Talk

Michael Palin: art on the small screen

Festival of Ideas

Monday 6 May 2019 5.30 - 6.30pm

The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts

£20, £12

Media Partner

Actor, writer, comedian and presenter, Michael Palin, discusses with journalist and broadcaster, Martha Kearney, why he fell in love with painting and why he thinks the medium is so perfect for the small screen.

Over the last twenty years, alongside presenting travel documentaries, Michael Palin has made it his mission to celebrate and explore the life and work of under-appreciated artists. He has made television programmes on lesser-known artists including Anne Redpath – a Scottish still life and landscape painter, Vilhelm Hammershoi, a Danish artist from the turn of the 19th century, the Scottish Colourists – four painters inspired by French impressionism – and the 17th-century female Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi. In this conversation, Palin reveals why he thinks seeing an artwork on the small screen is just as good as seeing it in the flesh, if not better. This talk will be illustrated with short clips from some of his arts documentaries.

Michael Palin first made his name writing and working on The Frost Report and The Late Show, before Monty Python’s Flying Circus established his international reputation as a brilliant comic writer and performer. He went on to star in films like A Private Function, A Fish Called Wanda and The Death of Stalin. In the late 80s he started presenting travel documentaries including Around the World in 80 Days; Pole to Pole and most recently Michael Palin in North Korea. He has published three volumes of diaries; 1969–1979: The Python Years, 1980-1988: Halfway to Hollywood, and 1988-1998: Travelling to Work.

Between 2009 and 2012 Palin was President of the Royal Geographical Society. In 2013 he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. He is a keen collector of art and lives in London.

This event will be followed by a Q&A.

£20, £12

Media Partner