Around the World in Eighty days traveller Michael Palin was in Lacock on Friday to launch an exhibition of photographs.

For more than two decades Palin had travelled the world, but few know he has spent most of his time relying on a man in a straw hat with a camera.

Now Palin’s companion and photographer Basil Pao has come to the home of photography to exhibit some of the photographs from 24 years of travelling the world with Palin.

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

The photographs are a collection of some of the best images of people and places on all of those around the world journeys.

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

Museum curator Roger Watson said: “Basil Pao unseen on screen is a world class photographer with an eye for bringing people and places to life and it’s fitting these images from all over the world are here at Lacock where the first ever photograph was taken.”