somebody it snacks in dental moment and all that but now no it's like I sometimes feel that people know the end of the world is nigh and I don't and they're all really up to say we've got four more minutes okay a [Applause] minute I've got four more minutes no minutes oh my god but the world hasn't ended that's the main [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Idler

Views: 5,146

Rating: 4.9402986 out of 5

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Id: ZByALXcsR_0

Length: 62min 30sec (3750 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020