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No offence to my wife and children, but today was by far the greatest and happiest day of my life: I got to chat to Michael Palin for two hours (including back stage).
I had been nervous about it all, of course. What if I was unable to speak or cried or just said something stupid that made him punch me in the face and storm off? Obviously I was going to say something stupid at some point, but I hoped I could weather the storm.
I worried slightly that unbeknownst to me I had a fatal illness and my family had arranged this for me via some Make A Wish style foundation. But to be honest, it was worth it. This is the person that I most wanted to have on the podcast.
And Sir Michael was everything that I could have hoped for, and more. He was funny and amicable and I was immediately at ease backstage. Perhaps I had enough to worry about - I had two podcasts to get done and I was pretty exhausted already - but the easy charm of the nicest man in the world got us through (make your own switcheroo joke where it turns out that man is me, if you wish).
The backstage interview was excellent and Michael even improvised a possible new scene for Life of Brian involving King Herod, so you might want to become a badger if you want to see that.
I think Michael had a good time (but then Richard E Grant seemed to too, so you never know) and I managed to keep things on an even keel, apart from when I made him talk about one of his major career disappointments, which he did quite cheerfully. I was, of course, in awe and nowhere near as irreverent as usual. In hindsight I wish I’d done some more emergency questions cos it was lovely to watch him riff, but I had so much to get through and wanted to cover as much ground as possible.
I got to thank him for the influence he has had over my life and I hope managed to compliment him without being obsequious. What an absolute privilege this was. You can find out what he thought about Sliding Doors, whether I’d get to do a sketch with him and how his mum ended up on Saturday Night Live at the end of April or maybe early May.
My other guest Aisling Bea had had some quite serious dentistry today and had the difficult task of following the greatest guest of all time. But she did a fabulous job. In spite of her many recent successes she is very down to earth and self-effacing, but we had some proper fun too, mostly over her seemingly not understanding the celebrity in a lift question.
Weirdly it felt like an age since I’d last done a RHLSTP (it’s three months, which I suppose is a long hiatus, given I did 100 podcasts last year), but I more or less remembered how to do it. The night passed in a bit of a blur and I was properly tired by the end of it. I can’t remember much about the drive home, but I made it somehow.
He is my comedy hero - only Rik Mayall could come anywhere near him for me and I messed up when I had the chance to thank him- and it was not only great to meet him and joke with him and try not to interrupt him too much, but also to tell him how much he meant to me. And I feel the audience did the same. Thanks for being there if you came. But thanks also to Michael. He absolutely doesn’t have to do things like this and it’s incredibly generous of him to give us his time. True of all the guests. But you know, come on.
We will have to wait to find out if I make it into his diary. But he has made it into mine. I am sure he is thrilled.
