"Laughs are on me" says Sheffield comedy star Michael Palin, using zimmer frame with broken bones after fall
“I’ll never be able to achieve my dream of being the oldest Olympic hurdler”
Sheffield comedy legend Michael Palin says the laughs are on him, after a fall left him using a zimmer frame.
Former Monty Python star Michael says he and his co-stars always used zimmer frames to play slow-moving pensioners, and now he is living the role in real life after an early hours tumble at home left him with broken bones.
He announced on his website: “It’s now exactly a month since I thudded to my bathroom floor – returning from a pee at 3.30 in the morning. I still can’t walk without a zimmer. The laughs are all on me. Zimmers were used in Monty Python when we wanted to play slow-moving elderly people.
“Now I’m an elderly person for real, having to move very slowly as I have three broken ribs and a cracked pelvis. Bones take time to heal and I’m probably doomed to play this particular Python character for a few weeks more.”
“I’m feeling sore, not just because I’ll never be able to achieve my dream of being the oldest Olympic hurdler but that I was never able to finish my Philippines tour and had to disappoint so many who’d bought tickets. I promise not to go to the bathroom ever again, and I shall try and find some other show dates next year.”
In the meantime, he says he is catching up with television shows and has a large pile of books to read.
Michael was brought up in Ranmoor, Sheffield, and was a pupil at Birkdale School, before he went to Oxford University and became a global star with Monty Python.
His success was marked with a star bearing his name outside Sheffield Town Hall in 2008.
Since making his name has a comedian, he has also gone on to make a series of travel shows.
However, he recently returned to comedy, acting in the sitcom Small Prophets, which was broadcast earlier this year.