Michael Palin looks back over three decades of travel and comedy in Eastbourne

Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, Saturday, October 3

WHEN Michael Palin began keeping a diary in 1969 he wasn’t to know it would coincide with the launch of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the comedy show which would take over his life.

Now almost 50 years on he has published three volumes of edited diaries, covering from 1969 to 1998.

And he is still setting aside 20 minutes a day to dissect the previous 24 hours.

“It’s a good exercise for any writer,” says Palin.

“It’s good for your memory, and it’s good for your writing style. You can’t go rambling off into long purple passages, you have to be pretty concise and tight. When you’re writing a diary you’re not writing for anybody to read. There was a narrative to each day - I like that there was something that made that day special.”

This newly revamped live show, which comes to Eastbourne tomorrow, sees Palin focus on diary writing, as oppose to his previous tour which was divided equally between his career as an international traveller and a comedy performer.

When it came to publishing the diaries Palin admits the final versions contain about 20 to 25 per cent of what he actually wrote each day.

He was helped through the process by Ion Trewin, the editor of the Alan Clarke diaries, who died earlier this year.

“He helped me weed out various things like family holidays, but keep in the really important things - the elements of the stories, my feelings and the creative ideas,” says Palin.

The diaries contain development of ideas including the various forms Python took, cult series Ripping Yarns, Palin’s film career from Time Bandits to the painfully long gestation of American Friends, and the planning stages of his first three international trips: Around The World In 80 Days, Pole To Pole and Full Circle.

But what is perhaps even more fascinating are the projects that got away, such as his novel Uganda, abandoned after he hit a creative cul-de-sac, and The Adventure, his unfinished script created with fellow Python Eric Idle.

“It was one of the things which made me most glad I published the diaries,” says Palin.

“There is a thin line between the things that get done and those that don’t. With American Friends [the 1991 film based on the true story of his great-grandfather’s courtship] I went on and on trying to get money and persevered to get it made. The Adventure is in a box somewhere – I might dust it down one day.”

Fellow Python John Cleese’s recent autobiography So Anyway covers the comedian’s early life, ending where Palin’s diaries start.

But Palin hasn’t been tempted to write his own childhood memoir.

“Publishers are quite keen,” he says. “With autobiographies there are things you have to address and think hard about – you have to see what you can remember. It’s slightly more of a creative effort whereas the diaries are there, ready to go.

“I think that is what is so wonderful about a diary, it’s one person’s point of view of a certain day.

“If you asked the other five people in Python to keep a diary of the day the first show came out everyone would pick slightly different memories.”

The only other Python who kept a diary was Palin’s long-time writing partner Terry Jones, who claims he can’t publish his memoirs “because there’s too much sex”.

The investigation of difference plays a big part in his travel adventures, as he meets people from wildly different backgrounds.

“We must learn to live with differences, particularly religious differences,” he says. “It was always places in Central Africa, like Mali and Niger, the places off the beaten track that we got most from. With a lot of those places the door is now shut – but of course you can now travel around Russia and Eastern Europe which used to be a closed door.”

Another area his published diaries don’t cover is last year’s 10-night Python reunion at the O2 Arena.

“I wanted to make sure if we got together we did it properly,” he says. “There were basic technical problems – like Graham Chapman [who died in 1989]. I felt Python had always been the six of us acting and writing, so we had to find a way of getting Graham integrated.”

The use of big screens at the O2 meant some of Chapman’s biggest comic creations were given space – helping dispel Palin’s reservations.

“It was something we had to do at some point, before we got too old and senile,” he says.

“There were 15,000 people watching each night who were all there because they loved Python.

“It was a wonderful feeling – we all rose to the occasion. Surprisingly all the old comic timing and relationships between the characters came back.”

Starts 7.30pm, tickets £31.50. Call 01323 412000.