Sheffield globetrotter Michael Palin is backing a charity which helps city people with incurable illnesses stay in their own homes. John Highfield spoke to the actor, comedy star and TV personality about his involvement.
WHEN you have a reputation as one of the most affable and approachable figures in showbusiness it's perhaps almost inevitable that you'll get a lot of calls on your good nature.
Michael Palin, Sheffield's own endearing actor, comedy star and globe
trotter, agrees he does get lots of charities hoping for his support and that it's generally hard to say no.
"I do get a lot of requests and sometimes it's quite arbitrary why you pick one and not another," he admits, though he adds that was not the case when it came to Helen's Trust.
The organisation aims to help people with an incurable illness to stay in their own home by offering nursing care, sitters, help to run the house, care for others living in the home, equipment or complementary therapy.
This help is available to anyone registered at one of the medical practices in the two projects covered by Helen's Trust - in Sheffield the surgeries participating include Blue Bell medical Centre, Dunninc Road surgery, Firth Park Surgery, Shiregreen Medical Centre and Wincobank Medical Centre.
In the Hope Valley surgeries based in Baslow, Bakewell, Eyam, Hope, Darley Dale, Matlock and Tideswell are taking part.
One of the main reasons Michael agreed to support the Trust was quite simply: "I'm particularly interested in my home city still so if they ask me to do something in Sheffield I tend to look at it carefully.
"In this particular case, it was a very good letter from David Blunkett which really put me onto it. It was a letter from one person who gets asked to do a lot to another.
"He wasn't saying you must do this or that but he clearly did feel strongly about what they are trying to achieve. Since then, I've heard a little bit more from them and it accords with what I feel about people who are terminally ill being treated at home if possible, which seems such a good thing if we can do it.
"I was approached really to give my name to a challenge and that has since grown to me giving my name to a fundraising event so I'm the centrepiece and they can raise whatever money they can using my name."
That should actually be quite a lot as Palin events back on home territory generally receive an extremely enthusiastic response and this one, an evening with the star as he talks about his life, work and travels at Sheffield City Hall on October 30, is unlikely to prove an exception to that rule.
What's perhaps most interesting and endearing about his lifelong loyalty to the city of his birth is that, in reality, it's pretty much a lifetime now since he left it all behind.
"I love Sheffield," he insists, though he then has to confess: "I've been living in London since 1965 so more than two thirds of my life I've been away. Most of my life has been spent out of the city but it's just one of those undeniable things that where you're born and brought up, where you are educated and where you learn to know about people and life and surroundings is important. And that period for me was spent in Sheffield.
"I had quite a good childhood, a very happy childhood and it isn't something I want to forget and Sheffield plays a huge part in that."
That said, the Sheffield he grew up in was still the Sheffield of steel and heavy industry and the Sheffield he returns to quite regularly today is one that has changed enormously and continues to change all the time.
"The area I was born and brought up in was the west of the city, Broomhill, Ranmoor and Crosspool, which don't seem to change very much because they were made up of those fairly substantial stone-built houses, but where it has changed is round by the centre and especially round the station.
"I remember my train spotting days when I used to rush down to the station on Sunday afternoon and it was an area of small houses and workshops but I come back now and the street pattern seems to change each time.
"It always seemed to me that Sheffield was chasing its tail and trying to keep up with more modern cities and never quite making it but now I think for the first time I come back and Sheffield is suave - I never thought I'd call Sheffield suave!"
He knows what he's talking about of course, for the past few years have seen his once flourishing acting career take a back seat to a series of world travels that began with the acclaimed Around the World in 80 Days and led to Michael becoming known as Britain's best-loved television globetrotter, the man who has seen just about every corner of the globe.
It's 20 years now since he famously attempted to match Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg's round-the-world adventure and there are plans now to go back and recapture just a small part of it, the trip from Dubai to Bombay, hopefully reuniting with some of the characters he met during the first voyage.
"It should be very interesting because they were an amazing group of very poor fishermen on whom we were absolutely dependant," he recalls.
Apart from that, though, he says: "I don't have any big challenges that I desperately want to do, partly because we've done all the continents of the world now and I think that 20 years of doing that are probably enough.
"There are lots of other things I want to do. I'd like to have a crack at another novel, for instance, and I have a grandson now, which has made a great difference to my life.
"We have a great time together and the idea of being away for seven or eight months of the year doesn't appeal to me so much."
n An evening with Michael Palin: Travel, Comedy and a Little Bit of Fish, will be held at Sheffield City Hall on Thursday October 30. For tickets contact Sheffield City Hall Box Office on 0114 2789789 or visit www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk
Factfile
- Helen's Trust will endeavour to fund whatever it takes to achieve the aim of allowing terminally ill people to stay in their own home.
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- This includes money to pay for nursing care, sitters, help running the house, care for others living in the home, equipment, or complementary therapy.
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- The help is available to anyone registered at one of the practices in the Hope Valley or Sheffield.
- In the Hope Valley these are surgeries in Baslow, Bakewell, Eyam, Hope (Hathersage), Darley Dale (Winster and Youlgreave), Matlock (Imperial Road and Lime Grove) and Tideswell.
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- In Sheffield these are the Blue Bell medical centre, Dunninc Road surgery, Firth Park Surgery, Shiregreen Medical Centre and Wincobank Medical Centre.
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