Entertainment

Sir Michael Palin: I loved recording my part for The Simpsons

The Monty Python star will make a guest appearance in the US show’s new series.
The Monty Python star will make a guest appearance in the US show’s new series. The Monty Python star will make a guest appearance in the US show’s new series.

Sir Michael Palin has said he loved recording his new role in The Simpsons – and it was like going to Buckingham Palace.

The Monty Python star, 77,  is guest-starring in the animated US show.

The presenter, who also looks back at his travels around the world in a new BBC series, said it was “terrific” to record his lines.

“To be asked to do a sort of guest appearance on The Simpsons is pretty much like going to Buckingham Palace, except not quite as funny!” quipped the star, who was knighted last year.

Sir Michael Palin was knighted at Buckingham Palace
Sir Michael Palin was knighted at Buckingham Palace Sir Michael Palin was knighted at Buckingham Palace (David Mirzoeff/PA)

“It was lovely to be asked and I’ve recorded my part,” he told the PA news agency.

“It’s all done very quickly, efficiently and you are shoehorned into the show.

“I haven’t yet seen what I look like. I’m looking forward to that.”

He said of being knighted: “It’s not closed any doors or made me feel I can no longer be silly! So I appreciate it greatly. But that was the past and the future lies ahead. And I want to keep working. I want to keep doing things.”

The globe-trotter said that looking back at his adventures, for BBC series Michael Palin: Travels Of A Lifetime, made him feel for younger generations.

He feels “sad… for young people wanting to travel… who just aren’t able to because of Covid, and we just don’t know how long this is going to last”.

Recovering from open heart surgery, and then lockdown, has made him reassess life.

It has “made me actually consider how frantic my life was for the first 50 years as I started in television”, he said.

“And it’s given me a bit of time to think about what I want to do next, and quiet time is good.”

Michael Palin: Travels Of A Lifetime continues on BBC Two, and is available on BBC iPlayer.