Sir Michael Palin learned about music from late DJ John Peel

Asked his favourite piece of music, he told The Times newspaper: "Springsteen or Sibelius. I went to the same boarding school as John Peel and though I was in my first term and he was in his last I always tried to hang around when he played his music.

"He was the housemaster's favourite and allowed to play his music very loudly. And to hear Sibelius's Karelia Suite at full volume was not something you ever forget.

"Springsteen's music was big too. I was making the Ripping Yarns series in Yorkshire, and to go from being a man with two shovels to a man driving over the Pennines with Thunder Road at full pitch was all I wanted to live for."

The 82-year-old star wishes he'd written songs by Pulp and Billy Joel.

He said: "The lyric I wish I'd written [is] Billy Joel's haunting New York State of Mind. It's not a blaster, but it's thoughtful and a little melancholic and echoes my nostalgia for a city I used to know so well. Jarvis Cocker's Common People would run it a close second."

However, Michael admitted his own musical talents have always been very limited.

He said: "At school I played the triangle, so I think if I were part of a band I'd probably be a roadie."

Asked the instrument he wished he had learned, he said: "I love the saxophones in a big band, but can't imagine myself ever sorting out where to put my fingers."

If he is feeling down, Michael knows the music of pianist Jools Holland can always uplift him for a while.

Asked the music which cheers him up, he said: "Anything played by Jools Holland. As soon as he sits at the piano I know I'm going to enjoy life for at least the next three minutes."