When Michael Palin surprised Greg!

okay think I'm ready are you ready yeah should we bring in your surprise guest yes please be good please be nice who is it let's find out oh my god oh my god it's Michael Palin really uh hello surprised you hello oh my hello hello thank you very much I hope we barged in like this you've probably got other guests here I want to talk to mmm do you know I was just sitting we'll sit quietly and just watch um you look a little worried gotta bail yeah I'm worried oh my god water's fine thank you so much oh my god Michael Palin oh thank you you argue for pretending to know who I am can I just certain well um can I find out while Greg collects himself sorry Chris but you can go greg has been trying to get Michael Palin on the show forever no Julia buzz you're such a massive fan you never told me this it's not that I've turned him down it's your people I think they really said just don't talk to Greg you are whatever you do don't talk to Greg if I spin you know you're absolute hero of all time this just makes me very uncomfortable you know how to respond that's why well oh my god uh welcome to the show well thank you very very nice to be here this is incredible and and you know it's nice to meet you after all this time I I must I honestly want to say that I've not deliberately been avoiding you good at all and I'm glad we've got this moment together now I'm I'm happy that this is happening are we still on air we are live on air my goodness me um well so - Michael right okay come on okay where do we start I have read every single one of your books I read all your Diaries name 12 ways chair oh the truth oh oh you know what the first time I met you wonderful and my mum and dad we were on holiday in New York and we came to I asked my mom and dad how cool I was as a 13 year old I wanted to go to your book signing oh let me met you at bloomin take off oh really ah ah well that is that that deserves some sort of medal you know about 12 people came there so there you go this is the best thing ever it is this is for me absence is so much better than talking to my family now and they not read any of my books I don't see anything I've done and quite honestly you know I think some of the children don't know my name even but so this is very very nice little bit too sis it's making me feel wonderful for a short while well I am I'm completely shocked you can probably tell your general confusion haha well usually it's something horrible they plan for me oh really uh-huh last time it was a nice bath of Judy Murray yeah that was sorry I've let you down really nasty with just me This Is It this is a good one so welcome to the show and we have a lot to talk about so I first saw you when I was a kid this is where the obsession began okay don't worry you are safe from you know yeah please police are outside but I watched my mom and dad gave me around the world in 80 days this is how it was on video back in the day and I just watched it until the tape broke and that was it and it made me want to sort of do a presenting sort job really yeah and then I realized what you did before that later on so Monty Python and ah so the Titan came after yes level absolutely yeah so I saw you is this really nice bloke you went around the world oh this is incredible but he's funny guy he was meeting these amazing people and singing these plays that I had never heard of so as a kid I was going I want to do this this is amazing well I mean when I did around the 180 days I was terrified I've got a big plug here but I've got a volume of Diaries coming out later in the year volume 3 which is 88 98 and it starts with around the world in 80 days and instead of just the stuff that's in the book already I found some private Diaries which just showed how you know absolutely terrified it wasn't the beginning is no script it has started it sounds wonderful game around the world but there's a camera there following your every move you've got to come up with something to say so it was a series of real real sort of anxieties about whether thing would work which I think in the end made it it made it spontaneous and the actual encounters we had especially with the guys on the Dow we just made up as we went along and it was much better I think than just standing there and pretend you to be an expert doing a piece to come so there you are sometimes when you're not sure about a thing it can work better than if you feel overconfident I remember it so well I mean the night we slept on bags of rice on boats and things like that yeah that was I remember it so so well so then I came to Python you could do it you could do it again maybe you should you should do it maybe I should I wouldn't do it justice may I give you our ask everywhere today yeah it could be a little block giving my old shirts yeah yeah okay sure um and then I thought came two pies in a bit later yeah but it's that mean obviously such an amazing part of your life and I suppose the the most famous thing that you're all connected with and it's just it's been Galilee you know I'm 28 28 see I was 26 when we started doing Monty Python right and it was so that freshness then you could do anything yeah have no reputation nobody knew us we put on late are the BBC you didn't understand the show anyway and we were allowed to swim make our own mistakes again which I think is really important part of creative life is actually being allowed to fail and then fail better someone would say have you heard my first radio shows oh my god um but then so it's back you're doing another tour of pythons coming back this season that is amazing news well we have decided eventually spoke against all the odds I mean yeah how to create problems thinking about a reunion suddenly we all agreed last November partly cuz we needed money but that it would be a nice time to get together and actually probably the last time because we're all getting quite aged now and unless everyone's also doing that other their own things you know Terry Jones is doing a film at the moment Terry Gilliam's gotta film later in the year so you know this was the one moment when we could actually get together and someone said how about the o2 all right you know and so that's it and we advertised and we're going to do two or three shows with the possibility of a couple more if the tickets sold well all the tickets seemed to have early on pretty great just like that and so you know what we're doing one outing 10 shows altogether but it would be quite a test of us oh Jesus but we'll have medical attention though doctors nurses will be there and with it it'll be fun I mean it's got to be fun we've got to enjoy doing it otherwise people won't enjoy watching it have you started rehearsing already or what's the plan no don't repeat too early time to peak too early we're gonna rehearse for now vo - now we've got two weeks of rehearsal but we've selected the material we're going to use um and love the rest of the thing is going to be production we've got dancers we've got songs we've got things that have to take place while them while we're all off doing our changes because we're playing about ten different characters it takes a long time to change when you 73 not I'm 74 some of them are average age so we've got to get all the production stuff right and then we'll start rehearsing abouts or two weeks before yeah what's it cuz I've never seen the live show I've only ever seen you know the films and all that kind so Abby but for my generation it would be amazing to come and actually see I've only read about it really in your Diaries about you know playing at the Hollywood Bowl and that kind of thing well that was the last time we played Python live on stage and we do enjoy it well we all learnt performing and writing on stage at University and things like that and so I think that's that's in a way the way we operate best um it's nice to do the telly it's been great doing the films but there's something about playing in front of a live audience which we enjoy and it brings out I think the sort of the spontaneous and improvised in there and the so just sheer pleasure of of hearing people laugh and then there we do telly shows you don't hear people laugh really have you seen many things at the o2 before what what's your areas like well the last thing I saw there was Leonard Cohen and you know he's kind of quite serious stuff and I thought it's extraordinary the 15,000 16,000 people and they were chaps absolutely riveted and he comes on and he's talked about not projecting he just sort of mumbles a bit then he falls to the floor and sings a bit to the floor and then gets up rather I have to say very well from 79 year old gets up very swiftly here but he wasn't playing it out to the audience and yet everybody was riveted because I suppose they were all fans who'd come along to hear they're the hearer so I think with Python you the me Python fan to do many people we've come to London so we've got a you know go to the National Gallery and we'll go and see Monty Python whatever they do a lot of foreign interest in the shows a lot of people have bought tickets from abroad the Americans money - money Python my god they're keenly it still gets played in America yeah whereas here the BBC despite having the terrestrial rights to Python have not put it on again I heard somewhere or maybe I watched it in some documentary that they they lost the tapes originally a BBC lost the tapes of the original Monty Python um something like that yeah they might have got meta meeting or something yeah well if we were very talk about timing we were very very lucky because in 1969 when we made those shows then was the first time they were put doing shows in colour before that was all black and white no it's also the first time the BBC were keeping shows all right they might have lost them temporarily but before that before 69 if a series was made it was then white because they needed the tape but that was it some recorded over it that was it yes I mean you've got Spike Milligan shows which were done about you know almost the same time as Python but about six months before and they're brilliant shows and you can see how much we nicked from Spike but they're all they've destroyed Peter Cook and Dudley Moore um you know not only but also a lot of those have gone but Python they are all around where they were if were discovered nothing has been lost I mean as I said for my age group and and for people haven't didn't see the first time and I'm excited to see this show so I've been handed a piece of paper so this is what is one more night okay the last night the pythons the last night of the pythons capital L capital n molecular you know that last night of pythons which is July the 20th it's a Sunday I think yeah 2014 I'm talking here and that is the last night and the tickets for that last night which would be probably the last time we'll ever go on stage together again again or sale tomorrow from 12 o'clock brilliant it's the Pythons last ever onstage performance together until the next one until the next one until money runs well I mean when we did our tour I think we called it the first farewell tour so companies at all but I mean seriously there are no plans do anymore we've all got lot of stuff to do so that it'll be the last one for a very long time so probably 2050 I'm just a look at the text so many lovely messages coming in hello Lucy in Gloucester Greg I'm 27 my parents bought me the around the world in 80 days book then I watched the series I love you Michael Palin oh very jealous queue right now great um Hannah is watching on the website and says great surprise guest Greg you look genuinely starstruck Joe in Cheshire this has made my day what an inspiration and funny little scamp Michael Palin is funny little scamp I love that I see like that that's really good I like that yeah yeah I could talk to you forever all right yeah but I know you have a busy life yeah and I know that there's other people who have to do shows on Radio one yes no I realize and you've got again have partly have a little lie-down I still like to hear you've never done it a little bit I can see you're still sauce like your heartbeat I can feed it here on this I'm about 12 feet it's still shaking inhabitation

Channel: BBC Radio 1

Views: 44,462

Rating: 4.968102 out of 5

Keywords: Greg James (Person), Michael Palin (Author), Michael Palin: Around The World In 80 Days (TV Program), BBC Radio 1 (Radio Station)

Id: fY59aWU--9k

Length: 12min 26sec (746 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 04 2014