Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [288]
This was Jan Morris, who, as James Morris, wrote one of the travel books which most affected me – in fact one of my favourite books of all – that on Venice.
Jan said how much she’d enjoyed ‘Across the Andes by Frog’ – especially remarking on the way development heaped on development. I in turn gave a quick rave about Venice – the book.
Had this comfortable, tweedy lady really climbed the Himalayas as a man and written for Rolling Stone as a woman? This encounter was the high point of the cocktail party for Recipes, which seemed ironic as I had no teeth in.
Saturday, June 24th
TG drops by for some more chit-chat. He’s more worried than ever about the words – the dialogue in his films, which he’s always had an inferiority complex about – and is thinking of trying to make his new film tell its own story – like his animations – and be less ‘written’. His dream sequence ideas sound great – especially the brick skyscrapers with no windows.
Wednesday, June 28th
Lome Michaels called from the Savoy mid-afternoon. He’d arrived from New York just before lunch. Now recovered, he was making arrangements to meet. I would have liked to talk privately, but there were various people who wanted to have dinner with him, so we agreed to meet up at the Savoy around nine.
To the Savoy, where I find Lome in a comfortable, but a little colourless suite with an impressive panoramic bay window view of Waterloo Bridge, the Thames, St Paul’s and the City.
He thinks that I should consider spending six to eight weeks in the US each year and bring family, etc. This is the difficult area in our plans. It’s one thing to do a special with freedom and money, but this freedom is going to be compromised in many little ways – and I fear the American exposure bit is one of them.
Thursday, June 29th
It’s raining heavily as I set off for the Arlecchino restaurant in Notting Hill to meet Terry Hughes and Lome Michaels for lunch. Lome hasn’t slept all night – but looks exactly as he always does and he talks rather more than usual, relishing a new audience. He drinks coffee, but little else.
Almost on cue, an American girl and her friend come across the restaurant and tell me how much they loved ‘Across the Andes by Frog’ – and with Terry there too. What timing.
About 3.30 we cram into my Mini and drive through the rain to the TV Centre. In Terry’s office Lome produces a tape of a Steve Martin Saturday Night show, which he’s putting in for an award. Terry H disappears, and some time later, when we’ve finally got the BBC machine to work (this takes four or five people, secretaries, window cleaners, etc), Terry emerges from Jimmy Gilbert’s office and, in an urgent whispered aside, tells us that Bruce Forsyth has just signed for ITV, and that Jimmy is in a state of utter confusion and trying to write a press release.
Eventually Lome and I leave. I can’t help finding it remarkable that, even with the Forsyth saga going on, the head of BBC Light Entertainment doesn’t have time even to shake hands with one of the US’s top LE producers – or top producers, period.
To the house Shelley Duvall has rented in Avenue Road, while she’s working on The Shining. It’s furnished like a luxury penthouse in a bad English ‘B’ movie, and I find myself feeling little envy for the sort of life which results in having to live for six months in such colourless, characterless transitory surroundings. Shelley says the ambassador for Ceylon lives next door, so she’s alright for tea.
Shelley I like more and more. She’s humorous, silly almost, direct and accessible and defiantly un-glamorous – and she loved ‘Escape From Stalag Luft 112B’ and my Saturday Night show!
Friday, June 30th
Drive to Shepperton for lunch with Graham