Michael Palin felt BBC ‘wanted to interfere’ before he left for Channel 5

Sir Michael Palin has said he felt the BBC “wanted to interfere a little more” and to “control” his shows before he left the broadcaster for Channel 5.

The 81-year-old said he would have been “desperately frustrated” if he had stayed at the channel and presented in a “new way” the BBC had put forward.

Sir Michael made a series of travel documentaries for the BBC from 1989 until 2012, including Brazil With Michael Palin, Around The World In 20 Years, and Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure.

But his most recent travel documentaries showcasing the likes of North Korea, Nigeria and Iraq have all been shown on Channel 5.

Sir Michael told Radio Times: “There was the feeling that the BBC wanted to interfere a little more, they wanted to control it a little more.

“And they had this new way of presenting shows – which I would get absolutely, desperately frustrated with – where they would show, in the first five minutes, all the great moments of what was to come. Because this captured viewers.

“Otherwise, as soon as they see Michael Palin, they’ll switch off. The BBC were going in a different direction, and presentation was going in a different direction.”

In 2009, Sir Michael voiced his frustration at his 2007 documentary New Europe being censored by the BBC Trust, which claimed he had oversimplified issues relating to the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The former Monty Python member, who has just released a volume of diaries named There And Back, also confirmed he was planning a new travel series, and revealed he once turned down the opportunity to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.

Sir Michael added: “In the diaries I talk a lot about being in my 60s. Well, I’m now 81, and I’m planning another series.

“I’m constantly banging on about the emails and number of people asking me to do things, I was asked to do Strictly Come Dancing but thought, that pathway is being a warm, joyful, much-loved celebrity, I’m not that.

“I’m a bit of a loner, really. Just being a celebrity or a personality doesn’t interest me that much.”

He was also asked whether he regretted the amount of time he had spent away from his wife Helen, who died last year at the age of 80 after being diagnosed with kidney disease.

Sir Michael told the publication “I don’t have regrets really”, but added: “Perhaps towards the end, when I was doing the later travel journeys like North Korea.

“Helen was then less well, less good at looking after herself, unfortunately, and that was a slightly difficult time.”

Sir Michael was part of a team that launched a £120,000 campaign earlier this year to build a statue to honour Monty Python co-star Terry Jones, who died at the age of 77 in 2020 after a dementia diagnosis.

The full interview with Sir Michael can be read in the latest edition of the Radio Times.

The BBC declined to comment when approached by the PA news agency.