The best Michael Palin’s drama movies

Each Christmas, Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in one night. However, when one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed ‘acceptable’ to all but one—Arthur. Arthur Claus is Santa’s misfit son who executes an unauthorised rookie mission to get the last present half way around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.

Proclaimed the funniest political comedy of the year (The Daily Beast), The Death of Stalin delivers a brutally executed parody of Cold War Russia. When the tyrannical ruler Stalin dies, his hapless inner circle scrambles to come up with the next evolution of the revolution ? but it's clear everyone is really out for themselves. Written and directed by Emmy® Award winning and Oscar® nominated Armando Iannucci, Rolling Stone calls the film a brilliant satire from a crack ensemble (including Emmy® and Golden Globe® winner Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Andrea Riseborough and Michael Palin). Proof that comedy, like politics, is all in the execution.

Jailed for his reckless driving, rambunctious Mr. Toad has to escape from prison when his beloved Toad Hall comes under threat from the wily weasels, who plan to build a dog food factory on the very meadow sold to them by Toad himself. This fantastic roller-coaster ride of hilarious adventures was both written and directed by Terry Jones, who also plays the central role of Mr. Toad. Alongside three former Pythons are a gallery of well-known faces all bringing wit and wonder to a feast of colourful characters. An absolutely charming film to delight children and adults alike, The Wind in the Willows is a perfect updating of Kenneth Grahame’s well-loved children’s classic.

When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humour, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success with the troops on the western front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time, Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.