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Michael Palin
Photo © Basil Pao
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Michael Palin was born May 5, 1943 in Broomhill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. While attending the university and after, he was invited to do some writing for various BBC programs including The Frost Reports. It was during that time that he met the future members of the Monty Python series. (If you happen to be a Python fan, you will recognize its signature music The Liberty Bell, composed by C. John Philip Sousa.) Michael Palin had many accomplishments as a writer, as an actor, and as a TV commentator, bringing the world into our living rooms.
His first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which – humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting – he traveled throughout the UK by train, from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Inverness.
In 1989,Michael started to appear as a presenter in a series of travel programs made for the BBC. These programs have been broadcast around the world. Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 days (following the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft); Pole to Pole (traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible); Full Circle (he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean counter-clockwise);Himalaya (he traveled throughout the Himalaya region) to name a few.
Peter Hillary, our 2006 recipient, wrote:
“…I admire Michael immensely for his work as an actor and his fabulous humor and also for his extensive geographical travels and how they have inspired so many people. I met Michael in 1991 in Punta Arenas, and we flew together on an old DC6 down to the Patriot Hills at 80 South on the Polar Plateau of Antarctica. He flew to the South Pole and I went to Mt. Vinson…"
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