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Python, Heritage, and Michael Palin’s Diaries

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comedy ((PSCOM))

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Abstract

“Python, Heritage, and Michael Palin’s Diaries” by Peter Clandfield examines the three published volumes of Michael Palin’s diaries, which cover the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. The essay shows how Palin’s diary entries consistently place his activities within their contexts in a rapidly changing Britain, attending to prosaic matters such as politics, urban development, and transportation as well as to glamorous worlds of television, film, and entertainment. Further, it highlights Palin’s consistent critical awareness of the way his fame is manufactured and sold. The essay argues that even as the published volumes help to place Monty Python as part of Britain’s heritage, they also call into question any assumption that this heritage is mainly a commodity to be marketed rather than a public good.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Michael Palin, Travelling to Work: Diaries 1988–1998 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014), 151.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 144.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., 146.

  4. 4.

    Robert Booth, “Want to Become a British Citizen? Better Swot Up on Monty Python.” Guardian, January 27, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/27/british-citizenship-test, accessed June 1, 2015.

  5. 5.

    Melissa York, “Monty Python’s Property Circus,” City AM (London), November 22, 2013, http://www.cityam.com/article/1385081330/monty-python-s-property-circus, accessed June 1, 2015.

  6. 6.

    Michael Palin, Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood (London: Phoenix, 2010), 459, 557.

  7. 7.

    Andrew Gibson, “Altering Images,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 258.

  8. 8.

    In his entry for July 9th, 1991, Palin records his quick assent—“as if I’d made the decision long ago”—to Hewison’s suggestion that the diaries be published. Palin, Travelling, 195.

  9. 9.

    Robert Hewison, The Heritage Industry: Britain in a Climate of Decline (London: Methuen, 1987), 9; Palin, Halfway, 565.

  10. 10.

    Hewison, Heritage, 85.

  11. 11.

    Ibid, 139.

  12. 12.

    Palin, Travelling, 102.

  13. 13.

    Patrick Wright, On Living in an Old Country: The National Past in Contemporary Britain, revised ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), xiii.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 249.

  15. 15.

    Michael Palin, Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years (London: Phoenix, 2007), xxiii.

  16. 16.

    Robert Hewison, Future Tense: A New Art for the Nineties (London: Methuen, 1990), 168.

  17. 17.

    Joshua Gamson, “The Unwatched Life Is Not Worth Living: The Elevation of the Ordinary in Celebrity Culture,” PMLA 126, no. 4 (2011): 1061–1069.

  18. 18.

    Palin, Python, 149.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 164.

  20. 20.

    Palin, Halfway, 212.

  21. 21.

    Patrick Wright, A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London, revised ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 132.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 109.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 91–92, 107.

  24. 24.

    Palin, Python, 75.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 104–105.

  26. 26.

    Palin, Halfway, 125.

  27. 27.

    Palin, Travelling, 31; on the effects of the Thatcher regime on London’s infrastructure, see for example John Davis, “From GLC to GLA: London Politics from Then to Now,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 97–105.

  28. 28.

    Palin, Halfway, 199.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., 423.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 432–433.

  31. 31.

    Palin, Travelling, 228.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 287.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 289; on the politics of transport in London, see for example Helen Caroline Evenden, “Slow Flow: Thirty Years of Transport in London,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 215–224.

  34. 34.

    See Palin, Halfway, 446.

  35. 35.

    On problems with rail privatization, see Ian Jack, “The 12.10 to Leeds,” in The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain, 2009 (London: Vintage, 2011), 39–78; James Meek, Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else (London: Verso, 2014), 55–81.

  36. 36.

    Palin, Python, 499–501.

  37. 37.

    See Anthony Barnes, “Frequent Flyer Palin: I’ll Offer to Resign,” Independent, January 15, 2006, http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/frequent-flyer-palin-ill-offer-to-resign-8689034.html, accessed May 30, 2015.

  38. 38.

    Joe Moran, Reading the Everyday (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005), 8–9.

  39. 39.

    Gibson, “Altering Images,” 254.

  40. 40.

    Palin, Python, 128–129.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 662.

  42. 42.

    Palin, Halfway, 104.

  43. 43.

    Palin, Travelling, 360.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 361.

  45. 45.

    Palin, Hemingway’s Chair, 1995 (York: Methuen, 2013), 169.

  46. 46.

    Palin, Travelling, 133.

  47. 47.

    GBH, episode 7, “Over and Out,” written by Alan Bleasdale, directed by Robert Young (1991; Acorn Media, 2010), DVD.

  48. 48.

    Palin, Travelling, 148.

  49. 49.

    Palin, Halfway, 499; on the Wapping dispute see Dominic Timms, “Fortress Wapping: a History,” Guardian, October 12, 2004, http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/oct/12/rupertmurdoch.citynews1, accessed May 30, 2015.

  50. 50.

    Palin, Python, 639.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 665.

  52. 52.

    Palin, Travelling, 122.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 153.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 154.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., 437.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., 69, 417.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., 35.

  58. 58.

    American Friends, directed by Tristram Powell (1991; BBC, 2012), DVD.

  59. 59.

    The Missionary, directed by Richard Loncraine (1982; Handmade Films, 2011), DVD. On the film’s mixture of location work and recreation of the East End, see Palin, Halfway, 166–192.

  60. 60.

    GBH, episode 7, “Over and Out.”

  61. 61.

    Palin, Travelling, 166.

  62. 62.

    On Cardboard City, see for example “‘Cardboard City’ Meets Its Waterloo,” BBC, February 23, 1998, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/59177.stm, accessed June 1, 2015. See also Hewison, Future Tense, 137–138.

  63. 63.

    Palin, Travelling, 362–363.

  64. 64.

    Hilda Kean, “The Transformation of Political and Cultural Space,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 147–148.

  65. 65.

    Palin, Travelling, 344.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 395.

  67. 67.

    Joe Kerr, “Blowdown: The Rise and Fall of London’s Tower Blocks,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 166–167.

  68. 68.

    Palin, Travelling, 451–452.

  69. 69.

    Jerry White, London in the 20th Century: a City and Its People (London: Vintage, 2008), 82; see also Hewison, Future Tense, 92–93.

  70. 70.

    Palin, Travelling, 465.

  71. 71.

    Robert Mighall, “Crime and Memory in the Capital,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 334.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., 337.

  73. 73.

    Phil Baker, “Secret City: Psychogeography and the End of London,” in London from Punk to Blair, 2nd ed., edited by Joe Kerr and Andrew Gibson (London: Reaktion, 2012), 280.

  74. 74.

    Iain Sinclair, Sorry Meniscus: Excursions to the Millennium Dome (London: Profile Books, 1999), 41.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., 63.

  76. 76.

    House of Commons, Crossrail Bill Minutes of Evidence, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, Question 18805, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmcross/235/7013106.htm, accessed June 1, 2015.

  77. 77.

    Palin, Travelling, 503.

  78. 78.

    Ibid., 505, 513, 515.

  79. 79.

    Robert Hewison, Cultural Capital: The Rise and Fall of Creative Britain (London: Verso, 2014), 28.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., 47–60.

  81. 81.

    Sinclair, Sorry Meniscus, 42.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English Studies, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada

    Peter Clandfield

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  1. Peter Clandfield
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Theatre and Dance, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

    Paul N. Reinsch

  2. Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

    B. Lynn Whitfield

  3. Texas Tech University Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

    Robert G. Weiner

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Clandfield, P. (2017). Python, Heritage, and Michael Palin’s Diaries . In: Reinsch, P., Whitfield, B., Weiner, R. (eds) Python beyond Python. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51385-0_4

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