The BBC should still be making travel shows: Michael Palin launches his new Philippines adventure with dig at former bosses

Sir Michael Palin, the irrepressible travel presenter and actor, is the last person you’d expect to enthuse about living in a care home, but he reveals that he loved trying one out. 

‘I’m the only person in the country who’s been in a care home and been paid for it,’ he laughs.

The former Monty Pyton star, 83, was filmed in a real care home for Mackenzie Crook’s sitcom Small Prophets, which ran on BBC1 earlier this year. 

‘Many of the residents were in better shape than me! I think they were disappointed that the director only wanted them to act being asleep. They had some tricky jigsaws they could have been doing. I’d be happy to go back there, even without a script.’

Sir Michael played a man who’s discovered a formula for growing tiny magical creatures called homunculi. ‘I didn’t quite understand the script,’ he admits. ‘But the writing was so good, and I like Mackenzie’s work, so I said yes.’

His latest travel series for Channel 5 finds him in the Philippines, a Far Eastern archipelago of more than 7,000 islands including some stunning beaches. But it wasn’t all paradise. 

‘Forty per cent of the population live in urban slums and a third of the country is on the British government’s “Do Not Travel” list because of the threat of terrorism,’ he says.

It’s 40 years since the overthrow of the Philippines’ corrupt president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, who was notorious for her huge collection of shoes. 

The country is now ruled by their son, Bongbong Marcos, whom Sir Michael meets at the opulent presidential palace. 

‘He went to school in the UK so he saw a lot of British comedy. He was more interested in the fish-slapping dance sketch in Python than tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea!’

Poverty is so entrenched in parts of the capital, Manila, that some people live on ‘pagpag’, which is meat and other scraps thrown away by restaurants and reheated on market stalls. 

‘What I’ve found is that wherever there’s poverty there’s inventiveness, not hopelessness,’ says Michael. ‘But that was the one thing in all my travels that I’ve never sampled.’

The presenter also declined to join in with a lively dance routine that inmates at a Philippines prison do every day. 

‘I don’t mind making a fool of myself but they were so good. The dancing is compulsory, but it means they can at least get out of their overcrowded cells for a while.’

Michael has been globetrotting across our screens for five decades, at first for the BBC. He made 1989’s Around The World In 80 Days, though he wasn’t their first choice as host. 

‘It was offered to Noel Edmonds, Alan Whicker, journalist Miles Kington and Clive James before me,’ he says. 

Shouldn’t the BBC still be making his travel shows? ‘It’s the sort of thing the BBC should be making,’ he agrees. 

‘It has a huge international following. In many parts of the world it’s regarded as the only broadcaster that tells the truth. 

I despair over BBC cuts, especially to the World Service. We have good journalists and presenters and we should be making the most of that.’

He admits that making travel shows takes it out of him. ‘The airports and plane journeys are the hardest thing. What’s keeping me going? Part of it is to be seen on TV: I’m an entertainer, after all. But as I get older, it’s more important than ever to keep doing something.’

To keep fit he does 15 minutes of stretching every day and Reformer Pilates resistance training. 

For 40 years he ran on London’s Hampstead Heath, close to his home, but he gave it up after heart surgery in 2019. 

‘I eat the right food. I drink more carefully. I listen to advice but I don’t let it spoil my enjoyment of life,’ he says.

Michael and his wife Helen were married for 57 years until her death in 2023. The couple had three children and four grandchildren. 

Has he found it harder to be at home since he lost Helen? ‘I must admit that time sometimes drags now. I drift a bit. I have to have some project on the go.’

Helen was diagnosed with kidney failure and had been in great pain, he says. ‘She didn’t want to become an invalid so she took the decision to stop dialysis.’ 

The experience has influenced his views on assisted dying. ‘There are a lot of people who find life intolerable: given all the associated safeguards, I’m in favour.’

There were reports earlier this year that he was reuniting with his Python co-stars John Cleese and Terry Gilliam. What can he say about this? ‘I’ve recently done a couple of evenings in conversation with John Bishop and John Lloyd, who made Blackadder and QI. They were very relaxed and enjoyable so perhaps we old Pythons will do something like that.’

So when will he finally call it a day as a TV presenter? ‘Well, David Attenborough’s still going and he’s even older than me! I feel very lucky to be doing what I’m doing. I have a great family. I’ve met some fascinating people. I’m an optimist. You have to be open, you have to say, “Tell me more!” rather than, “That’s enough, I don’t want to hear that!”’

Michael Palin In The Philippines, Monday, 9pm, Channel 5. The book of the same name is published on Thursday (Hutchinson Heinemann).