Monty Python, the facts, 2

Monty Python, the facts, Part 2

This is continued from Monty Python the facts part 1

Post-Python reunions The Pythons last full work together as an ensemble was for the film Meaning Of Life in 1983. Since then, the Pythons have often been the subject of reunion rumours. The death of Chapman in 1989 (on the eve of their 20th anniversary) seemed to put an end to this speculation.

However there have been several occasions since 1983 when the surviving five members have gathered together for appearances - albeit not formal reunions.

In 1998 the five remaining members, along with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an interview (hosted by Robert Klein, with an appearance by Eddie Izzard) in which the team looked back at some of their work & performed a few new sketches. One of the show's more memorable moments occurred when what were supposed to be Chapman's ashes were "accidentally" spilled- the person responsible for upsetting the urn was Gilliam – then hurriedly cleaned up with a mini-vacuum cleaner & a broom & dustpan. A significant amount of the ashes were also brushed under the rug.

On 9 October 1999, to commemorate 30 years since the first Flying Circus television broadcast, BBC2 devoted an evening to Python programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team, interspersed with new sketches by the Monty Python team filmed especially for the event; the program appears, though omitting a few things, on the DVD The Life of Python.

In an interview to publicise the DVD release of The Meaning of Life, Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, & I'm not joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of business rather than one of bad feelings.

The Pythons on the Meaning of Life DVD, using special effects to have a reunion... but not very seriously.A sketch appears on the same DVD spoofing the impossibility of a full reunion, bringing the members “together” in a deliberately unconvincing fashion with modern bluescreen/greenscreen techniques.

Idle has responded to queries about a Python reunion by adapting a line used by George Harrison in response to queries about a possible Beatles reunion. When asked in the early 1990s about such a possibility, Harrison responded: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead." Idle's version of this was that he expected to see a proper Python reunion, "just as soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead", but then he added a classic Python spin: "we're talking to his agent about terms."

2003's The Pythons Autobiography By The Pythons, compiled from a series of interviews with the surviving members, reveals that a series of disputes in 1990 over a Monty Python & the Holy Grail sequel conceived by Idle may have resulted in the group's permanent fission. Cleese's feeling was that Monty Python's Meaning of Life had been personally difficult & ultimately mediocre, & for this & other reasons did not wish to be involved. Apparently Idle was angry with Cleese for refusing to do the film, which most of the remaining Pythons thought reasonably promising. A still-smarting Idle refused to appear in what he saw as the Cleese-dominated reunion show a few years later (his place was taken by Eddie Izzard).

The members have continued to appear in each other's films. Terry Gilliam has directed Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones & Eric Idle in various non-Python pictures, Graham Chapman worked with John Cleese & Eric Idle in Yellowbeard & Michael Palin & John Cleese worked together in the acclaimed A Fish Called Wanda & Fierce Creatures. Terry Jones' 1996 adaptation of The Wind in the Willows featured all the surviving Python members, except for Terry Gilliam, who was going to play The River but could not find space in his schedule. The next film reunion will be in Shrek the Third, in which John Cleese & Eric Idle have voice-over roles, though they don't share any scenes together.

March 2005 saw a full, if non-performing, reunion of the surviving cast members at the premiere of Eric Idle's musical Spamalot, based on Monty Python & the Holy Grail. It opened in Chicago & has since played in New York on Broadway, & is currently entertaining audiences in Toronto, Ontario. In 2005, it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards & won three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Mike Nichols & Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Sara Ramirez, who played the Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the musical.

Owing in part to the success of Spamalot, PBS announced on July 13, 2005, that the network would begin to re-air the entire run of Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as new one-hour specials focusing on each member of the group, called Monty Python's Personal Best. Each episode was written & produced by the individual being honoured, with the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Chapman's programme.

Graham Chapman Born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England on 8 January 1941, Chapman was originally a medical student, but changed to theatre when he joined Footlights at Cambridge (he did in fact complete his medical training & was legally entitled to practice as a doctor). Chapman is best remembered for taking the lead roles in The Holy Grail, as King Arthur, & Life of Brian, as Brian Cohen.

These were largely straight roles, but in the Flying Circus, he had tended to specialise in characters closer to his own personality: outwardly calm, authoritative figures barely concealing a manic unpredictability. In many ways, Chapman was the epitome of public-school respectability, a tall, craggy pipe-smoker who enjoyed mountaineering & playing rugby. At the same time, he was proudly gay, highly eccentric (Douglas Adams remembered seeing Chapman in his local pub, casually whacking his penis against the bar to attract the attention of the bar staff) & , by the start of the 1970s, an alcoholic who was beginning to cause problems for the other Pythons with his excessive drinking.

Chapman had been infuriating the others by performing drunk on stage, missing cues & forgetting lines (a habit that had begun during the later television shows), & had particular trouble filming Holy Grail in Scotland, where he got a case of delirium tremens, often called DTs. At the height of his alcoholism, he was reportedly consuming two quarts of gin every day. On accepting his definitive role of Brian, he finally made the decision to stop drinking, & was sober by the time filming began – his performance in the film is arguably the finest of his career.

Besides starring in Monty Python features, Chapman appeared in movies such as The Odd Job (which he also produced) & Yellowbeard (which he directed), also making several appearances on Saturday Night Live. He died of spinal & throat cancer on 4 October 1989. He is now lovingly referred to by the surviving Pythons as "the dead one." At Chapman's memorial service, Cleese delivered the irreverent speech he felt his co-writer would have wanted: having been the first person to say “shit” on British television, Cleese announced, Chapman would never have forgiven him had he missed the opportunity to become “the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'.” He was survived by partner of 24 years, David Sherlock & adopted son, John Tomiczak.

John Cleese Born on 27 October 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, Cleese’s family surname had originally been Cheese. His father, however, had it changed to Cleese when he joined the army during World War I. Cleese attended Clifton College, Bristol where he developed a taste for performing by appearing in house plays, then moved on to Cambridge, where he met his future Python writing partner, Graham Chapman.

Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest & angriest moments, & many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty. Many critics naturally make a connection with Cleese's own self-confessed neuroses (he has spoken openly about receiving psychoanalysis).

Unlike Palin & Jones, Cleese & Chapman actually wrote together, in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen & paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster, & later a broken car (this version was actually performed & broadcast, on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.

Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle-class accent & imposing height allowed him to appear convincing as a variety of authority figures - which he would then proceed to undermine. Many of his characters have a kind of incipient madness, but remain utterly straight-faced & impassive while behaving in a ludicrous fashion. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin & Jones), Cleese exploits his extraordinary stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.

Chapman & Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch & , perhaps most notably, the "argument sketch”, where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk & engage people in pointless, infuriatingly trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with) – the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression & diminutive Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence" wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work (though it is still Cleese who plays the "loony" half of the duo).

Cleese has recently had a species of lemur named after him, Avahi cleesei (or "Cleese's Woolly Lemur"). This was in recognition of his promotion of conservation issues after the release of his film Fierce Creatures, which featured such an animal, & Operation Lemur with John Cleese, which highlighted their plight on the island of Madagascar — their natural habitat.

Cleese recently played Q's assistant ("R") & finally the new Q himself in the James Bond movies. He also has done work for Shrek 2, & appeared in the first two Harry Potter movies, Rat Race, & several Saturday Night Live episodes. He will be in Shrek the Third with fellow Python member, Eric Idle.

Terry Gilliam, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on 22 November 1940, is the only non-British member of the troupe (although now a British citizen). He started off as an animator & strip cartoonist for Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine, one issue of which featured Cleese. Moving from the USA to England, he animated features for Do Not Adjust Your Set & then joined Monty Python's Flying Circus when it was created.

He was the artist-animator of the distinctive, surreal cartoons which linked the show's sketches together, & defined the group's visual language in other mediums (such as LP & book covers, & the title sequences of their films). He mixed his own art, characterised by soft gradients & odd bulbous shapes, with backgrounds & moving cutouts from antique photographs, often from the Victorian era. The style has been mimicked repeatedly throughout the years: in the children's television cartoon Angela Anaconda, a series of television commercials for Guinness, the JibJab cartoons featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the online comic strip The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria, & the television history series Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. The title sequence for Desperate Housewives & the visits to the land of the living in Grim Fandango are also highly Gilliamesque. The style of animation used for South Park was inspired by Gilliam's paper cut-out cartoons for Monty Python's Flying Circus. Most recently, episodes of the Food Network series Good Eats have also included Gilliam-esque linking segments.

Besides doing the animations for the Flying Circus, he also appeared in several sketches, usually playing parts that no one else wanted to play (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches by walking on & hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken) & took a number of small roles in the films.

He co-directed Monty Python & The Holy Grail & directed short segments of other Python films (for instance "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", the short film that appears before The Meaning of Life). Gilliam has gone on to become a celebrated & imaginative film director of such notable titles as Brazil, Twelve Monkeys & Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Eric Idle was born on 29 March 1943 in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England. When Monty Python was first formed, two writing partnerships were already in place: Cleese & Chapman, Jones & Palin. That left Gilliam in his own corner, operating solo due to the nature of his work - & Idle. Idle was content to be cast as the group loner, preferring to write by himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult in having to present material to the others & make it seem funny without the back-up support of a partner. Cleese admitted that this was slightly unfair – when the team voted on which sketches should appear in a show, “he only got one vote” - but says that Idle was an independent person & worked best on his own. Idle himself admitted this was sometimes difficult: “You had to convince five others. & they were not the most un-egotistical of writers, either."

Idle's work in Python is often characterised by an obsession with language & communication: many of his characters have verbal peculiarities, such as the man who speaks in anagrams, the man who says words in the wrong order, & the butcher who alternates between rude & polite every time he speaks. A number of his sketches involve extended monologues (for example the man who won't stop talking about his previous & unpleaseant experiences with holidays), & he would frequently spoof the unnatural language & speech patterns of television presenters. Additionally, like Michael Palin, Idle is said to be the master of insincere characters, from the David Frost-esque Timmy Williams, to Stig O'Tracy, who tries to justify the fact that organized crime master Dinsdale Piranha had nailed his head to the floor.

One of the younger members of the team - a year behind Cleese & Chapman at Cambridge, Idle was closest in spirit to the students & teenagers who made up much of Python's fanbase. It should not be surprising that the Python sketches dealing most with contemporary obsessions like pop music, sexual permissiveness & recreational drugs are Idle's work, often characterized by wry double entendre, sexual references, & other "naughty" subject matter - most famously demonstrated in "Nudge Nudge."

A competent guitarist, Idle composed the group's most famous musical numbers, most notably the Life of Brian closing number "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," which has grown to become a Python signature tune. He was responsible for the Galaxy Song from The Meaning Of Life & (with Cleese) Eric The Half-A-Bee, a whimsical tune that first appeared on Monty Python's Previous Record.

Since Python, Idle starred in his own successful series, Rutland Weekend Television, & from it co-created The Rutles, a Beatles parody, along with Neil Innes. He has had cameo roles in movies ranging from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut to National Lampoon's European Vacation to 102 Dalmatians to television shows such as The Simpsons, MADtv & Saturday Night Live & even starred in the 1996 "point-and-click" computer game Discworld, in which he voiced the game's protagonist Rincewind. He also continues to compose humorous songs, including the theme to the BBC sitcom One Foot In The Grave.

Idle's solo career faltered in the 1990s with the failures of his 1993 film Splitting Heirs (written, produced by & starring Idle) & 1998's Burn Hollywood Burn (in which he starred) - which was awarded five Golden Raspberry "Razzie" Awards including 'Worst Picture of the Year'. He revived his career by returning to the source of his success from the 1970s - & adapting Monty Python material for other media. He is the writer of the Tony award-winning Broadway musical, Spamalot, based on the Holy Grail movie. He also collaborated with John Du Prez on the music for the show. He has written another Monty Python-derived stage musical, Not The Messiah that will premiere in Montreal in summer 2007. He will be a voice talent in Shrek the Third along with fellow Python member, John Cleese.

Terry Jones was born on 1 February 1942 in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. The mildest member of Python, he has rarely received the same attention as his colleagues, but has been described by other members of the team as the “heart” of the operation. Python biographer George Perry has commented that should you "speak to him on subjects as diverse as fossil fuels, or Rupert Bear, or mercenaries in the Middle Ages or Modern China... in a moment you will find yourself hopelessly out of your depth, floored by his knowledge." Many others agree that Jones is characterised by his irrepressible, good-natured enthusiasm, which is perhaps the reason for his unflagging loyalty to the preservation of the group. However, Jones' passion often led to prolongued arguments with other group members - in particular Cleese - with Jones often unwilling to back down.

One of Jones' early concerns was devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, & it was largely Jones who developed the stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines & instead encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch to another - allowing the team's conceptual humour the space to “breathe”. Jones also objected to TV directors’ use of sped-up film, over-emphatic music, & static camera style, & took a keen interest in the direction of the shows. He later committed himself to directing the Python films Monty Python & the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, & Monty Python's Meaning of Life, & as director, finally gained fuller control of the projects, devising a visual style that allowed the performers 'space'; for instance, in the use of wide shots for long exchanges of dialogue, & more economical use of music. As demonstrated in many of his sketches with Palin, Jones was also interested in making comedy that was visually impressive, feeling that interesting settings augmented, rather than detracted from, the humour. His methods encouraged many future television comedians to break away from conventional studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated into the 21st century by shows such as Green Wing, Little Britain & The League of Gentlemen (comedy).

Of Jones' contributions as a performer, his parodic, screechy-voiced depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. His humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual in nature; a typical Palin/Jones sketch draws its humour from the absurdity of the scenario. For example, in the “Summarise Proust Competition”, Jones plays a cheesy game show host giving a series of contestants 15 seconds to condense Marcel Proust's lengthy work A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu; in the "Mouse Organ" sketch, he plays a tuxedoed man using mallets to bash mice who have been trained to squeak at a select pitch, & when “played” in the correct order reproduce the tune "Bells of St. Mary". In both cases, the laughs originate in the madness of the idea itself. Jones was also notable for his gifts as a Chaplinesque physical comedian, perhaps best demonstrated in the "Undressing in Public" sketch.

In 2004, Jones was the presenter & actor for the BBC's miniseries, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. He has also directed & starred in Erik the Viking, & in 2006 presented a series on BBC2 entitled Barbarians.

Since his major contributions were largely behind the scenes (direction, writing), & he often deferred to the other members of the group as an actor, Jones' importance to Python was often underrated. Recent Python literature has highlighted his lead role in maintaining the group's unity & creative independence. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2006.

Michael Palin Born on 5 May 1943 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The youngest Python by a matter of weeks, Palin is often lovingly referred to as "the nice one." He attended Oxford, where he met his Python writing partner Jones. The two also wrote the series Ripping Yarns together. Palin & Jones originally wrote face-to-face, but soon found it was more productive to write apart & then come together to review what the other had written. Therefore, Jones & Palin's sketches tended to be more focused than that of the other four, taking one bizarre, hilarious situation, sticking to it, & building on it.

These sketches take everyday situations: idle chatter in the sitting room; dining out—and introduce an unexpected rogue element: Cardinals of the Spanish Inquisition; an impossibly overweight man with the equally improbable surname of Creosote. From here, Palin & Jones commence to elaborate upon the newly created environment, carrying it to logical or illogical extremes: having waiter Cleese feed Mr. Creosote until he actually explodes, showering the other diners in viscera; or attempting to torture innocent old ladies with cushions & comfy chairs.

In recent years, Palin has starred in a number of documentary travel series for the BBC in which he visits various — usually remote — locales, often along some predetermined route; for example his series Pole to Pole & the BBC-sponsored Around the World in Eighty Days, where he followed the route of the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's novel of the same name. He also starred in Gilliam’s Brazil & Time Bandits, & hosted Saturday Night Live several times. Largely through his travel shows, Palin has become one of the most popular television personalities in Britain. He was also voted the best-looking member of the Monty Python group by the public.

Several people have been accorded unofficial "Associate Python" status over the years. Occasionally such people have been referred to as the 7th Python - in a style reminiscent of associates of the Beatles being dubbed "The 5th Beatle." The two collaborators with the most meaningful & plentiful contributions have been Neil Innes & Carol Cleveland. Both were present & presented as Associate Pythons at the official Monty Python 25th anniversary celebrations held in Los Angeles in July 1994.

Neil Innes is the only non-Python besides Douglas Adams to be credited with writing material for the Flying Circus. He appeared in sketches & the Python movies, as well as performing some of his songs in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a regular stand-in for absent Pythons on the rare occasions when they appear to re-create sketches. For example, he took the place of Cleese when he was unable to appear at the memorial concert for George Harrison. Gilliam once noted that if anyone qualified for the title of the "Seventh Python," it would certainly be Innes. He was one of the creative talents in the off-beat Bonzo Dog Band, appreciated for such nutty compositions as "The Intro & the Outro" & "I'm The Urban Spaceman." He would later portray Ron Nasty of the Rutles & write all of the Rutles' compositions for All You Need is Cash. By 2005, an unfortunate falling out had occurred between Eric Idle & Innes over additional Rutles projects, the results being Innes' critically acclaimed Rutles "reunion" album The Rutles: Archaeology & Idle's undistinguished, straight-to-DVD Rutles sequel The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch, each undertaken without participation from the other. According to an interview with Idle carried by the Chicago Tribune in May 2005, his attitude as a result of the dispute is that he & Innes go back "too far. & no further." Innes has maintained a diplomatic silence on the dispute.

Carol Cleveland as the stereotypical "blonde bombshell" in the Marriage Guidance Counsellor sketch.Commonly referred to as the "Seventh Python," or the "Python Girl," Carol Cleveland was the most important female performer in the Monty Python ensemble. Originally hired by producer/director John Howard Davies for just the first five episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, she went on to appear in approximately two-thirds of the episodes as well as in all of the Python films, & in most of their stage shows as well. Her common portrayal as the stereotypical "blonde bimbo" eventually earned her the sobriquet "Carol Cleavage" by the other Pythons, but she felt that the variety of her roles should not be described in such a pejorative way.

John Cleese's ex-wife Connie Booth, who went on to write & star with him in Fawlty Towers, was probably the only other significant female performer. She appeared in, amongst others "The Lumberjack Song" & as the "witch" in Monty Python & the Holy Grail. It has been suggested that she may also have assisted Cleese & Chapman in their writing.

Douglas Adams was "discovered" by Graham Chapman when a version of the Footlights Revue (a 1974 BBC2 television show featuring some of Adams' early work) was performed live in London's West End. The two formed a brief writing partnership, & Adams earned a writing credit in one episode (episode 45: "Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Liberal Party") of Monty Python's Flying Circus for a sketch called "Patient Abuse". In the sketch, a man who had been stabbed by a nurse arrives at his doctor's office bleeding profusely from the stomach, when the doctor makes him fill out numerous senseless forms before he can administer treatment (a joke Adams later incorporated into the Vogons' obsession with paperwork in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Adams also contributed to a sketch on the album for Monty Python & the Holy Grail. He had two "blink & you miss them" appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. At the beginning of Episode 42, "The Light Entertainment War," Adams is in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to the on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another, & never actually gets started. At the beginning of Episode 44, "Mr. Neutron," Adams is dressed in a "pepperpot" outfit & loads a missile onto a cart, driven by Terry Jones, who is calling out for scrap metal ("Any old iron..."). The two episodes were first broadcast in November 1974. Adams & Chapman also attempted a few non-Python projects, including Out of the Trees.

Stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, a devoted fan of the group, has occasionally stood in for absent members. When the BBC held a "Python Night" in 1999 to celebrate 30 years of the first broadcast of Flying Circus, the Pythons recorded some new material with Izzard standing in for Idle, who had declined to partake in person (Idle taped a solo contribution from the US). Izzard hosted a history of the group entitled The Life of Python (1999) that was part of the Python Night & appeared with them at a festival/tribute in Aspen, Colorado, in 1998 (released on DVD as Live at Aspen).

Monty Python casts a considerable shadow over modern comedy. As such, the term 'pythonesque' has become a byword in surreal humour. However, this is perhaps somewhat misleading, since the humour of Monty Python, whilst certainly nonsensical & surreal, is still strongly characterised by a preoccupation with sociological concepts such as the British social class system. These themes cannot be said to be essential to surrealist comedy as a whole

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