There are those whose impact on your life is in inverse proportion to the amount of time you spent with them. I felt that most poignantly this week as I heard news of the deaths of Nigel Walters and Tom Stoppard.

I spent 40 days with Nigel Walters, as he filmed me on the second leg of Around The World In Eighty Days back in 1988. We made our way together across the Pacific, on the train from Los Angeles to New York and across the Atlantic, holding our breath as the eighty days began to run out.

Throughout it all Nigel was wonderful company. A Welshman with a wry, mischievous sense of humour, he was keen to do his job at all times, indeed he and I were once caught shooting a sequence of myself on a heaving deck in the middle of the Pacific, only hours after the director had expressly forbidden any more shots of water.

Despite a serious hangover he shot the triumphant return home and shared all our disappointment at not being allowed into the Reform Club.

We didn’t work together again, but there was never a question of our not remaining friends. He was warm and passionate about his work and his friendships and he will always remain indelible in my memory as the man who brought me home.

I first met Tom Stoppard in May 1975 after I had been offered the part of Harris in a BBC revival of Three Men In A Boat to be directed by Stephen Frears. We drank afternoon tea at the Waldorf Hotel in the Aldwych as elderly couples took to the dance floor. In marked contrast to Stephen, who was agonising over the rest of the casting, Tom was relaxed and easy going. He felt that when it all boiled down to it filming was about getting together a group of people you like, and he quoted Evelyn Waugh ‘The Second World War wasn’t bad, provided you were with nice people’ And being with Tom was not only very nice but I learnt a lot from him about how to enjoy work.

As with Nigel Walters we never worked together again, but whenever we met up it was always special.

Two boat people gone. But if I ever get to cross the River Styx myself I would want Nigel filming and Tom comforting me with one of his King-Size cigarettes.

I’ve completed most of the dates on my Venezuela book tour which took me from Tynemouth in Northumberland to Yeovil in Somerset. That’s the dual satisfaction of these series - by going abroad I get to see more of my own country. Thank you to all those who turned out to see the show and join me in my ramblings.

What added a touch of excitement and immediacy to this particular tour was that Venezuela, which we chose to go to because so little was known about it, is suddenly back in the headlines. As ever, Donald Trump and his administration are at the centre of it.

American airborne rockets have sunk a number of boats off the coast of Venezuela, claiming nearly fifty lives without providing any clear evidence for what these boats were carrying and where they were going to.

We just have to assume what we are told. That these were bad people attempting to destroy America with drugs, who deserved not just to be disabled, or even arrested and put on trial, but blown apart and sent to the bottom of the sea.

Things are moving fast. Trump has authorised a covert CIA operation in Venezuela. The US navy has moved its biggest aircraft carrier into the region. A force of 10,000 has been assembled.

President Maduro, with the Americans in his gunsights, is ramping up his own defences, tightening his grip on the country.

The Venezuelan people are stuck in the middle of this stand-off, threatened from the inside and the outside. The people of this stunningly beautiful country have put up with a lot over these last years. They deserve a break, not a war.

News of the death of Connie Francis this week brought back some poignant teenage memories. I was 15 when 'Who’s Sorry Now' was released and I found her strident, plaintive delivery very sexy. With that strong distinctive voice she produced a string of hits which only cemented my great love for her. That was until I discovered Bobby Darin, whose 'Dream Lover’ produced a similar state of doting admiration.

I grew out of Connie, I suppose, 'Stupid Cupid' being no match for Darin’s smooth delivery of classics like 'Beyond The Sea’. But I felt a pang of guilt for so lightly transferring my loyalties.

Imagine then my stunned surprise when years later I heard that Connie and Bobby were dating. My two heroes were an item! From out of nowhere the conflicted feelings of my teenage years arose again. I thought it through, got rid of pangs of jealousy, and decided I was very happy for them.

Which is how I was feeling until I read in Connie Francis obituary that Connie’s father, on hearing of their plans to wed, broke into the studio with a loaded gun and ordered Darin to stay away from his daughter.

And that was that. Bobby died at the age of 37. Connie, just a day or two ago, at the age of 87, having been married four times. Three of which lasted less than a year.

But both made music that raised my spirits.

RIP

There was I, thinking this could be a quiet year when I’d learn knitting and clear out a few cupboards when, lo and behold, it’s only February and I’m in the middle of Venezuela, on my way to see the tallest waterfall in the world. Now it’s June and I have written up my experiences in this fascinating, troubled and stunningly beautiful country for a book which will be out in September to coincide with a three-part series on 5. And here’s a sneak preview of the cover, just to prove that I haven’t spent the year learning to knit and clearing out cupboards. 

I know some of you may be wondering what happened to the book of the Nigeria series. It was all a question of timing. Last year I had to devote all my publicity time to my latest volume of Diaries, There and Back. Don’t worry, the Nigeria book is written and will be published as soon as the time is right to launch the publicity to back it up.

Another reason I’ve not had time to clear out any cupboards is that I was asked by the excessively talented Mackenzie Crook to take a part in his new series called Small Prophets. If it’s halfway as good as the filming experience, which I finished a fortnight ago, it will be unmissable. Next year I’ve definitely promised myself I’ll take it easy. Although I’m quite tempted by Great Cupboards of The World.

Michael Palin: In Venezuela will be available in the UK in the TheMichaelPalin.com shop and all good bookshops on 25th September 2025.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Venezuela recently. It’s the hundredth country I’ve visited. (Before I get too smug, there are another 95 left!) I still get a tremendous kick out of going to a country for the first time. And with Venezuela there was the added attraction that I knew next to nothing about the country. 

I worked with the Channel 5/ITN team with whom I’d made three series - in North Korea, Iraq and Nigeria - and for all of us this was a different challenge. Venezuela is spectacular. Magnificent mountains, beautiful Caribbean beaches, exotic wildlife and the longest waterfall in the world.

But it is big - the size of Spain, France, Ireland and the UK put together - which made the travelling hard, but hugely rewarding.

We got back in early March and I’ve have been writing all about my extraordinary journey while it’s still fresh in my mind.

The book and my new three part series will be available later this year. I hope Venezuela will open your eyes as much as it opened mine.

Michael Palin: In Venezuela will be available in the UK in the TheMichaelPalin.com shop and all good bookshops from September 2025.