wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this show
Michael Palin
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook:

In the long-ago fall of 1969, something completely different in television began happening in the UK. It was called Monty Python’s Flying Circus — a free-form, satirical, anarchic circus of humor that had Britons staring dumbfounded, then laughing ’til they cried.

Monty Python made the leap to America, and then onto the big screen, with “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” and more. John Cleese was there, and Eric Idle — and Michael Palin, who’s now out with a new diary of those years.

This hour Point: Monty Python’s Michael Palin, and the Monty Python years.

Guests:

Michael Palin, actor and writer. His diaries from 1969 to 1979, chronicling the years of Monty Python, have just been published.

 
 
Listener comments
  • I noticed how you did not hustle past the negative comments, but incorporated them into the conversation. Thanks for discretion without censorship. js

    Posted by john salley jr, on December 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm EST
On Point Today
Hour 2
Chemicals in Our Bodies
Monday, July 6, 2009 image

Scientists report that widely used chemicals — endocrine disruptors — are causing serious health problems in humans. We ask what the government is, and is not, doing about it.

Comments [35]
 
Hour 1
Sarah Palin’s Surprise
Monday, July 6, 2009 image

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s out-of-the-blue resignation. We ask what it means for her future — and for the GOP.

Comments [61]

Recent Shows
Crooked Still
Friday, July 3, 2009 image

Tunes from old Appalachia with a new bluegrass twist. The hit folk band “Crooked Still” plays for us in our studio.

Comments [6]
 
Week in the News
Friday, July 3, 2009 image

A U.S. offensive in Afghanistan. Al Franken heads to the Senate. Mark Sanford keeps talking. And unemployment keeps rising. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Comments [25]
On Point Blog
India, China and the Climate

The passage of the House climate bill – discussed in our first hour today – has been greeted with enthusiasm in many quarters. But in some ways, the real question is whether a global framework can be established in Copenhagen in December, when countries will negotiate a new international treaty to curb greenhouse gases. After all, America emits only [...]

More » | Comments [1]
 
Michael, Ed, and Farrah

The week-in-the-news roundtable always involves tough choices on sound clips – what to include, what to leave out. Amid all the pressing hard news, we often give a nod to a notable person who’s passed away. But this week brought, well, a ridiculous range of choices. So we gave a nod to them all in the roundtable today. And [...]

More » | Comments [2]
 
Planet Money, On Point — Your Questions!

On Wednesday night, June 24, On Point will tape a show before an audience in Boston with two stars of NPR’s “Planet Money,” Adam Davidson and David Kestenbaum. We need your online questions to put to them — about anything from the roots of the economic crisis to NPR’s coverage.
What’s your question about the [...]

More » | Comments [18]