An Accidental Studio

A few weeks ago,

you received a critical award here in London,

the London Standard Film Award,

which was for your outstanding contribution

to British filmmaking.

There are a lot of people who consider you

to have kind of saved the British filmmaking industry.

Well, I think it was more of the award

for the only English-British company that's left.

HandMade Films to me was a signature,

this is gonna be quality stuff.

For me, to make films is my way

to help other people.

It was George Harrison's company.

Well, it doesn't get much cooler than that.

I mean, I spent 25 years in this pop group.

He said to me,

"I'm so grateful that you did this film."

I was like, "You're grateful?"

He came into the entire room,

and it was like meeting royalty for us.

That's what they always say in the papers, "movie mogul".

You know, there's always this battle

between the artists and the money people.

I can't imagine anything more risky

than this business.

And I don't particularly like being the money.

Every film that we've done has been rejected

by everyone in the world.

This was the world that I wanted to be a part

of building HandMade into,

that you literally would,

people would say, "I've got another script."

We'll do it.

HandMade felt like family.

They weren't a big studio.

They did go with quirky, off-beat, atypical stories.

Very good films got made in a very short time.

I can't think of any other period in British filmmaker

which was quite so rich.

It's new, and it's news.

Sheffield's ABC Cinema,

the last word for picture goers.

With 1,300 luxury seats,

with a 60 foot screen doing justice to the epic dramas

of which only the cinema is capable.

It was just nice in those post-war years

to get out the house and go somewhere

where there's all nice golden lights,

and little goldfish swimming in the foyer.

And yeah, we had some really neat cinemas in Liverpool.

In the 50s, they were fabulous places.

Art deco, wonderful places.

And generally, you know, the screens were big,

and it was something quite different

from any other sort of entertainment.

I mean, I went to see everything, of whatever standard.

It didn't matter what is was.

No matter how good or bad it was.

Where you were transported to a different world

for an hour of a half.

The industry had got into a very sorry state by 1982,

under the leadership of two major companies,

Rank and EMI.

When it comes to entertainment,

you can't beat a good film.

I think there were about 23 films made.

Typically in the UK, we make 90 to 120 films a year,

23 films in a year was really, really low.

And at the same time, the number of tickets sold

was going down and down.

The average Briton went to the cinema 11 times a year.

It was down to nought point four visits a year.

So things in the early 80s were really, really grim.

Rank and EMI famously said no to almost everything

that was interesting.

I remember exactly when the "Life of Brian" idea

rose up in our lives.

We were promoting "Holy Grail",

and we were on a little pub crawl.

There we were sitting, drinking,

and Eric said, "Jesus Christ's Lust for Glory",

and ideas came out very quickly.

Of course, we didn't use most of them because

they were too blasphemous and we never wanted

to pick on Jesus.

In fact, he was okay when you look at the Bible.

It was the followers and the churches

that needed a lot of kicking.

People started reading books, the Bible,

getting ready to go.

And a man called Barry Spikings who worked for EMI,

liked the script very much,

and got EMI to invest some money in it,

and the crew were sound out to Monastir in Tunisia

to start building some of the sets.

We were leaving on a Saturday,

and on Thursday we got the news

that Lord Delfont, Bernie Delfont,

had got around to reading the script.

He said, "You can't do this,

"we can't have EMI involved in something like this,

"it's blasphemous, it's rude,

"it's shameful, it's disgusting."

And there was no way he would be involved

with this non anti Semitic filmmaking.

And ordered Spikings to pull the plug.

When we didn't go to Tunisia,

we suddenly were caught with our pants down, nothing.

So, John Golston set off for America,

and we go around all these people in New York,

and we go to meetings,

and they say "What's it about?"

Well, it's a sort of, and they go, "Out."

You know, it was like selling springtime for Hitler.

Well, thank God that George Harrison

was a big Python fan, that's really it.

And that Eric had gotten over the years

quite close to George.

'Cause I met him out here,

at a screening of "The Holy Grail".

Partied for days.

And he was good fun.

I kept calling him and saying,

"We're looking for this money."

And he said, "No, don't worry, I'll get it."

And I say, yeah, sure, sure.

So I said I know.

As a Python fan, I'd certainly like to see it made.

I asked my manager can you think of how

to get them the money?

And he came back to me in a week,

he said, "I think I know how we can do it.

"We'll be the producers."

George and Denis were a team.

You know, 'cause after The Beatles break up,

there were all sorts of problems

with all sorts of things.

George had met Denis through Peter Sellers,

and Peter said,

"Oh, I know the man, you need help here,

"and finances, whatever it is."

Denis had done something extraordinary,

and basically put George back on his feet financially.

'Cause he's got a vast variety of skills,

as you know.

I mean, he's a highly trained lawyer.

And then he's got training as a merchant banker too.

Denis hadn't come up through the industry,

so I think to most people he was just a bit of a mystery.

And now for something completely different.

The Pythons, having been a big fan,

and still am, really.

Was that true that you sent a telegram

to the BBC?

Mm, nobody ever reacted to it.

But we never, ever received this message.

Oh, I don't remember, something like, you know, fab.

"Fab lads, well done, keep doing it."

I don't know, just some word of encouragement

that at least two people out there enjoyed it.

And you know, the classic thing is I once said,

"George, five million pounds on one film?

"Why?"

He said, "Well, you know, I just wanna see it."

What we did was, we pawned my house

and the office in London,

to get a bank loan,

and that was a bit nerveracking.

If I'd known that, I would've been terrified

about doing the movie.

Thinking that George's house was on the line.

But fortunately, I didn't know about it,

so I was blissfully unaware and I thought,

oh, they can afford that, so that's fine.

Terry Jones was an extremely good

director of comedy, I mean he knew how to shoot comedy,

which is not lots of cutaways and lots of fuss,

just get a group of people, see them interacting

and all that, you know.

Actually, I think we should do it.

And what have they ever given us in return?

The aqueduct.

What?

The aqueduct.

Yeah, yeah, they gave us that, yeah, that's true.

Yeah, and the sanitation.

Oh yeah, the sanitation.

Remember what the city used to be like, Reg?

Yeah, yeah, all right.

I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation,

two things the Romans have done!

And the roads!

Well, yeah, obviously the roads go without saying.

But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct,

and the roads...

Irrigation.

Medicine.

Education.

Yeah, yeah, all right.