Monty Python's Flying Circus

[Slim]

It's long been an ambition of mine to watch all four series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. I bought a complete series box set in Hong Kong about 20 years ago, but I only got as far as the second series.

I tried to play them on my PC recently but they're Region 1 and I couldn't get them to work.

Happily though the entire series has been restored, upscaled and digitally remastered for BluRay, and I have the first series in this format now.

It looks great. It doesn't look high definition and nor could it - there's a limit to what you can do with material mostly captured to videotape about 50 years ago. But it's comfortably better than the broadcast quality of the time and certainly better than my old NTSC DVDs.

There are in all 45 episodes so I should get through them by the end of the year, though I'm not going to commit to one per day.

Earlier this evening I watched the first one, "Whither Canada?".

God knows what the TV viewers of October 1969 made of it, but I loved it. Very solid start. As usual there's a surreal running gag running through most of it and sometimes the sketches are cleverly segued together. A piece about Picasso painting while riding a bike is possibly stretched a bit too far.

The very best bit is an animation created by Terry Gilliam from early 20th century monochrome photographs. Genius.

[Slim]

1:02 Sex and Violence

Another good one, though there are one or two moments that are just surreal for its own sake; daft without being particularly funny. The sketch about the working class playwright who's upset that his son wants to be a coal miner is in this one, a borderline classic though not one of my own favourites. I loved Cleese and Palin as two exuberant Frenchmen giving a bizarre presentation about flying sheep.

Carol Cleveland makes her first appearance as the occasional eye candy in the marraige guidance counsellor sketch. There's a piece about Queen Victoria and Gladstone that misses the mark. Lukewarm at best.

Not quite as good as the first one.

[Slim]

1:03 How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away

Some excessive daftness - I don't know if it's just aged badly, but to me a bloke in a suit of armour holding a rubber chicken for its own sake isn't particularly funny.

But on the whole - very good. I especially liked the classic Bicycle Repairman sketch, surely one of the all-time classics.

But even better is the restaurant sketch, another perennial favourite. Genius.

The old "nudge, nudge" sketch - appropriated a year or two later to sell Breakaway bars - is in this one as well. Say no more.

[Slim]

1:04 Owl-Stretching Time

A strong one. There's an overlong and not-particularly-funny sketch about Terry Jones attempting repeatedly to get changed on the beach, filmed in silent movie style (although it's in colour). But apart from that it's a strong one. This one has the brilliant self-defence against fruit sketch, with Cleese in a fantastic performance as a delightfully manic sergeant-major.

I bet Eric Idle insisted that this little piece he wrote for himself was rehearsed a few times.



I hate it when people don't trim their guitar strings properly.

[Slim]

1:05 Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century

I was a bit unconvinced by this one initially but it picks up strongly in the second half, firstly with the excellent customs officer sketch, then with the brilliant job interview sketch.

But it starts off with a very silly sketch about a service for depressed cats that plays a bit like a Gilliam animation, with stop-start camera work and trickery. My dad would probably have claimed that this was "too daft to laugh at" and he might have been right for once. The actual Gilliam animation is brilliant.

I was confused by the silly job interview sketch because I was sure I'd seen it before, with Tim Brooke-Taylor playing the part of the interviewee instead of Graham Chapman. And I had, it was in a broadcast filmed a few months earlier called How To Irritate People.

[David L]

1:04 Owl-Stretching Time

A strong one. There's an overlong and not-particularly-funny sketch about Terry Jones attempting repeatedly to get changed on the beach, filmed in silent movie style (although it's in colour). But apart from that it's a strong one. This one has the brilliant self-defence against fruit sketch, with Cleese in a fantastic performance as a delightfully manic sergeant-major.

I bet Eric Idle insisted that this little piece he wrote for himself was rehearsed a few times.



I hate it when people don't trim their guitar strings properly.

The bed-spread is 'of its time'. We had the same style. He could be nursing a boner under there - I would be, especially the year that was recorded 😆

[The Picnic Wasp]

I preferred the movies to be honest. In those days like many homes we had one TV. Friends used to rave about Python so I would sometimes plead my case for a chance to watch the odd episode. It was never going to be my parents' cup of tea but I found myself unable to defend it much of the time. A few classic moments here and there, but much of it tedious forced filler.

[Slim]

1:06 It's the Arts

Very, very good. The non-illegal robbery sketch. The brilliant Wizzo Chocolates sketch, that was on one of the albums that came out in the '70s. Perhaps best of all, the film mogul sketch.

Not all of it is the same high standard, but it's all good. There's a sketch about a German with a very long name - both Cleese and Chapman repeat it, in very convincing German accents, a couple of times. Must have taken weeks of rehearsal.

I was amused by Eric Idle's theatre-going Red Indian. I wonder if the BBC would show this now?

[Slim]

I preferred the movies to be honest. In those days like many homes we had one TV. Friends used to rave about Python so I would sometimes plead my case for a chance to watch the odd episode. It was never going to be my parents' cup of tea but I found myself unable to defend it much of the time. A few classic moments here and there, but much of it tedious forced filler.

The films were always second best to me. Much as I like Life of Brian and (especially) Holy Grail, the very best of Python is contained within their TV work.

The first Python film was actually a refilmed compilation of sketches from the first two series. I watched it once, some time in the '80s I think. Must have been on TV. Doesn't have quite the same energy of the TV show although the production values are (a bit) higher. Better sets and camera work.

Haven't seen anything tedious so far, but if I do I'll let you know.

Monty Python's Flying Circus is easily and by quite some distance the greatest comedy ever to be shown on television. None of the sketch shows that were influenced by it (Not The Nine o'Clock News, Little Britain, The Fast Show, Fry & Laurie, Mitchell & Webb et al) come close, athough some are very good.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I preferred the movies to be honest. In those days like many homes we had one TV. Friends used to rave about Python so I would sometimes plead my case for a chance to watch the odd episode. It was never going to be my parents' cup of tea but I found myself unable to defend it much of the time. A few classic moments here and there, but much of it tedious forced filler.

The films were always second best to me. Much as I like Life of Brian and (especially) Holy Grail, the very best of Python is contained within their TV work.

The first Python film was actually a refilmed compilation of sketches from the first two series. I watched it once, some time in the '80s I think. Must have been on TV. Doesn't have quite the same energy of the TV show although the production values are (a bit) higher. Better sets and camera work.

Haven't seen anything tedious so far, but if I do I'll let you know.

Monty Python's Flying Circus is easily and by quite some distance the greatest comedy ever to be shown on television. None of the sketch shows that were influenced by it (Not The Nine o'Clock News, Little Britain, The Fast Show, Fry & Laurie, Mitchell & Webb et al) come close, athough some are very good.

Totally agree that they created something amazing, almost a new genre, and comedy was never the same again. But much of it was Marmite. Even Spike, who had funny bones, churned out a lot of very unfunny stuff. Comedy is just like music, personal taste. It can be commented on but should never be judged. I once told an acquaintance I didn't like The Cure. He never treated me nicely again afterwards. Strangely, I do appreciate them now. Taste evolves.

[Slim]

1:07 You're No Fun Anymore

Mostly taken up by a 23 minute piece - too long to be called a sketch - which is essentially a parody of science-fiction. This unusual tale features aliens in blancmange form turning people into Scotsmen - complete with ginger beard and kilt.

It's very, very silly but a lot of fun. There's a joke about Scotland being the worst tennis-playing nation on Earth, and even a reference to the First Scotsman to Win Wimbledon that Andy Murray has ruined for us now.

It's not great I admit. Actually I think kids might enjoy it more than adults. But I did like it. It has such a bizarre plot that I could only admire the imagination that went into it.

Graham Chapman has a scene in which he gets up close and personal with a very cute young blonde woman. You might be tempted to think he wrote that one for himself, but he wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as most young men.

The best part of this one is probably a sketch before the sci-fi piece, with Palin as an inexperienced accountant.

[Slim]

1:08 Full Frontal Nudity

Easily the best one so far. Consistently very funny from start to finish and contains two out-and-out classic Python moments in the Dead Parrot sketch and Hell's Grannies. Actually though my own favourite piece in this one is the sketch about the couple attempting to buy a mattress in a department store. Delightfully bonkers.

[Slim]

1:09 The Ant, An Introduction

Not as good as the last one but does contain a couple of very memorable Python moments - perhaps most notably the brilliant psychopath barber sketch, which segues into the lumberjack sketch. A bravura performance from Palin in the former especially. But the mountaineering expedition sketch is genius, as well.

Eric Idle appears very briefly as a Red Indian in one of the sketches, though he isn't browned up this time.

Cleese gets to grope Carol Cleveland's left breast in one sketch. I suspect he wrote that bit himself, because there's a breast-groping scene in a Fawlty Towers episode as well.

[Slim]

1:10: Untitled

For some reason this one doesn't have an episode title, usually shown during the closing credits. Not the best one so far but a good one. I must admit though I didn't remember ever seeing some of it. But there are some old favourites - the chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer, the pet shop sketch that's in essence the same form as the parrot sketch and the (yet to come) cheeseshop sketch - with Palin as a shop assistant and Cleese as the officious customer.

The sketch about the First Man to Jump the English Channel really benefits from the BluRay treatment, recorded as it was on film. Makes the next sketch a little jarring at first in terms of the video quality (videotape of course). I think that one made it onto one of the LPs.

Graham Chapman has a recurring part as a TV presenter, who refers to himself as an "old queen", and is called a "fairy" by Eric Idle's character. I assume he wrote it himself. It was common knowledge among the Pythons that Graham was gay, as Michael Palin records in his diaries, which I bought years ago.

[Slim]

1:11 The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom

It's not a great one. I liked it, but it's in the lower tier of the first series. Possibly the weakest of all of them. As usual there's a theme that runs through the whole show and in this one, it's undertakers. There's a long and not brilliantly funny sketch involving a group of undertakers carrying a coffin up a hill in what looks like Yorkshire, that appears in instalments.

Eric Idle appears as a man from West Hartlepool in one scene, although he doesn't attempt the accent. But then - neither do I, usually.

And speaking of the North East - there's a really odd moment when a TV presenter, also played by Eric interviews a footballer, played by John - about a football match played at the "Stadium of Light, Jarrow".

Sunderland's Stadium of Light was built about six miles from Jarrow in the 1990s. It's claimed (I've just googled this) that the inspiration for the name came from coal mining, and pit lamps. As far as I can tell no stadium of any kind was ever called the Stadium of Light before this.

Could someone have nicked the name from this old Python episode?

There's some eye candy again, including a rather weak sketch in which Carol Cleveland presents a history documentary dressed in lingerie, with the voice of a male historian (supposedly AJP Taylor but not really) dubbed on.