The Best Episodes Written By Michael Palin

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   8.7/10(3 votes)

   #1 - Tomkinson's Schooldays

   S1:E11/7/1976

   Set in the frontier days of British education, when upper lips were stiff with cold and corporal punishment was an A-level. A savage, searing indictment of something or other.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
2. 

   7.9/10(19 votes)

   #2 - How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away

   S1:E310/19/1969

   Featuring a court scene, the larch, Bicycle Repair Man, children's stories, a restaurant sketch, some seduced milkmen, an interview with some children and a stolen newsreader.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
3. 

   7.9/10(9 votes)

   #3 - E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease

   S3:E1012/21/1972

   Sketches include The Tudor Jobs Agency, Elizabethan Pornography Smugglers, Thripshaw's Disease and The Man Who Says Words in the Wrong Order.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
4. 

   7.8/10(23 votes)

   #4 - Whither Canada?

   S1:E110/5/1969

   Featuring 'It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', an Italian lesson, Whizzo Butter, 'It's the Arts', Arthur 'Two-Sheds' Jackson, a cycling race, and The Funniest Joke in the World.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
5. 

   7.8/10(19 votes)

   #5 - Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century

   S1:E511/16/1969

   Featuring Confuse-a-Cat, discussion programme A Duck, a Cat and a Lizard, the arrest of a newsreader, an erotic film, a silly job interview and a burglar/encyclopaedia salesman.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
6. 

   7.8/10(13 votes)

   #6 - Déjà Vu

   S2:E39/29/1970

   Featuring the work of the poet Euan McTeagle, a psychiatrist milkman and some exploding animals. A television presenter suffers from a severe case of deja vu.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
7. 

   7.8/10(12 votes)

   #7 - The Buzz Aldrin Show

   S2:E410/20/1970

   More surreal humour from the Monty Python team. Sketches include The Architects, How to Recognise a Mason, Poets and the Chemist sketch.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
8. 

   7.8/10(13 votes)

   #8 - Spam

   S2:E1212/15/1970

   The sketches in this episode include Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook, World Forum-Communist Quiz, Hospital for Over-Actors and Spam.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
9. 

   7.7/10(15 votes)

   #9 - Face the Press

   S2:E19/15/1970

   Featuring Doug and Dinsdale Piranha, Face the Press and the Ministry of Silly Walks. Mrs G Pinnet buys a new gas cooker.

   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin

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   Director:N/A

   Writer:Michael Palin
10. 

    7.7/10(15 votes)

    #10 - The Spanish Inquisition

    S2:E29/22/1970

    Featuring the Spanish Inquisition, courtroom charades and a semaphore interpretation of Wuthering Heights.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
11. 

    7.7/10(9 votes)

    #11 - Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror

    S3:E411/9/1972

    Features gags and sketches such as Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror, The Man who Speaks in Anagrams and Pantomime Horses.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
12. 

    7.7/10(9 votes)

    #12 - A Book at Bedtime

    S3:E121/11/1973

    Features gags and sketches such as A Book at Bedtime, Kamikaze Scotsmen, No Time to Lose, Spot the Looney and Frontiers of Medicine-Penguins.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
13. 

    7.6/10(20 votes)

    #13 - Sex and Violence

    S1:E210/12/1969

    Featuring some flying sheep, a man with three buttocks, a man with two noses, musical mice, a marriage guidance counsellor, a working-class playwright and The Wrestling Epilogue.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Writer:Michael Palin
14. 

    7.6/10(12 votes)

    #14 - Royal Episode 13

    S2:E1312/22/1970

    Sketches in this episode include How to Feed a Goldfish, The Man Who Says Things in a Very Roundabout Way and Lifeboat.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
15. 

    7.6/10(9 votes)

    #15 - Salad Days

    S3:E711/30/1972

    Features gags and sketches such as Biggles Dictates a Letter, Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road, Lifeboat and The Cheese Shop.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
16. 

    7.5/10(19 votes)

    #16 - Owl Stretching Time

    S1:E410/26/1969

    Featuring fresh fruit as self-defence, some folk-singing, an art gallery sketch and Lemming of the BDA. An Edwardian man struggles to undress on the beach.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
17. 

    7.4/10(18 votes)

    #17 - The Ant, An Introduction

    S1:E912/14/1969

    Featuring Ken Buddha, a man with a tape-recorder up his nose and a hairdresser who always wanted to be a lumberjack.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
18. 

    7.4/10(16 votes)

    #18 - Intermission

    S1:E131/11/1970

    Featuring some historical impersonations, a cinema usherette with a dead seabird, restaurant abuse and Probe Around On Crime.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
19. 

    7.4/10(12 votes)

    #19 - The Attila the Hun Show

    S2:E711/11/1970

    Featuring the Attila the Hun Show, a rat catcher, a village idiot, some killer sheep and news for parrots.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
20. 

    7.4/10(12 votes)

    #20 - How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body

    S2:E911/24/1970

    Featuring a guide on how to recognise parts of the body, a singing policeman, an interview with a plastic surgeon, a camp soldiers' drill and the Verrifast Plane Company.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Writer:Michael Palin
21. 

    7.3/10(12 votes)

    #21 - Archaeology Today

    S2:E811/17/1970

    Featuring Mrs Beethoven, the Reverend Arthur Belling, some Australian Mosquito Hunters and a drink party with the Gits.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Writer:Michael Palin
22. 

    7.3/10(12 votes)

    #22 - How Not to Be Seen

    S2:E1112/8/1970

    Features gags and sketches such as Job Hunter, Railway Timetables, How Not to be Seen and Interview in a Filing Cabinet.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
23. 

    7.3/10(9 votes)

    #23 - The War Against Pornography

    S3:E611/23/1972

    Sketches in this episode include Tory Housewives Clean-up Campaign, Gumby Brain Specialist, Expedition to Lake Pahoe and The Silliest Interview We've Ever Had.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
24. 

    7.2/10(17 votes)

    #24 - Untitled

    S1:E1012/21/1969

    Featuring a bank robber in a lingerie shop, It's A Tree (with Arthur Tree), a vocational guidance counsellor, Ron Obvious and a gorilla librarian.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin
25. 

    7.2/10(12 votes)

    #25 - Scott of the Antarctic

    S2:E1012/1/1970

    Featuring a special report into the shooting of Scott of the Antarctic, from Paignton. Also, a man tries to purchase a fish licence.

    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin

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    Director:N/A

    Writer:Michael Palin