Monty Python star and around the World in 80 Days traveller Michael Palin was in Lacock on Friday to launch an exhibition of pictures.

For more than two decades Mr Palin travelled the world and took the nation with him.

But what few knew was that the comedian spent most of his time relying on a man in a straw hat with a camera.

Now Mr Palin’s rock, guide companion and photographer Basil Pao, has come to the home of photography to exhibit some of his stunning pictures from 24 years of travelling the world with Mr Palin.

The pair were reunited at the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock, Wiltshire, on Friday evening to launch a new exhibition that runs until September 23.

Mr Pao had worked with the Monty Python team in the 1970s and ten years later Mr Palin needed a guide to accompany him in his Around the World in 80 Days series.

It worked so well for the duo that Mr Palin asked Mr Pao to continue with him around the world.

Mr Palin said: “Basil has become indispensable on my journeys. He takes amazing photographs and wears a straw hat, ensuring that I never lose sight of the film crew.”

Mr Pao’s photographs have been used as illustrations for the books encompassing all eight of Mr Palin’s journeys, with a ninth planned.

Roger Watson, curator of the National Trust’s Fox Talbot Museum, said “Basil Pao is a world class photographer and its fitting these images from all over the world are here at Lacock where the first ever photograph was taken.”