(Sara Jane Hall has developed and made many travel programmes for BBC Radio 4, including Sentimental Journey, New Latinos, and Excess Baggage with Arthur Smith. She also produced and recorded Chris Stewart's acclaimed Driving Over Lemons.)
A few years ago a journalist asked: "Is there anything that Michael Palin can't do?" Well up until now there was one thing he hadn't tried his hand at - but no longer. This week on BBC Radio 4 the screenwriter, actor, novelist and television travel presenter (oh - and comedian) has finally joined the world of radio. And where did he choose to go for his radio baptism? Those two old favourites - Trieste and Szczecin. Trieste and where?
Producer Sara Jane Hall explains.
Sitting on the plane coming back from recording our two special programmes for Excess Baggage, Michael Palin was gazing excitedly out of the window at a stunningly clear view of London and the Thames. I dabbed an in-flight towel to my forehead and thought back to the conversation we'd had a few months earlier, when I'd asked him if he fancied making a radio programme.
Michael: "Well I wouldn't mind making one about the Iron Curtain."
Me: "Err. What all of it?"
Michael: "No just each end."
Me: "But it isn't there anymore!"
Michael: "No, no, I want to do the two cities Winston Churchill talked about in his famous Iron Curtain speech - you know "From Szczecin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic - an Iron Curtain has fallen across Europe etc etc."
Me: "Ah".
I didn't tell him that the Iron Curtain didn't actually go to Szczecin till much later - in case he changed his mind - and you're always meant to agree with celebrities like him, at least until they've signed the contract.
Still, it was a great idea - two relatively unknown cities linked by a disillusioned ex-Prime Minister with an uncanny knack of predicting the future.
When Churchill made his Iron Curtain speech in 1946, there existed no such fence between East and West - but for the next 40 years it was a defining characteristic of the world a young Palin would grow up in.
"It was one of the classic speeches of my generation, my life time I suppose - and although the Iron curtain didn't exist at the time Churchill made the speech it eventually became a real physical barrier, so I always knew those names Trieste and Szczecin, even if I couldn't spell them, and I've always wondered what they're like, if they have anything in common, what being on such a frontier would mean...
"Also, I like going to places that no one ever goes. They don't give themselves over to the tourist, don't peddle themselves in the same way as the more obvious destinations. Venice has a serious excess of tourists, but just two hours away there's Trieste, a rich source of ideas, architecture, history and mysteries.
"Both places are borderlands, cities on the edge of maps, countries, and, in the case of the Iron Curtain, whole ideologies. I was keen to find out what effect being in such changeable places would have on the people who lived there. When I was in Trieste I talked to an Irishman, John McCourt, who took me on a tour of the city as it would have appeared to James Joyce who spent over a decade living and writing in the city. John was wonderful at explaining the shifting sense of nationality that permeates the city even today. Now it's firmly in Italy."
John McCourt was a perfect radio interviewee - a great voice, knowledge, enthusiasm and a good idea of places and sounds that would conjure up a good picture of Trieste for the listener. But did Michael Palin find it frustrating not having a camera crew at his shoulder? What did he think of the transition to radio?
"It does feel easier. You can move more quickly, set up interviews spontaneously. At one point we just started interviewing a woman who walked up to me on the street, ended up going back to her flat in fact, but you'll have to listen to the programme to hear more about that. I think that it is also quite tricky in that you have to paint pictures with words and that's an added challenge."
Palin's travel documentaries started with Great Railway Journeys Of The World in 1980. He's been a train lover since childhood (and never failed to point out any particularly interesting engines as we chugged across Europe as a true spotter should!). Next followed the wildly successful Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle and most recently Hemingway. Did the other Pythons ever get jealous of his life on the open road I wondered?
"No, I think they regard it as some sort of aberration on my part, you know, to be indulged. 'Oh dear, Michael wants to go wandering around the world in uncomfortable places - that's his lookout!'
"Mind you, John Cleese has slightly compromised himself because he did a programme about the lemur in Madagascar, and I think he underwent far great privations that I've ever undergone, really going through the jungle to find those wretched lemurs. And Terry Jones is always off somewhere. I remember coming back from New York once with Terry Gilliam - it was during the time when the Shah of Iran was being deposed and unfortunately the only plane we could get back to Britain was strangely on Iran Air. It wasn't a great plane. I woke up in the morning to see Terry sitting next to me with water dripping on his head from the air conditioning. He was sound asleep with this Chinese water torture going on. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, they lost my bag and it went to Tehran and I always remember feeling jealous of it, because I was going to Cambridgeshire somewhere and the lucky bag was going somewhere really exciting. When I got it back I kept telling everyone " My bag's been to Tehran you know - came back stuffed with the Shah's stuff!"
Finally, it has to be said that the two vicious rumours about Michael turned out to be true. Firstly that he's a really, really nice man, except when the Gatwick Express was running 40 minutes late and he stamped his foot. Secondly, that he really does seem to enjoy travelling. I've been away with presenters who spend their spare time watching CNN, but given a few minutes to spare, you'll find Michael Palin digging around an old bookshop, sitting in the corner of a café, wandering aimlessly through the back streets, in a never ending pursuit of something puzzling, something intriguing, something new to find in the world. He even still likes flying and will arm wrestle to get the window seat. So if you like the view, make sure you NEVER sit next to him on a plane.
