30 Years of Monty Python, a Revelation

Hello and welcome to London's Leicester Square.

We're here for a very special scweening of Monty Python's Life of Bwian.

We're also about to embark on a thankfully short journey

to discover what we can about the quasi mythical

group of comedians responsible for the movie.

And if that weren't enough we've also discovered

sevewal vewy ware outtakes which have never before been seen.

Hail leader!

Stolen from a black bin bag found outside the editing room

these clips illustrate the true genius of the pythons.

Many consider the stuff left outside the movies to be

far funnier than that which the public paid to see.

- Miauw! Miauw! - Shh! Shh!

Coming up a bit later on, but first,

who and why are Monty Python?

The six young men that were to become Monty Python

met in an internment camp in 1941.

They quickly formed a close, almost fraternal bond.

We caught up with one founder member, Eric Idle,

at his new job, as a professional book signer.

I used to sign Michael Palin's books for a living,

but finally I found that people didn't want to read them,

so I just, you know...

I have a very rare unsigned copy of a Michael Palin book

which I'm selling at Sotheby's next week.

We eventually found Michael Palin working as a window cleaner in London.

Since the split, he has fallen on hard times.

I do parties, bar mitzwas, whatever you like,

you know I'll come along and wash for you, yeah, yeah.

Do anything for money, you know. You have to now.

Tallest of the Pythons, John Cleese was recently voted mayor of Leicester.

Despite a number of embezzlement charges

he retains fond memories of his old compadres.

Eric Idle, not quite as much of a bastard as Michael,

but running in close. Running in...

A bitch, would be a better word, yeah.

Well that Gilliam's alright, Gilliam's alright. He's American.

Animator Terry Gilliam became a fully fledged member of the group

after an undisclosed cash payment.

I remember that he, you know, he was incredibly tall,

very blond, very athletic, smoked a pipe.

and died ten years ago, that was the sad thing,

so it's a fond memory we have of Mike.

In some ways the most fortunate of the pythons,

the brilliant and handsome Graham Chapman sadly died in 1989.

Subsequent rumours of his wesuwwection have been strongly denied by the group.

Graham, we threw him out. And he then had to fake his own death.

I'm delighted he's dead.

Terry Jones now lives deep undergwound in a disused Napoleonic arsenal,

dweaming up new pwojects for the pythons.

Actually we were talking about doing a film called Monty Python's last crusade.

Terry Jones tried tremendously hard, really does his best all the time.

Yes, sad, you know.

But you know, one day it will work for him, one day.

It turned out the group shares a dark secret.

We knew once upon a time we had this extraordinary chemistry going between us.

And now we found out what it was all about, we were sextuplets,

we were all born in the same sex shop.

It was this genetic familiarity, this prenateral symbiosis

that created one of television's most memorable forty five episodes.

- And now... - It's...

We came in with a very conscious attitude of not being politically satirical,

there was a bit of social satire in there and we occasionally

mentioned politicians if they had silly names, like Reginald Maudling.

We were very consciously nonpolitical.

Know what I mean, know what I mean. Nudge Nudge, nudge nudge.

- Venezuelan beaver cheese? - Not today, sir, no.

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!

This is a late parrot!

I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wildflowers,

I put on women's clothing, and hang around in bars.

I, I feel that we changed the twentieth century, basically.

I think for example the atom bomb,

certainly the Russian success at Stalingrad,

the information revolution, and probably the 1953 cup final

would not have been possible without Monty Python.

You know, one of the odd things about python is that

it was never as good as the last thing we did

you know, like the TV series, the second series,

people said, oh well it's quite funny, but not as good as the first,

and the third series, well, that's quite funny,

but not as good as the second, and then, Holy Grail,

well, it's all right, but not as good as the TV series.

For their first feature film, the Pythons drew upon

their personal experiences of medieval Britain.

Together they formed a band whose names and deeds

were to be retold throughout the centuries:

The knights of the round table.

- Camelot! - Camelot!

- Camelot! - It's only a model.

I think when we made Holy Grail, which is the first one

we made all on our own, we spent about a year editing.

Do you think this scene should have been cut?

We were so worried when the boys were writing it.

But now we're glad!

It's better than some of the previous scenes, I think.

- Get on with it. - Yes, get on with it.

Yes, get on with it!

The first time we showed it to an audience,

we had about two hundred people I mean,

we showed it and everybody laughed for about the first four minutes,

and then, silence all the way through.

Now stand aside, worthy adversary.

- 'Tis but a scratch. - A scratch? You arm's off!

- No it isn't. - Well what's that then?

- I've had worse. - You liar!

Come on, you pansy!

Like when you see it, first thought, you're terribly worried,

is it going to be funny? - Yeah, yeah.

And after a while, oh it's alright.

Once you heared somebody else tell you the jokes

and you feel okay, it's okay to laugh.

Run away! Run away, run away!

Run away, run away, run away! Run away, run away!

Intoxicated by the loudness and length of the Holy Grail,

the Pythons decided to tackle a bigger fish.

Eric had this lovely silly title about Jesus Christ Lust for Glory,

we all laughted at that, and then we had the idea

that Brian was the thirteenth disciple,

he wasn't quite an official disciple but he was a kind of palable or the other...

And he, he got invited to all the events like the last supper

but he couldn't go to the last supper 'cause his wife had asked friends around

and he was going to come on later for a drink,

and we thought this was all very funny

and like a lot of Pythons stuff that we cook up together

we threw it all out and nobody ever bothered to write it,

because what's the fun of writing so that's already been agreed?

So we then started writing funny background stuff,

like I remember writing the stoning stuff,

which wasn't supposed to be part of the story,

it was just sort of funny background.

Now look! No-one is to stone anyone

until I blow this whistle, do you understand?

I remember that the whole thing for me started to fall into shape,

you'll get a different story from all of the pythons,

when Michael Palin read out something he'd written about Pontius Pilate.

And we said, you know, with this ridiculous accent, or voice,

or whatever you call it, speech impediment.

And suddenly that gave us, sort of opened a door,

to a kind of a story, and the whole thing started to fall into place

in a way that in retrospect was almost magical.

Now, what is your name, jew?

- Brian, sir. - Bwian, hey?

No no, Brian.

The little wascal has spiwit.

- Has what, sir? - Spiwit.

Yes, he did, sir.

No no, spiwit, bwavado, a touch of dewwing-do.

Oh, eh, about eleven, sir.

The life of Brian, no, rings no bells with me I'm afraid.

Wait a minute! We're supposed to haggle!

Sounds a rather boring film, has it anything to do with jedi knights?

- Alright, I'll give you ten. - That's more like it.

Ten! Are you trying to insult me, me with a poor dying grandmother? Ten?

Are there dogs in it? Or anything like that, anything interesting?

- He's offering me fourteen for this. - Fifteen!

Seventeen, my last word, I won't take a penny less, or strike me dead.

- Sixteen! - Done.

Yes, it's a long time ago, I can't really remember that far back,

but it sounds hilarious.

Crucifixion party.

Morning. Now, we will be on show as we go through the town,

so let's not let the side down.

Keep in a good straight line, three lengths between you

and the man in front, and a good steady pace.

Crosses over your left shoulders, and if you keep your backs

hard up against the cross beam, you'll be there in no time.

Graham was great casting for Brian, he was very very good.

Very good as Brian. 'Cause he'd cleaned up his act,

he'd stopped drinking about eight months before

and he was in great physical shape which pissed us all off,

because he was in better shape than we all were, and we hadn't been alcoholic.

Look, there he is, the chosen one has awoken.

What's interesting about Life of Brian is that it's not about belief,

it's about organised religion, it's about what happens

when any system of belief gets organised and then the rot starts to set in,

everybody starts disagreeing, and if they disagree strongly enough,

they'll start killing each other and torturing each other.

- Lay off! - This is the messiah, the chosen one!

- No he's not! - An unbeliever!

- An unbeliever! - Persecute! Kill the heretic!

One of the things that everyone remembers I think from the movie

is the farcicals at the time, especially in America.

Here you are dealing with a subject which many consider

perhaps not the correct subject for comedy.

In fact the first group to object to the film

were, was the New York rabinical society,

New York jews complaining about it.

The lutherans, and an anglican church,

and we were also condemned by the catholics,

and we were condemned by two out of the three main jewish denominations,

and I remember Eric said that we had performed the very useful task

of bringing these very godly people together for the first time in history.

Almost immediately upon release, Life of Brian was denounced

by most western religions, and nine out of ten dental hygienists.

I can laugh at jokes about the church, about the institution,

I think the problem for me is,

when you actually start getting effectively at christ himself.

- Well, who cured you? - Jesus did, sir.

I was hopping along minding my own business,