Desert Island Discs from outside. Roy Plomley enforced these rules strictly. He did, however, grant a special dispensation to Princess Michael of Kent, who chose her pet cat. The rules are, however, less strictly enforced today; for instance, Lawley allowed John Cleese to take Michael Palin with him, on the condition that he was dead and stuffed. Examples of luxuries have included champagne and a piano, the latter of which is one of the most requested luxuries. After Plomley's death in 1985, the programme was presented by Michael Parkinson and from 1988 by Sue Lawley. Lawley stepped down in August 2006 after 18
Michael Palin the world". Palin notes in his book of "Around the World in 80 Days" that the final leg of his journey could originally have taken him and his crew on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction rail crash, but they arrived ahead of schedule and caught an earlier train. In recent years, Palin has written and presented occasional documentary programmes on artists that interest him. The first, on Scottish painter Anne Redpath, was "Palin on Redpath" in 1997. In "The Bright Side of Life" (2000), Palin continued on a Scottish theme, looking at the work of the