BBC to celebrate Michael's career

BBC Two is to celebrate  Michael Palin’s career in an hour-long television special to be broadcast in the New Year.

The programme, entitled A Life On Screen, will focus on Palin’s career as an actor, comedian, writer and presenter and will feature interviews with the likes of John Cleese, David Jason and even Connie Booth, who is famously reticent about her former life as a comedy actor.

It follows the broadcast of Sir Lenny Henry: A Life On Screen last December, and will be made in conjunction with the production arm of Bafta.

Clare Brown, director of production at the company said: ‘Michael is hugely talented and his work has inspired so many people to discover their own love of comedy and travel throughout the past five decades.’

Kate Phillips, who commissioned the programme for the BBC said of Palin: ‘Whether he’s making us laugh, making us cry or showing us the world through new eyes he is, and will always be, at the top of his game.’

Palin started out as a writer for The Frost Report  before  Monty Python’s Flying Circus firmly established his comic reputation, writing and and starring in 45 Python episodes and five feature films.

His  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  Around The World In 80 Days, Pole To Pole, Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, Full Circle and Himalaya.

The Life On Screen series is produced and directed by Samantha Peters of Whizz Kid Entertainment, in conjunction  with Bafta Productions.

Published: 5 Dec 2017