My Favourite Interviews - Michael Palin Artwork

"Tales from a very minor celebrity"

Is it possible for someone with very little self confidence and who is also very shy to go on to become a radio and TV presenter?…Hosting their own live radio show, interviewing royals, Oscar winning actors and musical superstars as well as hosting shows in front of 20,000 people and even moving to another country to start a new career….Well I’m here to tell you that it is, because I did just that. My name is Simon Baldock and this podcast is called, “Tales from a very minor celebrity”….this is the story of how I overcame my insecurities and shyness and went on to have a 35 year career in broadcasting both in the UK and in Spain. You’ll hear some of my most memorable celebrity interviews and all the adventures I’ve had both in the UK and Spain and the stories behind them…like the time I delivered half a carcass of beef to Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street! “Tales from a very minor celebrity”, a weekly podcast from me Simon Baldock.

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"Tales from a very minor celebrity"

My Favourite Interviews - Michael Palin

October 06, 2022 • Michael Palin • Season 2 • Episode 1

Hi everyone, and welcome to a new season of Tales From A Very Minor Celebrity. Yes I’m back and this time I’ll be delving into my celebrity archive and looking back at some of my very favourite interviews from my career in radio and TV….now to be included as a favourite they can either be because the person is really nice, it was a particularly funny interview or just very interesting or even controversial for some reason or another… I hope you will like them as much as I did recording them.

For this first one you’ll hear a chat I had with everyone’s favourite globe trotter, Michael Palin…I think you’ll agree that he slots very nicely into the “everyone likes” category….I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say a bad thing about him.

I spoke to him back in 2004 about his latest series Himalaya which recorded his six-month trip around the famous mountain range. The trip covered 4,800 km (3,000 miles) horizontally, but involved a lot of vertical travelling, including several treks into the mountains. The highest point reached by Palin was Everest Base Camp at 5,300 metres (17,500 feet).

He admitted that although he’d done fairly arduous journeys before, Himalaya had its own particular difficulties!

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Simon Baldock

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