Here is a good interview with ex-Python and maestro traveller Michael Palin:

"These days John Cleese seems increasingly unnerving, at least when viewed from a distance. Was he always like that?"

"Something about John was always very unsettled, I felt. There was always something else he wanted to do. He seemed constantly driven by this sense that there was a nirvana somewhere; some unique place where mind, body and soul would be utterly satisfied."

"That sounds like Middlesbrough. You wouldn’t know, because you’ve never been there."

Palin laughs, graciously. "Well, John, of course, is from Weston-super-Mare. So he knows all about pleasure and fulfilment."

Haha. Indeed.

When Michael Palin and his TV crew arrived in Warsaw to film part of their series about former communist Europe, I invited them round to the Residence for tea. They said it was the first time any British Ambassador had extended such an invitation to them as they travelled round the world.

Maybe they were being polite. But what would it say about our diplomacy if it were true?

The only real perk of being an Ambassador is that you can invite anyone you want round for a quiet chat, or anything else that might fit. Thus in Warsaw I hosted Jon Anderson (Yes), writer Kazuo Ishiguro and Terry Pratchett (among others). Oh, and General Jaruzelski.