Transcripts for BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra 20191019 090000

Rachel aged 5 puttered around me with her junior doctors kid taking my blood giving me blood thrusting toy thermometers in my mouth whilst I tried who precisely to read the Sunday papers Tuesday Feb 26th Terry Gilliam I drive around to a rendezvous with John Cleese who is prepared to talk to us about Time Bandits John speaks with a slight elder statesman comedy air as if he really doesn't know how why and when comedy will work we feel a little like naughty boys being told what's good for us but this is rather unfair to John he did give us some sound unselfish advice but I couldn't accept his final judgement that we should proceed in the movie on the basis that one day it could be a marvelous film but if we rushed it and go on the present script to be just a good natured mess Sunday March the 2nd I cleared my desk prior to beginning the railway script a proper serious documentary as part of the B.B.C.'s great railway journeys found lots of excuses to talk drink coffee and generally indulge in what's called a writer's negative capability but eventually I was ready to start notes assemble clean sheet of foolscap in the typewriter and still use a typewriter of the serious stuff then a strange tension gripped me to all writers suffer this typewriter fright was it just because I'm a writer actor I know that anything I put down now I would have to enact some future time Monday March the 3rd Rachel unhappy about school I take her she tries to be very brave but don't back towards the house and I have to carry her most of the rest of the way Rachael arrives back from school a lot happier than when she went but she did cry only one big tear she told me. Thursday March the 20th 1980 watched the Bafta awards with a glimmer of hope but little more than that I can't believe it when Bruce Forsyth announces the widows are Alabama Jim Franklin for ripping no arms I just leap up and give a few lusty yells it's like Wednesday scoring twice against Everton in the 66 Cup final the boys come downstairs and stare at me Sunday April the 6 Easter South world Life of Brian appears to have had some effect on mother she confessed she didn't go to church on Good Friday thinking of you and your film I just couldn't as it shaken her faith constructively or destructively she did say she couldn't take punches pilot seriously any more Wednesday May the 7th down to Euston for the start of the railway journey I'm supposed to be an ordinary traveller in an ordinary 2nd class coach that will be as think it coincidental but the only other occupants of the 955 today seem to be Orthodox rabbis Tuesday May the 13th grow Mt work at 4 to the silence of the countryside for a moment or 2 lying there in the predawn I was seized with a crisis of confidence I'm not a documentary presenter I've no special knowledge or authority to talk about railways or even a special skill in getting people to talk and been chosen mainly because of what I've done in the past which is make me into a reasonably well known t.v. Figure but more precisely I've been chosen because Ken Stevenson the producer senses in my personality something which the viewer will like and identify with and to be everyone's friend the travel of the millions happy to travel with Saturday May the 17th. Up and across the central highlands supposedly delightfully informal spontaneous shots of me reading except. Inverness full of yobbos drunks and ladies with twin sets and pearls doing their Saturday shopping a make for the castle but in front of it are 3 fairly incapable teenage Scots one turns and spits long and high into the air to astonish Torah another runs forward tries to catch the spit in his own mouth and fails so begins the memorable nightmare of the journey to Carlisle Ken's idea is to fill the special coach with travelers who might casually chat to one of whom is a Mrs Mackenzie a 99 year old who I'm told remembers the railway on the day it opened in 1906 she's a wonderful bright old lady but not soft of hearing a my 1st question is received with the stony silence I try to get on and then again even louder I persevere trying everything but end up with very little for a lot of work leaves me exhausted I'm still in admiration of Mrs Mackenzie Wednesday July the 2nd to a python meeting John Cleese arrives he's growing his Shakespearean beard back again he claims it went down very well with the ladies and shaving it off only revealed what a tiny mouthy ass I devised John to have his mouth widened I ask who wants to write the new Python film this month John does not want to face the slog of 95 writing I have the increasing feeling that we're going through another period when individual pythons want to stretch their legs Terry Gilliam led the field with Time Bandits I've done Ripping Yarns in the railway documentaries I'm not too worried about proving myself Wednesday July the 9th. To Gospel Oak school for the infant concert Rachael is a sheep she wears a white t. Shirt petticoat and a cardboard mask which makes it difficult for her to see the sheet bang into each other Rachel's class is less imaginative than the others but a rather morose teacher did wear black fishnet tights Thursday July the 24th news that Peter Sellers died last night the not a sudden unexpected as the news seen in a French paper on holiday 977 that Elvis a more to affected me in the same way sound as a Milligan were to the humor of my prey in teenage days as Elvis was to the music Saturday September the 6th so full of the joys of spring today the director George Harrison and invite myself over for the afternoon George's mending an electric hedge cutter which cut through its own flex as George tinkers in homely fashion with his garden equipment was an electrical apprentice issue and me for 3 weeks. The boys Tom and Willie and I swam in the buff in a swimming pool surrounded by lifelike models of monks and nuns. But it sounds like Paris was actually living in a multi-part and sketch of it all these people floating it is yes they have this extraordinary mansion built in about 1900 by a lawyer called Crispin somewhere that he is a in it's a wonderful extravagant gothic palace but with lots of little jokes about religious figures so all the light switches have got monks noses you know that sort of thing and Georgia put in a lot of Indian and sort of sayings and all that mantras and he looked after the place just brilliant he was huge and very very silly house in a way and in the garden they brought the matter home this guy just basically like to broadly built Siddiqa a matter home there and that takes some looking after you know. The mass on cleaned every couple of years and so we're going to plaster nor. The tunnels underneath the house are so based on the odds of Capri and the blue coming under they go through in a boat and all that but it takes some like georgann and the Libya his wife to to bring a place to life are the most about people who've just closed it down and given it to Butlins or something like that but George George cared for that house and it's still the still beautiful and well looked after by Libya so we've been George that time but after the 1980s were a very busy decade for you films included Time Bandits the missionaries the meaning of life a private function Brazil and a Fish Called Wanda just one that people say they don't like watching them selves on film do you watch soap on screen very very critically. You know biting my lips I watch it because here I think when you 1st made the film amuse yourself in the rushes a bit but when the assembly come. Together it's a it's a very sort of powerful moment this is it you know how are you going to look in the story what do you really look like it's not a question of all as outtakes everything's been put together this is what's going to be presented to the public and I don't I'm just very critical I think I found Yes I could that slightly better why I moved a bit differently than oh oh whatever but as the years go by I become That's critical but it is rather nice relief really and I can now you know watch eating things that holy grail Python films things I've been in Brazil Time Bandits in a much more relaxed fashion and you realize that when you 1st see it all you're looking at is you you know 100 people on screen lot of things going on be a looking at yourself in the corner there and over the years he realize you're just part of the film and you can just enjoy the film and not be fixated on whether you've. Got was wrong or whether you sort of your eyes you know you keep shutting your eyes oddly or I have your mouth open a member I'm going to be an American friends and just in poll the director said to me any one thing they think a jolly good should keep your mouth closed. Which is not the sort of thing when you're the main character but there was a certain moment I used to like that you know that's me only my mouth half of the gormless Russian and that I can think anyone wanted to pay him see that which of course they didn't. Care to be certainly paid to joy it was part of officially one of the you mentioned earlier your father had a stutter and of course can start as furiously down throughout the film but they don't you get over the charity's supporting stammering children Elizabeth about it . Well the film is very successful and seen all over the world and because John and asked me to play can pile because he wanted to have a stammer in this this wonderful heist movie so the person who has the vital information in the end has a stammer which is a very funny idea. I want to do it I want to do it properly and how did your father stammer and all that so I'd agreed to do it and then afterwards there's quite a bit of opposition from people saying oh shit you should have done that samurai should have been in the film despite the fact that of all the very nasty characters a Fish Called Wanda he's probably the nicest and he does get to kill his tormentor in warm cement but crushing with a steamroller Yeah so there's a lot going for stammers really. Tell you it was controversial and a man came to me. Of a man called Travis Reed who had a slight stammer him self and he said look I'm trying to get some support for a center for being with therapy for stammering in childhood so the 1st member chance starts to form words that's when a stammer can be become entrenched and that we have this new therapy we'd like to practice that nice said well yeah I'd love to help out because I thought of my father had sort of therapy like that when he was a young boy and his life might have been very very differently been less content crossed less grumpy and less frustrated by you know not being able to stand up at board meetings and say what he want to say or all or not tell jokes of things like that so I said Ok I'm in and it's the only thing I've ever given my name to it's called the Michael pain center for standing in children which is quite a lot if you don't have a sitter. And their house or diesel really it has been. It's the thing I'm most proud of we started with one therapist and now got 30 therapies it's a Center of Excellence and I just I go down there occasionally and I see the children and more particularly the parents relax an environment where they can sort of be. Most other stammers and suddenly you find a lot of the soul frustration dissolves a lot of the tension relaxes the characters come out you know the wonderful wonderful stories to tell very funny people and the parents are so moved delighted by the fact that their children learnt a strategy to avoid the stammering and boy this sort of ostracism they find it school and so it's a good thing a very good thing to have done the have to thank John for that really for casting me in the 1st place and writing the film in the 1st place another story now this is from your partner in crime Terry Jones he's talking on the radio series kaleidoscope in 1991 this is about your early days of working and writing together and the struggles of finding a punchline for a sketch called and it was about 2 people meeting at a party I think it was Ronnie Corbett and John Cleese and back and party put down and John was playing as a supercilious chap has just come back from reporting the Vietnam War something and he was being kidnapped by said Miss incredible life kidnapped by Russian spies and anything and everything that ever the amazing adventure he'd tell in this party Ronnie Corbett character was in a lot be interesting because in Hendon we have. You know that we don't raise man eating cactus is come across so if I recall it was terribly interesting because they have a disparate. Hand in public life to be sure to come along and when we go away we couldn't finish the sketch we just just didn't and you know and we've been there all day and so what we do in desperation those days we said I said well look might you go to loud. Back so we're not a laboratory and I just sort of realized that only got like 5 minutes at the most of the rights of this so I just started scribbling I just. Had by head so is he junkie shows a. Piece of cloth that says a prayer shawl is given to me by the daughter of the. Tribal chief and she crept into my tent at dead of night and had black hair spilling out all over her breast and I got to say Beautiful and. I just wrote all of this very interesting. And I gave my coming back so i just how really wrote she came from and. The way out . Because if I could I realize it was actually. I didn't know. This but you have bowel movements and probably right. Great to hear Terry talking of the yeah you know part of the way back but he's not not so well now you know Terri is not so well. Unfortunately your form of dementia which affects powers of speech and communication which is ironic really for someone who who just loved ideas and debate jokes and or reading or writing and he can do none of those now which is. A very very sad thing to see but I do see him still and he's kind of looks pretty hearty and walks a long way did he keep up with him but he's is. Actually spirits there but it's hard to find out exactly what's going on when someone can't communicate you don't know so I just talk to him as if we where mystical talking about things and all that and something we're going somewhere. I know you yourself you've. Already for other people show isn't a python for stuff with Terry you were just doing together screenplays novels you've written children's books I mean do you still have a passion for writing oh yeah I love writing you know yeah I mean I like acting as well and that like most things really. Here there is a tough love of the coffee having lunch going on holiday is trying to get them all together so you can get a balance really but I'm most curious because I think writing is something which you can explore all sorts of different areas and comedy writing for a long long time which is you know is it the sort of discipline you would have a shakedown that you could have the jokes the laughter the but then you know beyond that I'm interested in survive I've written a couple of novels just because I wanted to see if it was just me and and my imagination what will come out of it and what I can make of that and writing is just something that I think you get better at all the times you get more experienced and force you never get it right the right thing and it is ever the perfect book but you can express yourself Betty of feel less restricted sometimes more open if you try writing lots of different things so you know I'm all for writing in every kind of different shape and form I can really in don't you know if you were and you were on Radio 5 years it was called then talking to Johnny Walker about a film you'd written the screenplay for and starred in called American friends directed by by Tristram Powell which was the story inspired by the diaries of your great grandfather This is from March of that year a remote cousin of ours who was clearing out her attic I think said look there's another you do with me that pale in documents I think you're the only sort of pale in mail around you stick them in your attic let them clutter up your attic so that's how I got hold of them all. Rather my family did and for a while didn't really look at them a lot of the documents I got were fairly boring and then suddenly found this very slim diary and the something about a diary which is fascinating because life as it was actually happening you know day to day wasn't him looking back this was actually him writing about what happened to him on that August day 961 when he 1st set eyes on on this 17 year old who is to be my great grandmother Well it's a little bit of the atmosphere of the film you're playing your great grandfather Ashby who's on this mountain walk in Switzerland where he meets and chance to miss Elena. You know the guy just such a disgrace a pale people who know nothing and. You seem very familiar with. The preparation no great secret. That takes us back I guess but by a different route. Should have a splendid view of the valley one of the finest in God's creation. I mean that. The birth of a divine hand in all of this. Shortly after I fall down the mountainside. I was going to say you see and I mean we haven't we can see the pictures there and hearing the voice one sort of expect you any moment to go into a Python sketch Yes You know this is this is part of the problem it is so have cheese or a parrot or something that I was sorry for the continuity announcer after Monty Python you know that everything that followed Python seemed like a continuation of Monty Python Yeah something not real after it now I remember once we ended the show we're playing a pair of judges Eric and I have a camp judges like that disrobing in the colt and he said By the end of the program to be one of those nice continuity boys now with a hat that the. I hope it is so when you get the poor continuity of a. Roll up so we have time for ball drop because I'm for. It was very little talk about your great grandfather Stars Are you still keeping us yes I still slog in there every morning sign in right at him well not every morning but I try and keep a record of the day I mean once you've done it for I've started 969 before Python just can't really stop because I don't know why I just guessed it sits the lobby the story ending you know somehow and there's a kind of narrative to it I kind of think as I'm writing it of a sort of narrative of my life and then it sounds rather vain but it looks really good all the good and the bad things in there and I often use it look back on it in fact became rather useful recently when there's a python court case with a producer who'd claimed you had money bias and all that so no one knew what had happened at all in this particular day 100. 73 when he made summary but my Doris was there the day and so in the end I had to repulse my diary in court which is you know what is very difficult in court you're right and you read a little joke and there's. A few people to the back of a. Whole series would you mind. Mr Page It may seem funny to you. Know didn't seem funny to me at all you have to go through all that but it's great actually I now can look back and your mind it reminds you of things about yourself you think oh my gosh you know that was you know it was terribly easy gun that was found there enjoyed doing that you looked at $905.00 days anxiety learning lines before and or something like that all then the you you know that the train strike and you didn't get up to the studio in time quite forgotten all that got good to mind. Yourself in the mess you carry you to make to be alive this is b.b.c. Radio 4 extra And I just received this tweet. Inside an Indonesian talent. Navigates through the darkness by listening for the echoes produced from pulses of sounds that emit. This is a black mask which. Landed on the cave where it begins work on one of the most expensive I'm sort of the items connected with any bird its nest. This with that tiny boat shaped nest is highly prized as a main ingredient of the bird's nest soup and is built by the male from strands of his saliva which hardened into a substance which also anchors the nest to the to genus walls. Flatness with clips of so cold because they add dark colored feathers to their saliva which are then incorporated into their nests these nests fuel expensive appetites. Key level nests known as caviar of the East conflict $2500.00 u.s. Dollars and worldwide the industry is worth some $5000000000.00 u.s. Dollars a year today in many places in Southeast Asia are typical concrete apartment blocks act authority at home as for the blackness with that the birds and the audience by recordings of their cold months they began nesting and buildings are guarded as if they contained gold believe. This is b.b.c. Radio 4 extra with me Joe McCarthy journeying through Michael pagans radio adventures and I've just received this mass of from the Swedish prime minister. And next we travel the world with Michael. This is b.b.c. Radio 4 extra with me Joe McCarthy journeying through Michael Pollan's radio adventures. You know actually if you demonstrated your passion for travel episode of the t.v. Series the great railway journeys and we're turning our attention now to 989 and your b.b.c. T.v. Series around the world in 80 days it's where you attempt to cover the exploits of fictional character failure spoke or tried to travel around the world without flying in 80 days when you return John Don on Radio 2 asked you what was the most uncomfortable part of the journey crossing the Persian Gulf on and Dow which was most of your listeners will probably know has an open boat built on the same sort of lines it's been built for 400 years just sells across the Persian Gulf to India and they're sailing boats they have a small engine and we got on that and we had to sleep on the date sacks or to start sex stuff you're not so tall as whatever they were carrying I mean we slept on top of the deck under the stars and for the 1st 3 or 4 nights it was absolutely wonderful it was just beautiful in Delhi you know sort of going on where I was in boarding everybody about how wonderful this was and how totally happy I was and this is how I want to live my life then I got all got sake of to about 4 nights and it's just not the place to be here I mean there were a broad really is the place to be all you want to be at home when you're ill but I just had about 24 hours of acute pain and discomfort there's just nowhere to go nowhere to escape and I think they then lose on the boat or go quite public like everything else and they just barrel slung over the. Slung over the bars on either side and if you get caught in the middle of the night you'll find that most of the crew are awake so when you rise from your bed to go discretely off to the loo there will be there for you know the Indian crew 18 of them very nice people lovely. And they called me my gal you know Michael Jackson is to call me I can get rather than pain and Michael Jackson they Michael Jackson are you sure that they were not too well actually you know very British just going along and of course you know these things never happen was it when you get up in the middle that's always 3 to. Was not once in the 3rd time I got this server joy to see me and that was when I was really in extremis they said we have some curry Michael your 1st priority was a party with us and I think that was probably the one of the Glover of t.v. Thinking that worked well you know about that but just about is how your family is feel useful Julie actually did we got back in the end I mean 79 days and 7000 on the very last day that we arrived at Felixstowe and coming coming back to some places have been destroyed. Everything went wrong we got 3 men and what they said 1st of all is Michael look into someone's going to pick you up at Felixstowe one of the drivers of the delivering a container and several chaps while he takes you to the station at Felixstowe and Ipswich that's going to do it anyway we get in the man and. Terminally taciturn people I've ever met so then that's how. Who've Yeah well. Who I. Know I've done I've just been around the world is coming to. Just come from Bletchley or tell you traffic. Both sides of the 400 absolutely jammed Ok yeah and so this terribly well and then we got on the train and it was the train from 6 to London and it was lunch time said what I'm going to do to celebrate being home or going to have the full lunch in English in English dining car what better fun can you have than that and so I said the waiter Yes we're going to have everything please and. It's been that the problem. The chefs not got on the train. I can do your tea. So what afternoon tea Yeah I do the afternoon. Course it's one. Is all I can do so we end up having afternoon tea and then we get on to the underground system and the film all the way and we're going to Oxford Circus and halfway through we get one of the stations and suddenly there's an urn now it's meant there's a bag been found on the station by revitalization do not a life on this day do not a life on this train stay on the train on the door shut me went off and but ours are absolutely shattered and then we get to Oxford Circus and I want to see one of the papers just to the director says just to establish the date is the right date and the paper sellers or go I go wherever you go you know what you want to read cameras go away. When we go down Regent Street we go into a bank the director has a good idea it's a bill just going to we're going to some place of repute where they can tell you exactly what the date is so the b. Note see there's no cheating so we go into a branch of some bank in Regent Street and said Would you mind please if you could you just tell me what the date is and looks. Very very you know kind of. Very nervously I said No just tell me what the data is because I've just been reading around the world that you can measure us and we know what the date is nice and long on poor unsaid. Well after I asked my manager I think England's you know what more can you do to beat Of course the final thing they did was we got down Regent Street we go to the Reform Club where we started which is the the whole story is based on coming back going to vote I'm leader from club we've got to Reform Club and said Can we just fill Michael going in know. What's going on here we've got a function on. So we'd be ended up filming on the steps there and it was it was completely shattering really I mean extraordinary thought we got it as well I want to go around the world again but stop in Hong Kong this time. You would also be good company worker and you are a very pleasant man and you come across as very pleasant guy abroad when you're on your travels I mean when you think of Jeremy Clarkson when he travels to places. Where he's only where there's normally a diplomatic incident but that's never happened to you. Been a few incidents but not usually I find getting on with people is slightly more productive the not getting on with but some people oh no names mentioned do enjoy not getting on with people that's their thing. Then you get much from people then I like to I like to extract a story a lot to get something out of people there and what I realized early on was that some of the interviews I was supposed to do were sort of set up with politicians on the head of the tourist board somehow I never worked I just couldn't I couldn't sort of summon up any interest really and politicians were always late anyway so it's just nice to talk to people as he met them someone someone in the lawn or someone sort of serving the food chat to them that seemed to be a way in which I could make some contact with people whose language I didn't always understand and you make mistakes and if you can seem a complete idiot half the time but it's. You know it's that's that's the way to do it and by being nice to people I think are not nice to be bad just by listening to be. People which are very very important you will get something out from them didn't always work and there's a. Hotel outside the hotel in India and he has sort of chatted waved to me and said someone here we can chat so the camera store set up me started walking and he said so you where you're from. So I said I'm from England what you want. What you want when you're looking I know you're going point donkey donkey. I don't want to thank you thank you for answers a little advice conversation there were 3 fourths of the camera crew that salute you for going about. About. The present and well just get on you know you do it yourself very well I mean you get more out of people that way you want to get their stories will be interested my story. Made the program work well it's when you've got somebody there telling you what it was like to be living on the street you know. Or some sort of you know disco in Hong Kong wherever you happen to be whatever's going on let them tell their story this is b.b.c. Radio 4 extra with me John McCarthy journeying through Michael Kay Lynn's radio adventures and I've just received another tweet. The windswept flanks of a snowcapped mountains in New Zealand South Island another place where you'd expect to find a power at least of all a carnivorous one with a partial for rubber but this is the home of the here. He is a curious birds and the world's only Alpine part drab greenish brown their beaks have a slender curved upper mandible which along with their inquisitive nature from parents and people into conflict. When they complain as eat fruits and berries but also especially in winter. They descend from the highest lobes and scavenge on animal carcasses and rubbish dumps cracking the bones of the shark beaks to reach them. They will even attack live sheep stripping the fat from their backs and damaging vital organs although this habit is rare now understood to be largely restricted to injured sheep it led to widespread persecution of the birds. To day cares are legally protected in their mountain homes the parents survived to entertain and exasperate tourists as they clamber over cars stripped rubber seals from wind screens and relief workers it's Curious birds indeed. No 25 years ago you featured in an interview that made because that week in 1902 you helped finance a short film about a character Benjamin Huntsman who worked in Yorkshire and experimented in steel manufactured in the 18th century Richard Rudin's off a new show on b.b.c. Radio Sheffield contacted you live by phone to discuss the film's premiere you were sent to a taxi home surely someone should have been trying to switch it off I think it's a difficult thing to put across in a sort of heroic way. And I think you know you can't just say oh they you know they did this or that process how to pour steel or spout at this particular temperature but I think it is something that would help certainly the tourist industry. Well. That's right moment it says John he's a generous boy. All right we know that and act Thank you yeah I think it's my car in front of. You here actually right you're broadcasting live all right as happened at the moment though you may not have thought they were. Down at the yeah what do you. Want to be Benjamin Holmes when the film. Michael. Now is not before you. Go do you stunt of this haven't you done this deliberately I'm. Going to do a job. You know more than is a very good actor was on me and he didn't line up and anyone who wanted to get a copy of this film got in touch with the screenplay because it's a very good film it lasts about 23 minutes especially made with children education in mind and also many cab companies so. Screenplay and speak to Luke or Steve so that might. Help I think I think we've progressed very manfully during this interview and I thank you for I think just like any other by them I mean this is quite normal behavior this. Down the fibro I can't tell you because it's. I can tell you it's a film I don't want to. Say this is the most enjoyable going to do I've done in many many years it was really good it was. Never let me off about a split program we'll see or hear what else we've got I can cope up collapse completely Michael thank you very much a corpse Oh yeah I've got an old time thank you very much deeper joining is a pleasure I'm going to come again I might see it's an comin to black tie did you brought your black tie down the slippery road I. I can remember that story Sheffield really you know no one else who said oh I'm sorry sorry about that I'll bring back they can but they went on and on in their brain I like going back there because they keep me down to earth I remember. Recently I was up there and I was going down from the library begin to talk to the station and I got one of those sort of colorless shirts you know and I said some now as I went across the road to books and one such as well as you are a back I. Have never worn that shirt ever again. Certainly not trivial No Absolutely we're talking about your very own home and then you are from your travels again you know not by taxi in the early ninety's this time for the 8 point to the mission documentary series pole to pole this is what you had to say about it in 2 separate b.b.c. Radio interviews with Johnny Walker and. You quoted as saying the sort of feeling that you had in Africa was that you shouldn't really have been there what did you mean by that it was just this all sort of dislocation you go around the world with you and set of prejudices reality and you know and culture and. I think that's what makes you feel. Reassured and at home when you come to a hotel that's run on western lines you go to a country like Kenya or someone like that is vaguely Western but there are other parts of Africa where you do feel an interloper somehow Western culture and all that seems quite immaterial has made very little impact. And I think good times then when I felt maybe in the Sudan or Tanzania that perhaps we were sort of getting in the way you know life was going on they were coping with their life there we came with our jolly cameras and all that and for a moment I did I think it was just. It was a feeling of disorientation a feeling that I was a long way away from from. Everything that made up my life and the parameters of my life and it's not a bad thing to go through that and I think it's a very good thing because it makes you realize how little in the end you you need to survive. Mad a pole to pole screaming all the Pythons came along to have a look and you know be rude about it or whatever they like it. Think so also very polite so they day they generally did those are very funny very funny moment because at the beginning of the episode you may remember I do I stand on the North Pole and I say we could go anywhere from here but you can you know I said and I point out my right shoulder and I say you know if you go down there could go south by Japan if I go down there I could go south Vire India but we've chosen the route down there 30 years east through Russia in Africa John Cleese just lets out a barely audible Oh dear. Yes you don't get much respect for your fellow bridegrooms I tell you when you do beware. Later adventurers who b.b.c. T.v. You went on to travel full circle business at the Himalayas and worked on b.b.c. Radio 4 excess baggage where you explored the 2 cities mentioned by Churchill into slightly 46 speech about the Iron Curtain tree a suggestion let's hear a clip of that program now trist seems to have so many different identities it doesn't surprise me the city has long been a haven for exactly as many of the writers. James Joyce lived here for 11 years of his arrival in 1000 who for many of his unforgettable portraits of Dublin ranch he conceived and written interest present day Ari shags one who came here for not altogether reasons but offered to introduce me to the city he too is writing his name is Jim Crow but the 1st thing I should say is Happily I didn't come here because James Joyce I think I would be very sad if I had probably been here just as a as a Joyce groupie as I'm going to ask but I didn't meet the reason for coming here as the James Joyce summer school in Dublin rising up who was a student from Korea to come to Dublin to study Joyce but that's. Not fair but I found the stuff when they came here to be with her it's got married I just did it was pure chance that brought Joyce to tree asked and in the 1st instance Joyce wanted to go somewhere to live in Oregon it was because. They simply couldn't have lived in Ca and was it worth the time in Dublin together aged $22.00 herself just 20 because I was married they could have got married but he rejected marriage is of course nonsense about the young stage of his life and I just thought that the quite keen on Joy surrounded this this building here where we are now the boss on this magnificent classical portico we call him the soaring above us this is has a James Joyce sign but he's Joyce's revered interest partly because he spent 11 years of his life here he arrived in the city as an unknown with aspirations to create the uncreated conscience of his race but I mean they were fine words to test and businessmen who basically want to do their version English so in his early years here in the drug most of his time here he simply worked as an English teacher and was known as such he seemed such a multilingual city I'm out I've not seen a lot of it so far but I've seen various shops selling things most sorts of different countries all sorts of different European instances so the must be many languages spoken here that. Joyce certainly dressed was. Certainly at the center of the Austrian Darien Empire it was the main the only big force that they had and still in the city there were big English population is a much bigger something they should know large colleagues Yeah a lot of South and the miracle of the us was that all of these people believe that side by side I mean that the farming has all of these different cultures together with the local dialects which is 3 esteemed addressed on diets that tell Vitale and it's almost a lazy version of a tab bus when spoken by the Ts tines it takes on almost a poetic level when it has tines try to speak in Italian they're boring because they don't have the mastery of the language their 1st tone is past time when they tell stories it's interesting which amazingly was able to absorb words from the different languages that are there for example from English there are several words interest on one of them they've got 2 of the sailors which if you go to the Tristan dictionary you find the entry on the beach which comes of course you son of a bitch. And they use it so well words yeah they use it it's one word. And then they use it to describe people they don't like playing on some of them and I wonder why they call me that in the café last night now I realise. How different Did you fall into travel programs for radio Well it was actually more in a way a more concentrated process and far as I was concerned if you didn't have the camera man there to spend a couple of hours just picking off wonderful shots of what have a market so people you know landscape whatever which is always in which to programming one for making to defend job on all my travel shows and I could just leave him to do that that was part of the mix doing radio eats you've got to be all carrying the whole thing or you're out of there the whole time so you've got to concentrate what or so be able to convey where you are. And what you're feeling without somebody seeing where you are what you're feeling that's good then mine is to challenge and if you're not very carefully do tend to come up with one cliche after another just because you have to say similar things so many times what is going as you say without the fear Yes yes the blazing sun thinking many the run whereas before you see the thumb in their eyes nervous a song going down there on the rise which is not terribly interesting. But then by the same take new getting to interview slightly more easily you didn't have to have the set up the lights very often although I mean now that's very different I must say you don't have to travel with heavy lighting and all where people shoot almost in the dark and you can see it but I did find that on radio yes you could move more quickly into an interview to talking to somebody and of course you know you could do it and then you could do it again quite quickly if you wanted to but it isn't there never yes there it was your yes yes that's right yeah but it's making it sort of exciting the same time. You got to be able to sort of put across atmosphere which is normally put across by somebody else another documentary made for radio for what the trouble is that I was in 1994 if Don't Fence Me. In exploring the history of and attitudes towards mental illness what do you recall about that project how did that come about my sister suffered from depression to Karen life and I mean I've written that in the diaries because I thought I didn't want to not to be talked about and I think it must of there must have been something on the back of that we'll hear a clip from it don't answer me we can see that there is a perceived gulf between those of us who think we're Ok and those we regard as different but everything's relative according to psychologist Thomas Sands if you talk to guide you are praying if God talks to me I have schizophrenia if the dead talk to you you are a spiritualist if they talk to me I'm schizophrenia one of the clichés about schizophrenia for instance is that the recipient thinks that they're God and you get into a conflict with the psychologist because the psychologist is convinced that he's God you know and so thing is that the psychiatry has got the power so the psychologist can keep his delusion back hours get you know there's an attempt to eradicate them with chemicals which make one very confused indeed. And verily it came to pass that those who transgress their perceptible norms of behavior and did behave oddly were banished. And it was henceforth decreed that this time should be known as the great fine meant. Our man. Prince Meehan was produced by Claire McGinn the program was made over 20 years ago do you think we've learned much more in the intervening couple of decades about about mental illness I think we probably have certainly discussed it much national attorney general can be given an award and bit Bafta in Wales for a lifetime achievement award and was after his illness had been diagnosed b. Hadn't gone public for a year and he decided with with my talk and talk to his family that he it was time they should say what he what he had what the diagnosis was and this came out that was come in trust in the papers and then I kind of felt before I was I was going to presenting this award I want to just put something on my Facebook page about it how I just very very short bit about what I felt was an be about short paragraph about how I felt about my friend Terry and now and strode in response I mean millions and millions of hits from all around the world and nearly all of them you know talking about their own experience the experience of their families the experience of people they know and friends. And so you felt of this an enormous appetite that talk about it to share information to learn more about it and it's a bit like stammering own when you talk about it more you can actually address the situation the better it is for everybody the people loose and now people find some sort of comfort from talking to others who've been in similar situation and so I think the more you know and the more you can interact with other people the better I think social network has really helped in that particular And that particular way and now you can talk about it and I can talk about it openly and Terri's family felt it was much easier and people have been really really good about it and concerned me interested and support it. Let's hear more from that program. Watch out there's a nimby about not in my backyard thank you very much Rebekah by Norm works for the mental aftercare Association and spends a lot of her time irritating NIMBYs by setting up mental health projects in their backyards So who are the NIMBYs could they be the overall teen years who grew up I think the people who get involved in the campaigns are often people who understand about the mechanisms of influence and often they're people who dined with politicians who know who their local council is on 1st name terms who know about planning regulation and so know about the infrastructures of how to protest and that's fair enough but our concern is that perhaps they also could be more liberal sometimes there is a narrative what's expected behavior and I think very often the concerns that people mental health need is about conformity the survey doesn't surprise you but of course I'm very disturbed that those perceptions are so widely held the facts are very different the fact that the vast majority of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have lived in the community all through history in the 45 projects that our charity runs not a single project has ongoing problems people mental problems all the same things that we all want they want to live an ordinary life this is Michael Pollan's radio adventures and coming up we invite special guests to ask Michael a question. This is b.b.c. Radio 4 extra with Michael Palin John McAfee. I've been lucky guy sitting here with all of your audience asking you all the questions I'm going to allow somebody else or one or 2 others to ask us and we will meet a few members of the audience 1st up a certain veteran comedian and friend of yours Mary Crock I believe you have a question oh no as. As Michael got a memory of. Superman falling off stools. Here. Have you got a memory of it yes. We have both do not did I know I went to night has been around the most bizarre little. Parts of my mind Curie carry it was it was a thing called late night lineup which is a very serious wasn't it Radia b.b.c. 2 programme Yes with Jim a call and then these 2 mean people who are very very serious and for some reason they decided on Friday night late lineup review and have some comic elements and you and I and the Geico robot here some are involved in doing a comedy that's no audience that this is a late night sorbet serious cultural program and we did that sketch about people being trained how to be Superman and there was some sort of church all the chairs just jumping off chads how to look as though you're flying through the air well it was it was disastrous wasn't that Dennis Potter but right after this in the studio and they showed us doing the makeup by the studio that has problems that you brought me all the way up from Gloucestershire to what's this Robert show which was badly Yes I thought you'd have a wall memory of a so I have a warm damp memory of p s one there's awful moments of sort of we what she did we watch it together I'm not we must have sort of lipstick together and thinking oh now you know what I'm dreadful low we've reached but still Joan Bakewell still remembers it which is alarming. Yeah she remembers everything. That was I spoke to recently and she did a talk together and she remembered that and cheap but she remembered it as being very much a part of my comedy career and you know under experience in learning about comedy being able to develop new comedy and be able to experience new different ways of making people laugh but it was just 2 blocks from the church all jumping off to. Superman 39000 in retrospect it becomes part of a sort of great comic tradition but others should leave it at that they're. Moving rapidly on we will move rapidly on through John Waite veteran b.b.c. Radio presenter Well I came across Michael back in the 1970 s. When I was presenting in those days it local radio presenter the morning show b.b.c. Radio London but the love of my life is my book program and that's you came in to talk about one of your blockbuster books but I thought well we can't just have Michael Page in the great Michael Page in talking about it but we must be sure on the morning show which I did and so April 1st was coming along and I thought oh let's get Michael involved in April fool and I sprang this on you I said to you Look I am going to interview you to stand up the stunt we're going thought of for April fool and I thought of a couple of ideas but the one I decided to go with was there that London Transport had decided to reopen one of its ghost tube stations which there are lots of course around London strand places like this and do it up as a museum of water tube station looks like so visits could go to it could see the turnstiles they could go down the escalators they could see choose groaning through that this was going to be a great tourist attraction for tourists who came to London they could actually go and see what it. Tube station looked like. A nice said so that's the idea I'm going to do it dead straight just like it's you know like it's probably new story could you comment on this you're this travel writer you've been around the world you know you see how and so you played this brilliantly dead straight like the old this is marvelous I've been all over the world nobody has got anything like this you know they didn't they might have chewed networks but they don't have to museums and you just played it so brilliantly deadpan that actually by the end of the interview and he was so enthusiastic This will be Marcus not just people from around the world be from Britain can come to London and go and see how much you station were in this museum that I began to believe this is not a bad idea. Anyway I would just say don't play poker with you you're obviously extremely good to give you straight votes Well thank you for the memory of that we obviously sort of excited people around the world come to London councillor on the holidays Bali or maybe that's go to London and see this wonderful new cube museum Well we should do that but that's that John thank you very much Well next we go to Peter car radio presenter produce and creator of radio fools punk band Michael just wondered if you don't eat particular memory funny or touching up involved me in some way. Well I don't remember touching. But I do remember being interviewed by you and your ways actually I hate to say this you were very well informed and rather wonderful and it sort of bring out or you knew you'd actually done a bit of research but also when I ran out of things to say which I frequently did you would actually know how to. Make you make it up somehow and sort of oh yes Terry Michael will think of something in a minute but it isn't now he's always we always got on had good good chance thank you for mustering the sincerity sense of yeah that was no. When you taught me. Full sincerity I did r.c.a. However the sort of survey probably question one of the illicit thrills of the 1970 s. Were Monty Python Lps. One of the thrilling things about them was that no one could hear them on the radio because they were too naughty or too surreal or to an arcade so there was a whole kind of trance of people going to fell in love I just wondered Could you give us a little sketch of Python in the studio with no visuals Well I mean the album's would would be there were actually great fun to do because we'd all get together and half the stuff was written but it was written time off it wasn't written and we could all do whatever virtually whatever we wanted and then we saw a vast amount of material which is must be gathering dust somewhere but I wrote a member wrote a song about Finland called Finland Finland Finland the country I quite want to be a mount as a lofty or treetop sort of bubble and and that was quite fun to do and just recently got quite a lot of mileage out of that because the Finns liked the song very much and it's this here was the 100th anniversary of the independence of Finland and they said would I come to Finland and sing it on the last night. A bit like Harry doing Always Look On The Bright Side lympics And I said No I don't care I really really can't do that I thought it must be jokey and then 6 months later that the they say would could you please just sing it just just do it on the phone just make a little video of you singing the song and or write that's one of those things you can say I'll do the other now or find I have to do it was the last day sometimes just rushing out so I put on a sort of d.j. In a black tie and kicked my iphone on and put it on and sang in my room at home. In them the contract I want to be getting the word cite Iran but I got. Through it quickly and sent it off and apply it absolutely ecstatic infant This is this is the greatest thing now I'm like I'm a parent in Finland like Norman Wisdom was in Albania but. Inexplicably popular in the culture you don't have very little about but if any Finns here I love you all. Without us to figure out where your friends will stick you we're going now to join Phillimore comedy writer and actor Yes I just want to ask Michael apart from Python and Ripping Yarns and the travel documentaries and your own films and books and novels and one performance is like I want to be in Brazil and g.b.h. And the stammering sent. What if you haven't done for us. With the banker but I did a play for you and I really enjoyed it so they were able to come up with. A file if you will come from Paul come between the full cost or God figure but counterpoint Michael in your diaries you wrote about the celebrity charity football match we played at Wembley in the 1970 s. This made me the 1st American to ever play at Wembley a completely undeserved honor since I'm not even a footballer and I'm wondering of all the honors and compliments you've ever received what was the least deserved. Well probably like you playing at Wembley I felt a total fraud but we did turn up didn't we and I'm a I'm glad you.

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