Sir Michael’s BBC documentaries included Brazil With Michael Palin, Around The World In 20 Years and Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure.

He has also previously said he was put off working with the BBC because of meddling executives.

At Hay Festival in 2016, Sir Michael claimed they were “frightened” and “more managed” about producing his shows, meaning the process became constricted.

In 2009, he also voiced frustration at his 2007 documentary New Europe being censored by the BBC Trust. He said at the time that it had oversimplified issues relating to the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

At the Cheltenham festival this year, Sir Michael spoke of his “embarrassment” at meeting people he had written about in his diaries, of which there have been four publications, starting with Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years.

He told the audience: “You are not quite sure how people will react. At one point someone said, ‘Are you going to show the diaries before they are published to, say, the Pythons and other close friends?’

“No, I said. That would be completely wrong. You could be asking someone else to edit the diaries for you.”