Monty Python Speaks! Revised and Updated Edition: The Complete Oral History

Monty Python Speaks! Revised and Updated Edition: The Complete Oral History
David Morgan

John Oliver

The complete oral history of Monty Python – one of comedy's most legendary and influential troupes – publishing to coincide with the 50th anniversary of their BBC debut.With a foreword by John Oliver from Last Week Tonight‘Gilliam is one of the most manipulative bastards in that group of manipulative bastards. Michael is a selfish bastard, Cleese a control freak, Jonesy is shagged out and now forgets everything, and Graham as you know is still dead. I am the only real nice one!’ Eric IdleWith their dead parrots, holy grails and spam, Monty Python revolutionised comedy for the rest of the world. They paved the way for everything from Saturday Night Live to The Young Ones to The Simpsons. Its founding members, including the supremely talented writers/performers John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, ushered in a new brand of surrealist comedy: a stream-of-consciousness sketch show that pushed the boundaries of format, style and content. Its legacy is not only important; it’s monumental.In Monty Python Speaks!, David Morgan has extensively interviewed the entire world of Python – from producers and collaborators like Douglas Adams, to the founding members themselves – to create the ultimate record of Britain’s most revolutionary and successful comedy act. Packed with rare and never-before-seen photographs, and told with all the group’s customary wit and irreverence (and spam), this is the inside story of a comedy phenomenon.

Copyright (#ue8ca10d0-2b7c-5fe0-befb-0ed9bff34644)

4th Estate

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London SE1 9GF

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2019

Copyright © David Morgan 2019

Cover design by Paula Russell Szafranski

Cover photograph © Michael Ochs Archives; Shutterstock

David Morgan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008336806

Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008336813

Version: 2018-12-11

Dedication (#ue8ca10d0-2b7c-5fe0-befb-0ed9bff34644)

To Gwen Dibley,

who was (almost) there at the start

CONTENTS

COVER (#u84a13715-7eb7-59c0-8db0-4e169cf9381e)

TITLE PAGE (#uea2b83f5-4ab2-5624-ad33-2629c8c30d43)

COPYRIGHT

DEDICATION

FOREWORD BY JOHN OLIVER

INTERVIEWEES

INTRODUCTION

PRE-PYTHON

BIRTH

TAKE-OFF

THE PYTHONS THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

The Control Freak (#ulink_76b5426a-f092-52c2-8761-b348a02a59da)

Splunge! (#ulink_2a8e7264-f46b-5d4c-87f6-b78c689dc2b2)

The Nice One (#litres_trial_promo)

The Cheeky One (#litres_trial_promo)

The Zealous Fanatic (#litres_trial_promo)

The Monosyllabic Minnesota Farm Boy (#litres_trial_promo)

The Group Dynamic (#litres_trial_promo)

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY … THE SAME?

FEAR AND LOATHING AT THE BBC

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

THE US INVASION BEGINS

THE FOURTH (AND FINAL) SORTIE

CAUGHT IN PYTHON’S ORBIT

LIFE OF BRIAN

FLYING SOLO

THE MEANING OF LIFE