Michael Palin has revealed how he feels looking back on Monty Python's legendary 1979 movie Life of Brian.
The comedy, which was highly controversial upon its release, saw a man called Brian (played by Graham Chapman) being mistakenly hailed as the Messiah (he's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!).
Palin took on a string of different roles in the movie perhaps most memorably as Pontius Pilate. Speaking to The Times, Palin commented that he remained proud of making "something that was quite intelligent but also very silly".
He added that it tickled him that a survey "found 90 percent of people thought Life of Brian was more Christian and more relevant to religion than Mel Gibson's Bible thing [The Passion of Christ]."
The debate still rages over whether Life of Brian or Monty Python and the Holy Grail is their best film. In our best 100 movies of all time article, we side with Holy Grail although you can easily make a case for Life of Brian.
In the same interview, Palin revealed he'd recently watched the killer rabbit scene again in the Holy Grail and was pleased to find it still made him laugh. Both Life of Brian and the Holy Grail movies are available to watch now on Netflix.
Most recently on television, he was seen taking a 1300-mile journey across Nigeria in Michael Palin In Nigeria on Channel 5. Talking at the time about why he wanted to make the three-part series, he said: "I wanted to test myself physically to see if I could still do this at 80, but I also found it was very good for me in terms of my mental capacity — you're seeing something new and hoping to find out what's really happening in a country.
"Nigeria has a population of nearly 220 million, it's the most prosperous country in Africa and Lagos is going to be the biggest city in the world by 2098. All these things give it tremendous clout, and yet 60 percent of Nigerians live in poverty."
Michael Palin in Nigeria is still available to watch on My5.
