Actor and comedian Michael Palin has called for a bizarre late addition to the events at the forthcoming London Olympics, saying that he wants 'hopping' to be featured at the games. The 68-year-old star of TV classics Monty Python and Ripping Yarns said it was a 'scandal' that hopping would not be included as an Olympic sport, at a world record hopping attempt to mark the release of Ripping Yarns on DVD. The stunt was inspired by an episode of the show which was set at the fictional Graybridge School, in which pupils had to complete a 30-mile hop as a punishment. "It was in the episode Tomkinson's School Days," Palin explained. "It was a terrible school where new boys had to fight a grizzly bear." The hop was such a memorable thing in the series so we thought let's get people hopping," he added. "It's Olympic year but there's no Olympic hopping which I think is a scandal. "We're trying to persuade the people it's not too late. Boris (Johnson) or Seb (Coe), get the hoppers out. This would have the crowd roaring." The event, at Hampstead Heath Race Track in North London, saw roughly 100 people hop on the same leg for 400 metres. Eventual race winner Ben Langley, from Bedfordshire, said it had been a "minor miracle" and added, "It's been fantastic to meet Michael Palin. He's been a voice in my head at different times in my life so to meet the guy face-to-face has been brilliant. He congratulated me and my leg." However organisers said that the record bid for the largest group 400m hop fell short of the target number of 250 participants.
