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57-698: The Urubamba is divided into the Upper Urubamba and the Lower Urubamba, the dividing feature being the Pongo de Mainique , an infamous whitewater canyon , where the river narrows to a width of 45 metres (148 ft). The Upper Urubamba ( Alto Urubamba ) valley features a high population and extensive irrigation works. A number of ruins of the Inca Empire lie in the Sacred Valley , including

114-657: 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

171-659: 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

228-618: A travel writer and travel documentarian in programmes broadcast on the BBC . His journeys have taken him across the world, including the North and South Poles , the Sahara , the Himalayas , Eastern Europe, and Brazil ; in 2018, he visited North Korea , documenting his visit to the isolated country in a series broadcast on Channel 5 . Palin visited Nigeria in 2023 to make a travel documentary that

285-400: A 2018 poll for Yorkshire Day he was named the greatest Yorkshireman ever, ahead of Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart . In September 2013, Moorlands School, Leeds, named one of their school houses "Palin" after him. The University of St Andrews awarded Palin an honorary Doctor of Science degree during their June 2017 graduation ceremonies, with the degree recognising his contribution to

342-622: A British geologist, drowned in the river on June 2, 1932 while on a geological expedition to the Andes. Pongo de Mainique The Pongo de Mainique ('gate' in Quechua ) is a water gap (canyon) of the Urubamba River in Peru . Inside the water gap, the river is constricted to a width of 45 metres (50 yd). The Pongo de Mainique is 3 kilometres (2 mi) long. The elevation of

399-542: A book about his travels, providing information and insights not included in the TV programme. Each book is illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao , the stills photographer who was on the team. (Exception: the first book, Around the World in 80 Days , contains some pictures by Pao but most are by other photographers.) All seven of these books were also made available as audiobooks, and all of them are read by Palin himself. Around

456-404: 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

513-536: A film, American Friends , 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

570-565: 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 . Palin's first travel documentary was episode 4 of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World , entitled "Confessions of a Trainspotter". Throughout the hour-long show, Palin humorously reminisces about his childhood hobby of train spotting while he travels throughout

627-681: 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

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684-575: A quest for family roots, he attempted to trace his great-grandmother – Brita Gallagher – who had set sail from Ireland 150 years earlier during the Great Famine (1845–1849) , bound for a new life in Burlington , New Jersey. The series is a trip along the Palin family line. Between 1989 and 2012, Palin appeared as a presenter in a series of travel programmes made for the BBC. It was after

741-573: A radius of five miles (8 km) of the Pongo possibly comprise the single most biologically-diverse site on the face of the Earth." The rapids of the Pongo de Mainique were used as a filming location for key scenes of Werner Herzog 's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo starring Klaus Kinski . In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer , Monty Python actor and BBC travel documentarist Michael Palin named it his "favourite place in

798-403: A school performance of A Christmas Carol . At the age of 10, Palin, still interested in acting, made a comedy monologue and read a Shakespeare play to his mother while playing all the parts. After leaving Shrewsbury in 1962, he went on to read Modern History at Brasenose College, Oxford . With fellow student Robert Hewison he performed and wrote, for the first time, comedy material at

855-599: A university Christmas party. Terry Jones , also a student at Oxford, saw that performance and began writing with Hewison and Palin. That year Palin joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Society Players and first gained fame when he won an acting award at a Co-op drama festival. He also performed and wrote in the Oxford Revue (called the Et ceteras) with Jones. After finishing university in 1965, Palin became

912-610: Is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin . In 2003, inside the Globe a commemorative stone was placed – Palin has his own stone, to mark donors to the theatre, but it is misspelt as "Michael Pallin". The story goes that John Cleese paid for the stone, and mischievously insisted on misspelling his name. In honour of his achievements as a traveller, especially rail travel, Palin has two British trains named after him. In 2002, Virgin Trains' new £5 million high-speed Super Voyager train number 221130

969-832: Is a BBC TV director, whose work includes MasterChef: The Professionals . William is Director of Conservation at the Old Royal Naval College , Greenwich, London, and oversaw the 2018–19 restoration of the Painted Hall. A photograph of William as a baby briefly appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as "Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film". The theatre designer Jeremy Herbert is a nephew. Palin describes his religious belief as " agnostic with doubts". He has lived in Gospel Oak , London, since

1026-630: Is considered the most dangerous whitewater pass on the Urubamba; however, many boats traverse it, depending on seasonal river conditions. According to legend, the river was once crossed by the so-called Inca Bridge , although the Pongo was outside the boundaries of the Inca Empire . The bridge no longer exists. The Pongo de Mainique is a global biodiversity hotspot . According to the Wildlife Conservation Society , "the lowland rainforests and mid-montane cloud forests within

1083-472: The BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . Other notable films include Jabberwocky (1977), Time Bandits (1981), The Missionary (1982), A Private Function (1984), Brazil (1985), Fierce Creatures (1997), and The Death of Stalin (2017). Since 1980, Palin has made numerous television travel documentaries and is a widely recognised writer and presenter. He has acted as

1140-640: The Dongria Kondh tribe of India , who were resisting mining on their land by the company Vedanta Resources . Palin said, "I've been to the Nyamgiri Hills in Orissa and seen the forces of money and power that Vedanta Resources have arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government. The tribe I visited simply want to carry on living in

1197-657: The Matisse programme. In 2013, he travelled to the United States and filmed in both Maine and Pennsylvania, to write and present "Michael Palin in Wyeth World", which is about the American painter Andrew Wyeth and the people who inspired his paintings. In November 2008, Palin presented a First World War documentary about Armistice Day , 11 November 1918, when thousands of soldiers lost their lives in battle after

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1254-472: 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 ". In 1971, he co-wrote, with Hugh Leonard and Terence Feely , the film Percy , which depicts

1311-502: The 1960s. Palin is most notably a supporter of Sheffield Wednesday , famously holding aloft a trophy and shouting the club's name while in Venice shooting Around the World in 80 Days . He has also followed the fortunes of Sheffield United and Stenhousemuir F.C. Palin assisted Campaign for Better Transport and others with campaigns on sustainable transport, particularly those relating to urban areas, and has been president of

1368-685: 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

1425-618: The Incan city of Machu Picchu , Patallaqta , Pikillaqta and Raqch'i . The Salcca-Pucara hydroelectric project is associated with the river as well. The Lower Urubamba ( Bajo Urubamba ) is relatively undeveloped and features a significant indigenous population consisting of the Campa tribes, principally the Machiguenga (Matsigenka) and Asháninka . The economy is based on forestry and the nearby Camisea Gas Project . The main settlement in

1482-617: The Machu Picchu) his "favourite place in the world". Palin notes in his book of Around the World in 80 Days that the final leg of his journey could originally have taken him and his crew on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction rail crash , but they arrived ahead of schedule and caught an earlier train. In recent years, Palin has written and presented occasional documentary programmes about artists who interest him. The first, on Scottish painter Anne Redpath ,

1539-813: 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 . On

1596-558: 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 . Cleese reunited

1653-638: The UK by train from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh , via Manchester , York , Newcastle upon Tyne , Edinburgh and Inverness . He rides vintage railway lines and trains including the Flying Scotsman . At the Kyle of Lochalsh, Palin bought the station's long metal platform sign and is seen lugging it back to London with him. In 1994, Palin travelled through Ireland for the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry". In

1710-488: The World in 80 Days and Hemingway Adventure are unabridged, while the other four books were made in both abridged and unabridged versions. For four of the trips, a photography book was made by Pao, each with an introduction written by Palin. These are large coffee-table-style books with pictures printed on glossy paper. The majority of the pictures are of various people encountered on the trip, as informal portraits or showing them engaged in some interesting activity. Some of

1767-668: 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

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1824-472: The campaign since 1986. On 2 January 2011, he became the first person to sign the UK-based Campaign for Better Transport's Fair Fares Now campaign. In July 2015, he signed an open letter and gave an interview to support "a strong BBC at the centre of British life" at a time when the government was reviewing the corporation's size and activities. In July 2010, Palin sent a message of support for

1881-454: The game show "Blackmail") to unflappable calmness (such as the Dead parrot vendor or Cheese Shop proprietor). 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,

1938-553: The indigenous people. The mapping was done at the request of the Peruvian military when they heard of the expedition planned by the three 18-year-olds. The map was turned over to the military when the boys arrived in Iquitos. It remained the only map of the river until mapping by satellite became possible many years later. The names and places on the latest map came from the original map drawn by Edward Strong. John Walter Gregory ,

1995-501: The landscape photos are displayed as two-page spreads. Palin's travel programmes are responsible for a phenomenon called the "Palin effect", referring to areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions – for example, the significant increase in the number of tourists interested in Peru after Palin visited Machu Picchu . In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer , Palin named Peru's Pongo de Mainique (canyon below

2052-520: The main cast almost a decade later to make Fierce Creatures . After filming for Fierce Creatures finished, Palin went on a travel journey for a BBC documentary and, returning a year later, found that the end of Fierce Creatures had failed at test screenings and had to be reshot. After Fierce Creatures and a small part in The Wind in the Willows , a film directed by and starring Terry Jones, it

2109-484: The most famous Python sketches, including " Argument Clinic ", " Dead Parrot sketch ", " The Lumberjack Song ", " The Spanish Inquisition ", " Bicycle Repair Man " and " The Fish-Slapping Dance ". Palin continued to work with Jones away from Python, co-writing Ripping Yarns . Palin co-wrote and starred in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). For his performance in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) he received

2166-1010: The promotion of geography, Palin was awarded the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in March 2009, along with a Fellowship of this Society (FRGS). In June 2013, he was similarly honoured in Canada with a gold medal for achievements in geography by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society . In June 2009, Palin was elected for a three-year term as President of the Royal Geographical Society . Because of his self-described "amenable, conciliatory character" Michael Palin has been referred to as unofficially "Britain's Nicest Man". In

2223-455: The public's understanding of contemporary geography. He joins his fellow Pythons John Cleese and Terry Jones in receiving an honorary degree from the Fife institution. In October 2018, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded Palin the first Louie Kamookak Medal for advances in geography, for his book on the history of the polar exploration vessel HMS Erebus . Palin was appointed

2280-527: The region is the town of Sepahua . (Sepahua River coordinates are 11°08′58″S 73°02′55″W  /  11.14944°S 73.04861°W  / -11.14944; -73.04861  ( Sepahua River ) .) The lower Urubamba River was mapped for the first time in 1934 by Edward Kellog Strong III. He and two friends from Palo Alto, California, Art Post and Gain Allan John, navigated the river with its ferocious rapids by canoe and balsa rafts provided by

2337-595: The river is approximately 450 metres (1,480 ft). The steep cliffs on each side of the river rise sharply to mountains with elevations of more than 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). The Pongo de Mainique is the only break in the Vilcabamba mountain range. It also divides the Urubamba River (a headwater of the Amazon River ) between the turbulent Upper Urubamba and the more placid Lower Urubamba. It

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2394-508: 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 . At the same time the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set had led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series and, while it

2451-522: 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 ,

2508-445: The veteran TV globetrotter Alan Whicker and journalist Miles Kington turned down presenting the first of these, Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin , that gave Palin the opportunity to present his first and subsequent travel shows. In 2018, he was hired by ITN Productions to present travel documentaries commissioned by Channel 5, with journeys to North Korea and Iraq completed by 2022. Following each trip, Palin wrote

2565-543: The villages that they and their ancestors have always lived in." Palin is a longstanding Vice President of the National Churches Trust . Palin is a co-founder of The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering. When it opened in 1993 Palin became Vice President of Action for Stammering Children. Palin's awareness and understanding of stammering stemmed from his father’s experience as a person who stammers. Over

2622-840: The war had officially ended. Palin filmed on the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium for the programme, called the Last Day of World War One , produced for the BBC's Timewatch series. In 1966, Palin married Helen Gibbins (born October 1942), whom he first met in 1959 on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk. This meeting was later fictionalised in Palin's teleplay for the 1987 BBC television drama East of Ipswich . Their marriage lasted for 57 years, until Helen's death from kidney failure on 2 May 2023. The Palins' three children are Thomas (born 1969), William (born 1970), and Rachel (born 1975), and there are four grandchildren. Rachel

2679-554: The world". Vanackeren, Guy (2003). "Kiteni et le Pongo de Mainique" . Aventura Latino Americana (in French). – Pictures of the Pongo de Mainique (4th to 8th) Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin KCMG , CBE , FRGS , FRSGS , FRSL ( / ˈ p eɪ l ɪ n / ; born 5 May 1943 ) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He

2736-604: The years Palin has provided support and connection to young people and families of people who stammer. All but the latest two of his travel books can be read with no charge, complete and unabridged, on Palin's Travels website Archived 1 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine . Palin was instrumental in setting up the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in 1993. Also in 1993, each member of Monty Python had an asteroid named after them. Palin's

2793-492: Was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1927. Palin was educated at Birkdale and Shrewsbury School . His sister Angela was nine years his senior; despite the age gap the two had a close relationship until her suicide in 1987. Palin has ancestral roots in Letterkenny , County Donegal . His great-grandmother fled the Irish Famine and was adopted by a wealthy English family. When he was five years old, Palin had his first acting experience at Birkdale playing Martha Cratchit in

2850-493: Was Palin on Redpath in 1997. In The Bright Side of Life (2000), Palin continued on a Scottish theme, looking at the work of the Scottish Colourists . Two further programmes followed on European painters; Michael Palin and the Ladies Who Loved Matisse (2004) and Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi (2005), about the French artist Henri Matisse and Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi respectively. The DVD Michael Palin on Art contains all these documentaries except for

2907-460: Was a member of the Monty Python comedy group . He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 . Palin started in television working on programmes including the Ken Dodd Show , The Frost Report , and Do Not Adjust Your Set . Palin joined Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) alongside John Cleese , Eric Idle , Terry Gilliam , Terry Jones , and Graham Chapman . He acted in some of

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2964-426: Was aired in spring 2024. From 2009 to 2012 he was President of the Royal Geographical Society . Palin was born in Ranmoor , Sheffield , the second child and only son of Edward Moreton Palin (1900–1977) and Mary Rachel Lockhart (née Ovey; 1903–1990). His father was a Shrewsbury and Cambridge -educated engineer working for a steel firm. His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lockhart Ovey, DSO ,

3021-400: Was at that time an American citizen) worked together. During the run of The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team contributed material to two shows starring John Bird : The Late Show and A Series of Birds . For A Series of Birds the Palin/Jones team had their first experience of writing narrative instead of the short sketches they were accustomed to conceiving. Following The Frost Report

3078-452: Was named Michael Palin  – it carries his name externally and a plaque is located adjacent to the onboard shop with information on Palin and his many journeys. Also, National Express East Anglia named a British Rail Class 153 (unit number 153335) after him. (He is a model railway enthusiast. ) In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society in Dublin. In recognition of his services to

3135-435: 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

3192-464: Was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese's proposal and brought along Idle, Jones and Gilliam. Thus the formation of the Monty Python troupe has been referred to as a result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold. Palin played various roles in Monty Python , which ranged from manic enthusiasm (such as the lumberjack of " The Lumberjack Song ", or Herbert Anchovy, host of

3249-445: Was twenty years until Palin's next film role, as Soviet politician Vyacheslav Molotov in the 2017 satirical black comedy The Death of Stalin . Palin also appeared with John Cleese in his documentary, The Human Face . Palin was cast in a supporting role in the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romantic comedy You've Got Mail , but his role was eventually cut entirely. Palin has also appeared in serious drama. In 1991 Palin appeared in

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