Things are supposed to quieten down as you get older, but from celebrations of 30 years of one of my oldest and most valued charities – the Association For Research into Stammering Children – to a visit to Oslo for gin and tonics in the wardroom of Gjoa, the first ship to navigate the North-West Passage by sea, to a last-minute stand-in appearance with Michael Caine on the One Show, to a less last-minute appearance before a sword-wielding Prince William at Buckingham Palace, my 77th year could not have begun more noisily.

And it looks to be set at full volume, at least for the next few weeks, as I have another seven dates left on my Erebus /Python stage tour, and a few days of acting in July. As yet, I’m not allowed to say exactly what part, but I am growing a beard, so it’s not Joan of Arc.

I must give very big thanks to all the audiences on the tour so far. The response has been so warm and generous that it’s like spending an evening with old friends. Opening night of the 2019 tour was at the Pavilion in Bournemouth. Which was, by coincidence, highly appropriate for Python’s anniversary year. My first memories of Python filming were all around Bournemouth. The It’s’ man made his debut crawling out of the sea at Poole Harbour.

There’s a flavour of those heady days in the Python Years volume of my diaries.

Friday July 11th 1969, Bournemouth.

“Drive over to Shell Bay, beyond Poole, along a flag-lined route – the Queen is visiting Poole today. In the afternoon filmed some very bizarre pieces, including the death of Genghis Khan, and two men carrying a donkey past a Butlins redcoat, who later gets hit on the head with a raw chicken by a man from the previous sketch, who borrowed the chicken from a man in a suit of armour. All this we filmed in the 80° sunshine, with a small crowd of holiday- makers watching.”

It seems like only 50 years ago.

76 last Sunday. 76 sounds an awful lot, but the best way to deal with the march of time is to fall in step with it and stop trying to pretend you’re 18 again.

Ahh! 18! 1961. Roy Orbison ‘Crying’, ‘Green Onions’, Booker T and the MG’s, and Elvis, my hero, driven to record mediocre stuff like ‘Return To Sender’.

Actually, come to think of it, I’m happier in 2019. And busier.

Instead of cramming for exams I’m turning out to promote films like An Accidental Studio, the story of George Harrison’s Handmade Films (Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Missionary, Mona Lisa, Withnail and I, A Private Function), Final Ascent, a stunning documentary about the charismatic climber Hamish MacInnes, whose life-story makes James Bond sound really dull, and the we-welease of Life Of Brian, which still looks and sounds fresh.

My own most recent project, Erebus, The Story Of A Ship, comes out in paperback at the end of May, and I’m doing a stage tour round the UK in June.

Next week to Norway to give an Erebus talk at the Fram Museum in Oslo. It’s one of those places I’ve always wanted to see as it’s built around the great Norwegian polar explorers Nansen and Amundsen. And I’ll get to step on board Amundsen’s Gjoa, the little ship that finally cracked The North West Passage, fifty years after Sir John Franklin and 129 men died trying to find it.

A potentially very nice acting role in July, followed by a busy autumn – travel filming and the publication in September of North Korea Journal, my diaries of the recent visit to that enigmatic country. Then a nice lie-down and some sweeties. 18? Been there. Done that.

Just as I thought that, after a very busy year, 2018 was going quietly, I hear I am to be elevated from a Knight who says ‘Ni!’ to a knight of the realm. I’m still adjusting to this, but first of all I want to send huge thanks to all those of you who have sent messages of support and congratulation. Too many to reply to every single one personally, but I’m reading and appreciating them all.

2019 starts quietly. I shall be finishing off the chocolates from Christmas, preparing my North Korea journal for publication – and enjoying being a grandpa.

Wherever you are – let’s have a collective act of faith and wish each other a very Happy New Year.