Tom Parfitt
When asked, Tom gives his age as 鈥榚ighty odd鈥�, but has he really forgotten how old he is, or does the truth about his age beg too many difficult questions? Tom is far older than he can admit and has lived most of his long life trapped in his home, isolated from the outside world. He was married briefly but, after a honeymoon in Scarborough, his wife died in a tragic accident the day she returned to the marital home. Tired of his seemingly endless lonely life, Tom wants to break free, but who or what is he trying to escape? And how far will they go to stop him?
About Michael Palin
Having graduated from Oxford University in 1965 with ambitions to be a writer and performer of comedy, Michael Palin made his first television appearance as the host of the children’s pop show Now (1965-66).
He soon began writing sketch material with university friend Terry Jones for various television shows. His first major breakthrough happened when the pair was recruited to the writing team of The Frost Report (1966-67). As well as being a huge success, the series brought the pair into contact with fellow writers John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.
Despite appearing in some sketches on the shows to which he contributed material, Palin’s breakthrough as a performer was with the series Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967-69). They followed this with their own series The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969). Their next project succeeded on an unprecedented scale. Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74) saw Palin and Jones unite with Cleese, Chapman, Idle and Gilliam to create one of the most influential British comedy series of all time.
Following the success of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Palin returned with his own series Ripping Yarns (1976-79), winning a BAFTA award in 1980 for best light entertainment series.
Palin then turned his attention to film, co-writing and co-starring in all four Python feature films between 1971 and 1983, and playing his first solo lead role in Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky (1977). Lead roles followed in a range of films, including The Missionary (1981), A Private Function (1984) and American Friends (1991). He also won a BAFTA award as best supporting actor for his performance in the comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988).
Palin’s career veered into new territory in the late 1980s. Since the success of the documentary Around the World in Eight Days (1989), Palin has written and presented a host of travel documentaries, including: Pole to Pole with Michael Palin (1992), Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997), Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999) and Michael Palin's New Europe (2007).
Michael Palin on Tom
“Normally you get anxious about being an old person playing someone much younger, so it was rather nice to be an old person playing someone even older. Tom's age is an intriguing element of the whole story. Although he is very old he has somehow been preserved and that is part of the mystery.
Tom is a really original creation. He's rather like somebody who has been preserved in a shell for decades.Michael Palin
"Tom is a really original creation. He's rather like somebody who has been preserved in a shell for decades and suddenly breaks out. Although he is over 80 years old, he has not seen much of the world. It's as if he has been living in a dark basement, metaphorically, and here he is in the sun light after a long, long time wanting everything to be suddenly different.”
