Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [117]
With these gloomy thoughts I went to my bed at half past twelve.
Tuesday, August 6th
One of the most satisfying copies of The Guardian that has ever come through my letterbox swished onto the mat at 8.00 this morning, bearing front-page news of Nixon’s admission that he knew about the Watergate cover-up and personally directed it within five days of the incident. As I drive down to Terry’s to write, I remember the day, five and a half years ago, when TJ and I drove out along the A40 on our way to film The Complete and Utter Histories and despondently listened to the unbelievable news of Tricky Dicky’s elevation to the Presidency. Now I listened to the equally unbelievable news that he had lied blatantly and repeatedly to his supporters, his lawyers, his ‘friends’, his country and the world, for two years!
Father went into hospital at St Audry’s again for a two-week period. He is seeing hamsters everywhere now – they squelch under his feet as he walks in the sitting room. My mother has to carry a bag to put them in. When the doctor arrived the hamsters got up Grandfather’s trousers and began to attack his privates. My father, so staid and unimaginative over most of his life, is now becoming quite Pythonic. The hamsters seem to bother more than frighten him, as do the two men who have evidently been in the garage since 1966!
Fraser and Dunlop rang with an offer of £4,000 to do a Stone’s Ginger Wine commercial. One day’s work. My hands went clammy, and I told Jill I’d think about it. £4,000 for a day’s work is the kind of proposition that gives greed a good name.
Thursday, August 8th
For the last two days little but writing (we now have four scripts completed) and Nixon. Only this evening, two days after his self-confessed lying, does it seem that the man has finally got the message, and is probably about to become the first American President to resign in office.
A wonderful galaxy of early Nixon film – the suffocatingly schmaltzy Checkers speech, the effusive endorsements from Frank Sinatra, Gerry Ford and Eisenhower speaking of Nixon as ‘a man of integrity’ in 1968. But there can have been no TV spectacle as chilling as the replays of Nixon’s last three Watergate addresses to the nation – where Nixon looks the world in the eye and lies.
Monday, August 12th
Stop Press: writing my diary at 11.15 when the phone rings. It’s Nancy from New York, almost speechless with good news. As from October, the entire Python first series is being screened on American TV by PBS.1 I told Nancy it must be Gerry Ford’s doing. Python, which has been going for almost as long as Richard Nixon was President, has finally broken in the States within four days of his resignation.
Sunday, September 1st, Abbotsley
In many ways these last two days have been an extension of last week’s summer holiday in the Lot – totally relaxing days spent with the family, away from work and away from too many other people. Worked in the garden, had the best night’s sleep for a week, and ended up today astride a tree, half-submerged in the stagnant pond, wearing only my underpants! I was trying to salvage my appalling attempt at tree-felling, which had propelled the tree straight into the stagnant water.
My Tarzan-like activities were greeted with much mirth by Helen. Willy leant up against the wire and made up songs to sing to himself, and Thomas fussed around like an old hen worrying about me —’Oh, do be careful, Daddy.’ ‘Oh, isn’t Daddy strong?’ ‘Oh, Daddy, you’re so nice,’ and other slightly unhelpful observations.
Sunday, September 8th, Exeter
From today we start filming on the fourth Python series. Packed during the morning – took Helen and the boys out for a very pleasant goodbye lunch at Maxwells, and left with the Mini and Terry Jones, about 2.00.
Arrived at 8.30 at the White Hart Hotel in Exeter. An historic inn, with it’s history