Sir Michael Palin has been put off from retiring by deaths of close friends
Monty Python icon Sir Michael Palin, 82, is determined to carry on working on TV projects after suffering the deaths of his wife and several close friends in the past few years.
Sir Michael Palin says the deaths of his wife and other close friends have put him off retirement.
The 82-year-old Monty Python legend is heading to the South American country of Venezuela for his latest travel documentary series and is desperate to keep working after experiencing the loss of his wife Helen Gibbins and several other pals in recent years.
Michael is quoted by The Daily Star newspaper's Hot TV column as saying: "I don't want to be treated as old. I've lost so many of my male friends over the last two years: Terry Jones, Barry Cryer, Ian Davidson and Roger Mills. It's quite alarming.
"Very bright, very funny people, but they're all vulnerable. And so am I. But the Grim Reaper will just have to wait for a little bit longer.
"I need the distraction of work. And I enjoy being challenged."
Michael's recent travel documentaries have aired on 5 after he bemoaned the health and safety red tape that came with filming his foreign jaunts on the BBC – who he worked with between 1989 and 2012.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival last year, the star said: "They want you to wear a helmet just to cross the road, or while riding an elephant. Unfortunately if you do that it looks as if you are in a theme park.
"There was the feeling that the BBC wanted to interfere a little more, they wanted to control it a little more."
Palin also revealed that he was irritated by the way in which the BBC "presented" the shows to viewers.
The Around the World in 80 Days host said: "They had this new way of presenting shows – which I would get absolutely, desperately frustrated with – where they would show, in the first five minutes, all the great moments of what was to come. Because this captured viewers.
"Otherwise, as soon as they see Michael Palin, they'll switch off. The BBC was going in a different direction, and presentation was going in a different direction."
Michael previously hinted that his body was getting "rusty" after decades of traversing the globe.
He said in 2023: "Your body gets rusty like a piece of old machinery that’s done you quite well over the years but then a couple of screws fall off and a door falls off and that’s it."
