Palin's polished anecdotes

The legacy of Monty Python continues to snake through popular culture. Eric Idle's Spamalot on Broadway, Terry Gilliam's Brothers Grimm in the multiplexes. And last night Michael Palin dished up polished anecdotes in aid of the Peter Cook Foundation, which supports youngsters with learning difficulties.

Palin's comedy life has been strip-mined over the years, so there was not much fresh insight here, but his recollections were delivered in fluid, chatshow-honed style. The evening's disingenuous title, 40 Years Without a Proper Job, suggested the comic-turned-traveller has never had a respectable career, despite everyone knowing he is gainfully employed as TV's nicest man.

The closest Palin came to shattering this image was dismissively suggesting that fellow Old Salopian John Peel's claim that he was raped as a Shrewsbury schoolboy was "highly unlikely". His own adolescent memories came from his 1955 diary: "Prep. Goons. Got sore hand ..." He was once accused of cheating at conkers, but was innocent.

Readings from old books varied in quality. The WE Johns parody, Biggles Goes to See Bruce Springsteen, was way too long, while the evocative snippet from Graham Chapman's autobiography, describing the alcoholic author as lurching like "a new-born giraffe", was way too short.

An undemanding Q&A session was hardly the Spanish Inquisition, although a scoop was the revelation that his next series, probably set in Eastern Europe, may be his last. For the umpteenth time, Palin politely explained how Python was nearly called Owl Stretching Time and the audience whooped with delight. He came, he saw, he conkered honestly.