MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS
Montreux Special
This is a rarely broadcast compilation of the first two series. Unusually however it features exclusive material and links. Here then, for those of you hungry for details, is a detailed description of that compilation:
It starts with Cleese’ usual ‘And now for something completely different’ announcement (taken from the first series show which featured him in a chicken shed) but then launches immediately into Series 2’s ‘Scott Of The Sahara’ sketch. A slightly amended version, with an alternate opening narration (Jones rather than Palin) and no ‘frank adult death struggle with a giant electric penguin’ sequence. The narration towards the end has also been re-dubbed (presumably because the audience had originally drowned out the lines. We can now hear that Miss Evans is pursued by a ‘man-eating roll-top writing desk’. As per the original show, the titles follow. However a sign immediately flashes up afterwards announcing the end of the show and, with the accompaniment of the BBC Globe we get a new version of Series 2’s ‘Five past nine and nearly time for six past nine’ which links to Series 1, Show 1’s ‘Face The Press’ sketch (with a hitherto unheard opening sig tune).
This continues into the Mrs Pinnet sketch, as before, but everything from the climbing over the garden wall bit onwards has been re-filmed/taped. The ensuing ‘Gas Cooker Sketch’ is a terse script-edit of the original, but still features the ‘gassing’ punchline.
The long line of gasmen leading from Pinnet’s house turn into a different animation from the original, which itself links to ‘Conrad Poohs and his Dancing Teeth’ and the first part of the ‘It’s The Arts’ animation .
Another new link features Cleese sitting sombrely on a big inflatable chair (previously seen in the ‘Ewen McTeagle’ sketch) which proceeds to deflate slowly while he announces ‘The Semaphore Version Of Wuthering Heights’.
After this is finished (cutting off after ‘Julius Caesar On An Aldis Lamp’) we experience ‘The Exploding Version Of The Blue Danube’ (with a newly constructed animation intro) before returning to Cleese on a now totally deflated chair and the final part of the It’s The Arts animation (with the Statue of David figleaf battle). This cuts to a newsagents where a radio broadcasting Beethoven’s 5th promptly explodes. The loony who originally confused Mrs Pinnet (now played by Michael Palin rather than Terry Gilliam) enters and ascends to the heavens with Eric Idle to discuss his newspaper bill and Cleese’ ‘Silly Walk’ civil servant enters, buys a paper and leaves.
This links to the original Series 2, Show 1 sketch (with a slightly longer edit of the black and white silly walks film – Palin’s top-hatted pointy shoes man continues his walk, reversing from right to left, similar to the version shown to the Live At The Hollywood Bowl audience). ‘La Marche Futile’ links to the ‘Man Trying To Fly’ film (Series 2, Show 2), then to the ‘Butterfly’ animation before arriving at ‘Blackmail’ (Series 2, Show 5) which is identical to the original apart from the ‘Stop The Film’ section which has been totally re-filmed (to accommodate the line-of-gasmen running joke). The background music is the same but boasts a middle-eight previously edited out!
Unlike the previous version (not to mention the version in And Now For Something Completely Different) the identity of the blackmailee isn’t revealed and instead the ‘Behind The Hot Water Pipes…’ address turns into animation and links to a completely re-shot version of the ‘TV Newscaster arrested’ sketch from Series 1.
This links to ‘Romantic Interlude’, again re-shot (entirely on film) and featuring several links to the previous item with Idle continuing to interrupt the proceedings.
The heavily symbolic imagery in the film section now boasts a quick shot of Cleese’ Silly Walk (again, to maintain some sort of running thread through the compilation). The original punchline (‘Are we going to do anything or are you just going to show me films all evening?’ is dropped in favour of a nice three-in-a-bed-shot of the couple and the newsreader who announces ‘something completely different’ and this links to the Battley Townswomen’s Guild’s violent re-enactment of the Battle Of Pearl Harbour (without its explanatory pre-fight interview), over which the credits roll.
As an afterthought, we get Ramsey McDonald’s striptease from Series 2 which fades out at the appropriate time.
[NOTE: Little is actually known about when the session for the extra material took place, though Cleese’ hair length provides a few clues. Some sources claim that the original show, as presented to the Golden Rose, ran for 45 minutes (and also included ‘Buying A Bed’).]
[NOTE (2): The three in a bed shot is used in the ‘Blackmail’ section of Monty Python’s Big Red Book (with the faces blanked out). Many of the images in the book in question are culled from celuloid (mainly the film And Now For Something Completely Different).]
[NOTE (3): The Montreux show has never been issued on video. Nor will it ever be.]
