NOTE: NOW CONTAINS THE FULL SCRIPT TO 'WEE WEE WINETASTING', ETC!
The Pythons' broadcasting history has been documented a dozen times over, yet most of it is vague, contradictory, wildly inaccurate and full of unexplained holes. Far too many books have been published on the subject, the writers of which often taking the easy option of plagiarising earlier (equally unreliable) works rather than researching the material first-hand. The current version of this entry isn’t as exhaustive as it should be but does at least question a few gaps in historical continuity.
As always, any additional information is welcome
1.
To kick off, here's a private moan. As anyone who knows 'Edit News' well will realise, we bemoan the wiping of original studio rushes of comedy programmes. The rushes of a show, aside from being of great historical interest to future generations can yield great entertainment in their own right and provide plenty of 'unreleased material' for collectors. It's shameful that even now, with DVD releases recognising the selling point of such exclusive footage, producers and performers still seem dismissive of keeping hold of stuff.We set ourselves a poser - was it possible that any of the studio VT rushes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus still existed after all these years?
We made some enquires as to the existence of rushes or out-takes. Python office manager Roger Saunders glibly insisted they were all wiped, while the BBC Archives claimed that ‘some rushes survive’ but did not go into any details. Miserable archives charlatan Christine Slattery at the BBC’s Windmill Road library continued that some Flying Circus out-takes exist in a big pile of unlabelled studio rushes, but she hadn’t ‘the time or the effort’ to process them, and there were no plans for any cataloguing to take place in the future. (With rushes being ‘editorially sensitive’, such cataloguing could only be undertaken by a resident archivist.)
It was, however, confirmed by the Python office that a substantial amount of film stock from the series still survives - presumably the original edited pre-filmed footage shown to the audience in a state prior to VT-editing (i.e., without audience laughter, perhaps in a looser edit, and surely boasting unbroadcast or lost material). The film cans (which were due to be junked until someone at the BBC uncharacteristically gave the Pythons the option of owning it) remained unopened in the Python office until 1998. We have, in our extensive toothcombing of Flying Circus (through viewings and research of biographies) noted several instances of the pre-filmed sequences having been edited, censored or otherwise tampered with prior to broadcast. If the original filmy bits are complete then they would surely yield loads of unseen bits and pieces which would thrill collectors.
Roger Saunders later claimed that all this material has been viewed and logged, revealing 'nothing of interest'. After a tip off from us, Saunders also claimed to have contacted the BBC archives and said that 'rushes material' amounts to little more than 'some inserts and rehearsal versions of parts of sketches, as such nothing to get excited about'. We sought the support of Dick Fiddy (TV archivist at the National Film Theatre) and Mark Lewisohn (bearded author of The Radio Times Book Of TV Comedy), neither of whom seemed particularly interested or willing to use their influence to research the situation.
We did, however, manage to interest Terry Jones in the idea of showing out-takes as part of BBC2's 'Python Night'. He seemed very keen on trawling the archives, and said he was about to meet with producer Elaine Shepherd to discuss the prospect. Sadly, the Python office now claim ignorance of our correspondence with Mr Jones (If you're skimming through this, Tez, we did attempt to 'keep in touch' as you requested but were fobbed off by boring people. Sorry about that. Hope you're well. How's the wife?).
As a final plea for hard facts we contacted Elaine Shepherd who did at least confirm that four Flying Circus studio sequences exist as ‘inserts’ - i.e., pre-recorded sections taped prior to the main recording. The sketches - all from Series 3 - are as follows:
1. ‘A few takes of Michael Palin as an
ageing Frank Bough’
Presumably the cobweb-strewn Bough at the end of ‘Olympic Hide & Seek’ (Show 9, 14/12/72).
2. ‘John Cleese and Michael Palin in bed
together’
Must be Arthur Briggs (and friend), designer of ‘The Credits Of The Year’, who is woken up at home and told he has won
the award (Show 13, 18/1/73)
3. ‘Cleese as
a gay major’
Almost certainly
Brigadier Farquar Smith, chairman of the British Well Basically Club
(Show 9)
4. ‘Eric Idle as a Scotsman reading the
credits...’
Mr Badger, of
course. (Show 9)
This is the first time anyone has confirmed the existence of specific Flying Circus out-takes. So bear that in mind next time some producer fobs you off with ‘Oh, it was a long time ago, they’ll all be wiped by now’ type drivel. They exist!
The fact that these sequences were pre-recorded on VT, rather than film, is unusual for the period (although Series 3 may have seen the inception of the practice). It is also not known when the material was recorded - the main studio recordings for Shows 9 and 13 were recorded a week apart, which may explain why the inserts appear together, but it is impossible to date the sessions. A likely theory is that they were taped before or after an earlier studio recording (in this case, Show 8). Although we have not seen the sequences - we will, if it’s the last thing we do...which, knowing the BBC, it probably will be - but we are assuming that they do not feature audience laughter.
The other question, of course, is why these particular instances were pre-recorded. Cleese and Palin in bed and the cobwebbed Bough are obvious, since the studio audience needed to react with surprise to a completed shot (as opposed to watching it laboriously being set up and muttering ‘Ho, so they’re doing that kind of amusement are they?’ under their early-70s breath), but the other two seem somewhat unnecessary. Cleese’s brigadier gets repeatedly hit on the head with a large hammer to curtail his campness, but this joke wouldn’t necessarily have been spoilt for the audience had they spotted the hammer beforehand (as they did during Show 7’s ‘The Show So Far’ monologue). And with Mr Badger, the fact that we see the huge weight before it drops on him is actually part of the joke. One theory is that moustachioed union rules forbade the use of a huge comedy stage prop while an audience was present. Another, slightly better, theory is that the team were simply making good use of a one-off experiment in pre-recording policy...which explains again why they exist in the same place, and also perhaps why no other such footage has been found.
To quote Elaine Shepherd, ‘All of these sketches made the final programmes, as far as I know, and the recordings we found were just [sic] the extra takes that were not used.’ Precisely how many takes, she doesn’t say...
The main question, however, is why these clips were not shown on Python Night. It continues a regrettable attitude among producers that untransmitted footage of this kind holds no importance per se, and that there is value only in complete sketches (or at least material which can be understood and appreciated as comedy in its own right, independently of the ‘hitherto unseen’ tag). This is desperately sad, and it employs a foolish logic too: namely, that - even if one is unmoved by clapperboards, cueings-in, and Cleese coming out of character - the mere fact that these fragments survive raises the possibility that further, more substantial footage may well exist elsewhere. That aside, the ‘Oh, they were used in the show anyway’ mentality means that we have all been denied the chance to judge for ourselves whether the above inserts are exciting. Which, let’s be honest, they bloody are.
Cleese and Palin lying in a comedy BBC bed awaiting their cue to look horrified and pull the sheet over their faces. Just think of it. It exists, people. It’s out there...
[NOTE:
Shepherd also unearthed a schools programme from 1971 featuring ‘the Python team on location’ and a 1969 news report from BBC Leeds. Neither of these were used. The Holy Grail production footage came from a 1975 edition of Film Night. ‘No one expects to find some major Python work buried in the library,’ she says, unaware that she’s already found some.][NOTE (2): Elaine Shepherd's Captain Beefheart documentary was great though.]
[NOTE (3): Another good source of rarely seen Python is the Silver Rose Of Montreux episode which was a compilation from the first two series, alongside specially-recorded links/animation and re-performed versions of some sketches. Originally broadcast in the UK on 16/4/71 (and last repeated during A Night Of Comic Relief Night 1989 at a million o'clock in the morning). More information in ARCHIVE REVIEW.]
2.
A sketch in episode five of the first series (2/11/69) features a policeman (Chapman) who enters a flat and plants some drugs on an innocent man (Idle). Idle notices his actions, and investigates the package discovering it to contain sandwiches. ‘Blimey!’ exclaims Chapman. ‘Whatever did I give the wife?’ This then cuts crudely into the middle of a huge audience laugh. The sketch originally ended with a shot of an inebriated woman saying ‘I don’t know, but it was better than sandwiches...’
3.
Series 2, Show 6 (20/10/70) featured an animated fairy story where a prince finds a spot on his face. ‘Foolishly, he ignored it,’ informed Carol Cleveland as the narrator. ‘And six months later he died of cancer.’ Although this was originally transmitted intact, the BBC were worried by the use of this word, and insisted that a more lightweight, comedy-friendly skin disease be substituted for future repeats. The word ‘gangrene’ was duly overdubbed in post-production. Unusually for the series, the word ‘gangrene’ does not appear to be voiced by any of the Python team themselves - however, the fact that it was a male voice made the censorship look like a joke in itself, the sheer crudity of the edit generating further amusement. The only untampered performance of the sketch still available is in their first film, And Now For Something Completely Different (1971).
[NOTE: It is odd that the BBC were so po-faced about medical vocabulary. Dr Graham Chapman often sneaked in such extremities as character names, possibly to impress his old medical school friends. For instance, a character in the ‘How Not To Be Seen’ sketch (Series 2, Show 11, 24/11/70) is introduced as ‘Mrs B.J. Smegma’. With this now a word in common usage, Python has achieved that rare thing - creating material which becomes more risqué with age, rather than less. Others include ‘Mr Glans’ in the ‘Exchange & Mart’ sketch (Series 2, Show 11, 24/11/70), a character named - in the script only - after the erogenous tip of the penis, ‘Plucky Reginald Vas Deferens’ from the Holy Grail soundtrack (1975), named after the tube that connects the sperm duct to the urethral opening, and ‘Trofemov’ from the ‘Gumby Cherry Orchard’ sketch on Another Monty Python Record (1971), a character from Chekhov’s meisterwerk but also the name of an operation which gives an androgynous child an artificial vagina. It’s also known that one of the many mooted titles for the series was ‘Cynthia Fellatio’s Flying Circus’. ‘Mrs Mittelschmertz’ (from Another…’s ‘Stake Your Claim’) sounds decidedly naughty too, although it’s actually German for ‘painkiller’. Mind you, its literal translation is ‘middle pain’, so it’s still a bit naughty.]
[NOTE (2): The line that caused Cleese’s Hungarian to hit Jones’ tobacconist in ‘The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook’ sketch is, like the ‘World’s Funniest Joke’ in the first show, gibberish…except for ‘stravenka’, which apparently means ‘luncheon voucher’.]
4.
The ‘Penguin On The TV’ sketch (Series 2, Show 9, 10/11/70) was the last of many, many re-takes. Cleese and Chapman were corpsing throughout, much to the genuine exasperation and anger of the crew. Even on the transmitted version, both performers are clearly holding in desperately suppressed hysterics (particularly noticeable after the line ‘Burma!’).
[NOTE: The final edit appears to be made up of three takes. The first cut comes after Cleese' 'Looks like a penguin.', at which point we change camera angles for Chapman's next line. During the line 'I can see that!' we get a rather obvious cutaway of the penguin in question which disguises the second cut.]
5.
For the first repeats of Series 2 (circa 1971), the ‘Spot The Brain Cell’ sketch was removed from Show 7 and replaced with the ‘Railway Timetables’ sketch from Show 11 (24/11/70). The replacement sketch followed a blackout after the ‘Furniture Race’ sequence, and also encompassed Cleese' ‘Gavin Millarrrrrrrrrrrr’ monologue, before cutting back to the original end credits of Show 7. These credits, which were superimposed over a notice showing the price of the licence fee were clearly intended as a comment on the tacky quiz shows that ‘Spot The Brain Cell’ exemplified; the joke still worked as a comment on pseudo-intellectual broadcasters like Millarrrrrrrrrrrr, but seemed somewhat out of place.
The edit occurred due to the death of Michael Miles, quizmaster of 'Take Your Pick', who had been parodied by Cleese in the sketch. Unlike the ‘Undertaker’ debacle (See Point), the original version still existed, and was included on the BBC videos released in 1985, but the censored version was still broadcast during repeat runs until 1990. Only in 1995 did someone alert the BBC and ensure that the original version was transmitted. (Mind you, this could have been an accident.)
6.
At the end of Series 2, Show 11, the entire show is recapped in a series of flashframes. However, there are two frames which do not come from the episode as shown, and feature (a) a telephone linesman on a telegraph pole, and (b) a pull-back from the same scene showing Satan emerging from a crack in the ground in front of a crucifixion scene using telegraph poles. This sequence was cut from the ‘Cartoon Religions’ animation for obvious reasons. It also probably still exists in celluloid form, if only the team or their management could be bothered to look for it (see Point 1).The incident is referred to in Robert Hewison’s book Monty Python: The Case Against (Methuen, 1981): ‘Ironically, in the light of future events, the Pythons themselves practised a small piece of self-censorship when they cut a Gilliam cartoon of a telephone engineer working on a telegraph pole which turns out to be one of the three crosses of Calvary.’
[NOTE(1): The full offending sequence was broadcast in the USA. Python fan Lee Johnson elucidates:
‘A friend of mine clearly recalls a scene from Episode 24 as it was originally aired in the United States, which no longer appears in the standard US broadcasts [and videotapes] of Flying Circus. This was a bit of Gilliam’s animation which followed the ‘Crackpot Religions’ sketch. After the animated piece in which a smiling devil figure’s head cracks open (still in the current broadcasts), a wire was traced which was eventually shown to be hooked up to a cross with Jesus crucified on it. Around him were a number of protesters with picket signs or some such thing. Then follows the sound of a phone ringing, after which Jesus tilts his head to answer ‘Hello?’ (and the cross, one realises, is really a telephone pole).’
Series 2 was first shown in the US in about 1975; why they utilised an earlier/alternate edit of the episode is unclear, as is the reason behind its current absence from US broadcasts.]
[NOTE (2): When questioned about the cut in David Morgan's 'Monty Python Speaks!' (Fourth Estate 1999) Gilliam claimed that the animation was only edited upon repeat broadcasts. He also blamed John Cleese for its censorship, though Cleese denies having the clout necessary for such a snip at the time.]
[NOTE (3): Another section cut from the ‘Crackpot Religions’ sequence featured ‘an Arthur Crackpot Handbook plugging the glories of Greed Is Good’.]
7.
The final 'Oh bugger!' from the Spanish Inquisition was a bone of contention for the BBC, until they realised how funny it was and let it pass.
[NOTE: Terry Jones was still in character as 'Justice Kilbracken' during the final Spanish Inquisition studio appearance and the part of Cardinal Biggles is taken by an unknown actor in sunglasses!]
8.
During the opening credits of the 'Bishop' sketch, the audience is having undue hysterics in the background. Working from shooting scripts in one of his page-wasting books, Kim 'Howard' Johnson noted that an original idea was to have the set fall apart as the Bishop entered Ron Devious' office and one theory is that this is what's causing the audience convulsions. Another theory is that Idle's nude lady revealed a tad more of herself to the audience than was planned.
[NOTE: During the 'Bishop' film that follows, the gang re-enter Devious' office, breaking in by using one of the Bishop's henchmen as a battering ram. This scene does show part of the set collapsing but since we cut away from this very quickly it suggests this was a genuine mistake.]
9.
During the audience applause after 'Sgt Duckie's Song' (Series 2, Show 9) we cut from a mid-shot to a close up of Cleese and Cleveland which then pulls out to reveal the original shot once again but with Idle (as Katie Boyle) suddenly present and Palin's 'Detective Muff' having hastily placed a lampshade on his head. The lampshade in question appears to have originally been part of the microphone which Idle is using and it's possible that a retake obscures a missing section which set up the joke in question.
[UPDATE: Well, we were partially right. The original shooting script reveals this extra section, snipped from the broadcast edit:
CHORUS He's feeling kinda etc etc
(THEY ACTUALLY SAY ETC ETC)
MUFF A lovely song, Duckie.
DUCKIE Do you think it's Eurovision Song Contest material, sir?
MUFF (DRAMATICALLY) I don't know... I just don't know...
DUCKIE Last year I almost had it in the bag, didn't I sir, when that special constable from the Hertfordshire Drug Squad got in the[re] first with a terrible song about Garlands of Flowers... and sunny bowers and all that sort of thing.
MUFF How did it go?
DUCKIE Something... like this...
(COMBO STARTS UP OOV. CHORUS HUMS. CAPTION: "The Special Constable From The Hertfordshire Drug Squad's Song.")
DUCKIE Garlands of flowers I give you / Roses and tulips galore / In sunny
bowers I see you / Loving you more and more.
CHORUS (WITH INCREDIBLY ELABORATE HARMONIC VARIATIONS) Garlands of flowers he gives you / Roses and tulips galore / In sunny bowers he sees you / Loving you more and more.
(SOUND FX: TERRIFIC APPLAUSE FROM PEOPLE IN THE ROOM. ENTER A BEAUTIFUL HOSTESS IN BLONDE WIG AND DUTCH ACCENT IN SHIMMERING EVENING DRESS DOWN TO THE GROUND. A MIC COMES UP FROM THE FLOOR.)
GIRL And that's the last entry. La derniere entree. Das final entry.
(etc.)
10.
In the courtroom scenes following ‘Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook’ (Series 2, Show 12), Cleese is visibly corpsing as Chapman's Clerk of the Court tries to think of 'an acceptable legal phrase'. Cleese is then about to rise to give a line (and looks like he’s awaiting a cue from someone), when some stock footage of women applauding appears. Jones reprimands the court for this intrusion, but - by this point - Cleese is already standing and about to give evidence, suggesting that the inclusion of the stock film originally interrupted a later, cut part of the sketch or was perhaps suggested during a break in recording (while everyone stopped giggling at Chapman's brilliant fart gag). Also, a door closes behind Cleese as he speaks, which could signify either a preceding scene which was cut, or perhaps the exeunt of an oafish props man (who had just brought on the cut-out of 'Abigail Tesler').
11.
Gilliam's spoof 'Surgical Garment' ad (Series 2, Show 13) gets knowing laughs from the audience due to the animation parodying a famous Babycham commercial of the day.
12.
These days, official broadcasts and video releases of the ‘Undertaker’ sketch in Series 2, Show 13 (8/12/70) are of somewhat smudgy picture quality in comparison with the rest of the episode. The reasons make interesting reading. The sketch was censored and replaced with a less controversial item for its first BBC repeat broadcast (researching matters at the BBC Archives in 1980, Roger Wilmut noted that the sketch had ‘mysteriously disappeared from the videotape’), and was only later reinstated for the 1985 video release. The original uncensored master of the show had evidently been wiped by mistake, and it was only possible to preserve the episode by copying the sketch from an American duplicate (luckily, BBC Enterprises had sold the series to the USA in the mid-1970s). Everything from the cannibalistic Gilliam animation until the end of the show has been converted from NTSC (which itself was converted from PAL in the 70s so it's amazing the scene is as watchable as it is).
13.
The third-series title sequence had been premiered for the first ‘Fliegende Zirkus’ German show. The middle-section of the sequence (everything bridging the bubbles and pipes intro and the Mediterranean scene, which had to be re-filmed anyway as they featured the Germanic title of the show) is very badly scratched. This is presumably because Terry Gilliam retrieved the original, poorly-stored film stock from Germany. The current video release of the German show reveals the original clean print of the sequence.
[NOTE (1): This clean print could be edited into the Series 3 shows for our viewing pleasure. But would we want that? It’s also true that the blurry, shaky, discoloured film used in Flying Circus is only that way because of antiquated transferring techniques. It is possible, by returning to the original film cans to re-master the original film for visual clarity. But would we want that either? It depends whether Python fans want to see the series as it was viewed at the time, or actually have an interest in excavating the series for material they may have missed. Our response is similar to the arguments about whether you should own The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper on vinyl or CD: why not have both?]
[NOTE (2):
The 1999 'Best Of' video compilation box set seems to have gone some way to revising this situation by a cutting in a clean set of Series 3 titles for the third volume. The idiot compilers didn't bother resyncing the audio properly however so it still looks like shit.]14.
By the third series, the production team saw the benefits of pre-filming cutaways to disguise edits in continuity. These wild shots were, however, wilder than most, and generally involved shots of Vikings blurting out non-sequiturs (e.g., ‘Then...’, ‘Anyway...’, ‘Lemon curry?’ etc). These sequences were always mistaken as Python anarchy, which presumably suited the team fine. Cutaways of this kind can be found in the ‘Merchant Banker’ sketch (Series 3, Show 4, 9/11/72), and ‘Biggles Dictates A Letter’ (Series 3, Show 7). Show 7 is the most cutaway-heavy show and the Pythons acknowledge this with Palin querying one such interruption in the 'Cheese Shop' sketch and newsreader Richard Baker delivering the 'Lemon Curry?' line during his 'Storage Jars' monologue.
Anyway…Lemon Curry?
[NOTE: An earlier example of this was used during the ‘Killer Sheep’ sketch (Series 2, Show 7, 27/10/70), where a small section of Idle’s dialogue was delivered by Gilliam (again, as a Viking) in order to link two takes together. (It is also shot against a blue background, suggesting that they originally planned to overlay Gilliam’s horned head over the scene to disguise the edit). This cutaway was presumably recorded on VT after the botched line, possibly as a last resort when it was found that the two takes simply couldn’t be edited satisfactorily, and a deliberately obvious editorial technique was considered preferable to a subtle one.]
IDLE
All we have is this small portion of wolf’s clothing which the killer sheep…GILLIAM
…was wearing…IDLE
…in yesterday’s raid on Selfridges.[UPDATE: Well then, a look at the shooting script of the sketch mentioned has revealed that the cutaway was actually planned in advance rather than as a cover-up for an edit. The only difference is that the original had Gilliam saying '...wore...' instead of '...was wearing...'. How peculiar. Well, it still contributes to the overall sense of anarchy that Python blah blah blah...]
[NOTE (2): Series 4, Show 5 returned briefly to the cutaway gag with a shot of a terrific explosion, out of which strides Palin who calmly delivers the line 'And then…' before the show ends suddenly.]
15.
VT-editing was still in its infancy in the early 70s, and the splicing of tape was often crude. This meant that edits sometimes started with one half-frame (a 50th of a second) of material that the editor did not want. These are impossible to pick up in real time, but a freeze-frame through the courtroom scenes from the first episode of Series 3 (19/10/72) using a nice expensive VCR which recognises both fields of a frame will demonstrate the phenomenon.[NOTE:
Another example is in the sketch where several works of art go on strike (Series 2, Show 13) - a colour separation effect allows us to look through a studio window at some Gilliam graphics protesting outside. When the scene cuts to a close-up of Cleese (as an auctioneer), the first half-a-frame depicts his face framed in the same window.]16.
In the ‘PC Pan-Am Gives Evidence’ sequence (Series 3, Show 1), there is a loud, off-camera crash at 16’15 followed by hysterical audience laughter and a visibly corpsing Palin. This is because the heavily-bandaged ‘Njorl’, who had been replaced at that point by a dummy (enabling his head to be removed in the next scene), fell backwards off the podium, and had to be re-positioned by the crew. Filming presumably stopped, as a cutaway of Njorl appears in the middle of Pan-Am’s address. The edit is also very audible, as Palin’s speech suddenly plummets in volume.17.
Idle’s ‘Stock Exchange Report’ (Series 3, Show 1) has an obvious edit in the middle. This is a monologue delivered without cutaways, so the jump in VT is very easy to spot. Whether this edit indicates material removed or a simple joining together of two takes is unclear. However, since Idle gets drenched with water at the close of the routine (and given that, under BBC constraints, there was no time for drying out), we can assume that he must have made his fluff quite early on in the piece.18.
Chapman, battling with alcoholism at the time of the third series, appears to be reading his lines from below the camera during his monologue about people exploding (Series 3, Show 2). This also seems to be the case during the ‘How To Do It’ Blue Peter parody, although his dazed look seems more in character here. It is unlikely that he was reading from a teleprompter, but it is possible that parts of his script were written on cue-cards. Alternatively, his lack of contact with the camera could simply be indicative of his desperation to remember the lines.
Graham Chapman's battle with the bottle
19.
Flying Circus was not necessarily the original outlet for some Python material:(a) Michael Palin revealed, in a specially-recorded intro for one of Paramount Comedy's Python Nights, that the ‘Fish Slapping Dance’ (Series 3, Show 3, 2/11/72) was originally recorded for a ‘Mayday pan-European comedy show’, and the full version of the sketch featured other ‘traditional British dances’. Notice how the quality of the film here looks discoloured (not to mention heavily scratched), suggesting it is a generation or two down the line.
[NOTE: Since writing the above, the 'Pan-European' comedy show insert has been found and broadcast as part of BBC2's 'Python Night' and does indeed feature a considerably less manky version of 'Fish Slapping Dance' which also boasted a longer intro and no audience titters. The showing of the full Python contribution to the show raised a few questions however in that a) it appears to have been reassembled for the showing (the piece itself seems to use a mixture of clear and manky stock, sometimes shifting quality mid-scene) and b) it's likely that the only copy they could find had to be redubbed - some of the dialogue is strangely ill-matching (the anachronistic reference in the voiceover to 'Sir Norman Fowler' is highly suspect for a piece recorded in 1971) and the sound of John Cleese' 60-year-old jowls flapping around can also be detected. A likely explanation is that the original piece never actually had an English dialogue anyway (or that the BBC wiped the only English-Language copy in existence). Elaine Shepherd, producer of BBC 2's 'Python Night' confirmed a few of these theories, claiming that the only extant copy they could find was in Sudvestfunk in Baden Baden, Germany, and that they 'restored the soundtrack with the help of the Pythons.’. So now you know.]
Idle and Cleese in scenes from Python's
contribution to Europe.
[NOTE (2): The mixing together of clear and manky film stock within the same sketch might actually have been a problem encountered during the original production then rather than now. A sketch in the first episode of Rutland Weekend Television about hiding under bishops mixes together two shots of Neil Innes emerging from under a cardinal - one clear; one manky. Quite what went on at the BBC's film-processing unit back then is unclear but - this being the 70s - few people watching would have noted the difference anyway. ]
(b) This discoloration and scratchiness is also true of the ‘Expedition to Hounslow’ sketch (Series 3, Show 2, 26/11/72). In fact, it looks like it was actually better quality film, but rendered inferior due to poor storage or conversion; certainly the detail is crisper in comparison with most Flying Circus film material, and seems more professionally shot. The scratchy quality is also in keeping with the middle section of Series 3’s title sequence, which was re-used stock from the Fliegender Zirkus show. As such, we would suggest that this sketch was recorded for German viewing, were it not for the fact that the premise of the sketch would be incomprehensible to anyone outside the UK! On this train of thought, since the bulk of the dialogue is Idle’s narration, the sketch would have translated easily into any language. In fact, the only character dialogue is the ‘I’ve had the excess nipples wobbled to remove tamping’ section, and - since this section appears to have been edited in from even mankier film stock, this would further prove the ‘alternative foreign version’ theory.
Expedition to Hounslow
20.
Terry Jones' first few lines in the 'Rat Desserts'/'Salvation Fuzz' sketch (Series 3, Show 4) are doused in echo. This mistake is rectified before Idle's first line. The 'Jerusalem' hymn which ends the sketch fades into echo at the end which explains why an echo-chamber was on standby, although it's odd that this effect was cued in live at the recording rather than during post-production.21.
The ‘Merchant Banker’ sketch (Series 3, Show 5) is clearly performed on a raised soundstage to allow for a fully-operational trap door (a crew member is visible as Jones falls through it). For some reason not all the cameras have been raised to the same level, so some of the sketch is shot from a child’s-eye view.
Merchant Banker sketch
22.
The ‘Argument Clinic’ material (Series 3, Show 4, 9/11/72) follows Idle’s announcement ‘And now, six more minutes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus’. It is, remarkably, exactly 6’00 in duration, meaning that Idle’s voice-over must have been added at a last-minute session, after the edit had been finalised.23.
The ‘Summarising Proust’ sketch (Series 3, Show 6) is one of the most famous pieces of Python censorship. Asked by Terry Jones what his hobbies are, Graham Chapman’s character says ‘golf, strangling animals and masturbating’. This was recorded, but censored for its original broadcast on 16/11/72 (with the words ‘and masturbating’ mixed off, leaving a second of silence). During the 1979 repeat, however, the line was intact, and it has since appeared uncensored on the 1987 repeat, and on both the 1986 BBC video and its BMG re-release. Did the BBC therefore make a separate ‘censored’ tape and retain the original? And was the reinstatement intentional? It’s also possible that the audio track was salvaged from American videotape - there is an audio edit before we join Jones and Chapman for the interview sequence.
[NOTE: I mean, fucking hell. Get this. That awful box set we mentioned earlier, right? Well, it features the 'Proust' sketch, but it's obviously culled from the censored version. The line, no thanks to modern technology, has now been re-edited to 'Golf…and…strangling animals'. It would appear that either the compilers are unaware that an untampered version exists or are so thrilled with the censorship story (which is also alluded to during the 'Live In Aspen' show, included in the box set with what looks like a recreation of the original censorship) that they prefer it to the actual comedy.]
24.
In the ‘Travel Agent’ sketch (Series 3, Show 6), the famous sub-punchline ‘what a silly bunt!’ has been cut very crudely, leaving the studio audience laughing at nothing and a shot of Palin attempting to surf the hysteria.
25.
In the ‘Sam Pekinpah’s Salad Days’ sketch in Series 3, Show 7 the scene suddenly changes from a bright sunny day to a pitch black night - this was due to technical delays, but the effect makes it look like an extension of the ‘pretentious director’ parody.
The following scene showing Idle as the film critic bleeding in slow-motion is on film, despite the preceding monologue being on studio VT. Again, this looks vaguely ‘artistic’, but is actually due to technical limitations - this scene was considered too complex and messy to be performed in front of a live audience, and technology of the time did not allow videotape to be played in slow-motion.
26.
Show 12 of the third series (11/1/73) opened with a pre-titles sequence parodying a party political broadcast presented in the style of a choreographed dance routine, followed by some animation of Wilson and Heath doing ‘The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy’. Some viewers remember the scene from its original transmission, and it was published in the ‘Complete’ Flying Circus script books (Just The Words, Methuen 1989, Ed. Roger Wilmut), but it has curiously disappeared from repeats and videotapes. To add further confusion, some American viewers claim to have seen a version of the episode which begins with a caption reading ‘The show will start immediately’.
A probable theory is that the item was removed for 1979 repeats due to the General Election at the time, but why it’s never been reinstated remains a mystery. The fact that its running time is a mere 26’28 should surely have alerted somebody to the situation. The animation sequence presumably still exists in the unopened film cans
27.
Okay then, here we go. Here's the new stuff. We'll start with our original observations concerning the cut sketches, then present those in full from the original shooting scripts.A sketch about wine-tasting (written by Palin and Idle) was cut from the third series on the insistence of both the BBC and John Cleese, who remains unrepentant about it to this day, the twat. Despite its almost legendary status among Python fanatics, the footage (if it exists) has never been shown, nor has the script, until this Sotcaa update been published anywhere. The only original clues as to its contents came from Idle cloudily recalling the sketch for the documentary Life of Python, recorded in 1989:
MAN (Tasting wine) Mm...it’s very (Sniffs wine) smooth, it’s flavourful...it’s...um...is it a Soitue perhaps?
STEWARD No, sir. It’s wee-wee.
MAN
(Taken aback) Ah...yes. (Tasting different wine) Ah, now this is obviously a much fuller, rounder flavour, probably south of the hill...um, would it be a Médoc?STEWARD No, sir - that’s wee-wee too.
‘And it just went on relentlessly,’
giggled Idle.[NOTE: This sequence, along with other anecdotes and unseen footage (e.g., American students singing the praises of Hazel Pethig, and Michael Palin re-visiting the scene of the ‘Fish Slapping Dance’ at Teddington Lock), only appeared on the superior, American edit of Life Of Python, and was cut for the BBC version in favour of a John Lloyd narration and useless interviews with Stephen Fry and Ben Elton.]
Other books also referred to the sketch - in David Morgan's 'Monty Python Speaks!', Gilliam remembers that the instigator of the wine-tasting has 'been laying down wee-wee for years'. Barry Took also recalls that the BBC came to him for advice on the sketch, to which he advised 'Well, let them film it…then cut it out'. An American Python biog called The Non-Inflatable Monty Python TV Companion by Jim Yoakum (he who brought us the Graham Chapman lecture-recorded-on-a-walkman CD) devotes a short chapter to the sketch, mainly quoting old incorrect sources, but adding to the mystery by claiming that confusion reigns within the Python camp over whether the sketch was actually filmed at all, that Chapman also claimed to have had a hand in writing it, that David Sherlock (Chapman's wife) claims to have once seen a video copy of it, and finally quoting a punchline to the sketch which Graham Chapman used to perform (solo) on his lecture tours:
STEWARD How did you like that wine, monsieur?
MAN That one tasted like shit!
STEWARD Ah! I see you're developing a keener palate!
It's doubtful that the word 'shit' would have featured in the BBC version of the sketch (it isn't - keep reading...), though this surely would not have been the reason why Cleese wasn't keen, being as he is quite proud to have been the first person to say the word on British television.]
‘Winetasting’ is one of three 'suggested' cuts instigated by BBC1 controller Paul Fox after viewing the entire series. The other two may have been the ‘Revolting Cocktails’ sketch (which the team later performed live and which is included on the 1974 Live At Drury Lane LP) and the ‘what a silly bunt’ line mentioned earlier. Although seemingly the villain of the piece, Paul Fox’s decisions are nothing compared to the 32 cuts which Bill Cotton and Duncan Wood (Heads of Light Entertainment and Comedy respectively) had originally demanded after monitoring the final two recording sessions of the series. These included some ridiculous misinterpretations of sketches - for instance, they were horrified by ‘the big penis that comes through the door’ during the ‘Mrs Zambesi’s New Brain’ sketch (it was actually Cleese holding a severed arm) and seemed over-worried about a glass of red wine (part of the winetasting sketch) which they assumed to be an allusion to menstrual blood.
Luckily, their puritanical (and rather disturbed) view of the series was shrugged off by Paul Fox’s somewhat more liberal attitude (his reaction to the proposed censorship of certain lines in the 'Oscar Wilde' sketch being 'I don't much like "A dose of clap", but then, who does?). Or maybe he was simply won over by several affectionate send ups of him, both in the 1971 Big Red Book (not only is he said to ‘discuss ‘The Six Repeats Of Henry VIII’ in the 'Radio Times' parody, but there is also a photo of him under the caption ‘Mr Paul Fox of the Slightly Silly Party - he could split the silly vote...’), and in the series itself - he is the author of ‘The Lady With The Naked Skin’ in the ‘Expedition to Surbiton’ sketch, (Show 2), Terry Jones plays him in ‘The BBC Is Short Of Money’ (ibid), while the ‘Story So Far’ animation (Show 5, 16/11/72) quite rightly features him as ‘The Good Fairy Of Programme Planning’.
As for Bill Cotton, he later got his name-check as the ‘dirty little man’ with the ‘naughty complaint’ in the final show of the fourth series (5/12/74). Also, at the end of the penultimate show (28/11/74), Idle - as a man from the Radio Times - implores ‘Oh, come on, you can give us another minute, Mr Cotton, please!’
[NOTE: Animation concerning cocktails is present in the tenth show from Series 3. This may have originally followed, or led into, the ‘Revolting Cocktails’ item. (It followed it in fact. Read on...)]
Another legendary out-take from Series 3 was a sketch about a big-nosed sculptor, which was never finished due to Chapman’s poor performance. A photograph from the dress rehearsal does, however, appear in George Perry’s Life Of Python (Methuen, 1983), although it bears the incongruous caption: ‘John Cleese as the mayor feeling uneasy about the expertise of the sculptor (Graham Chapman) in the ‘Half-A-Bee’ sketch’. Sadly, Perry (the fat fuck) mentions nothing about the attendant mystery behind the sketch’s omission from the show, nor does he elucidate on what the ‘Half-A-Bee’ sketch consisted of. It is possible that Chapman was to wear the prosthetic ‘Raymond Luxury Yacht’ nose throughout the sketch (the joke being that his art reflected his features, like the huge-toothed film director in Series 2, Show 11), but was not wearing it for the rehearsal (Good theory but no cigar...).
[NOTE (1): A song called ‘Eric The Half-A-Bee’ ended the version of the ‘Fish Licence’ sketch on Monty Python’s Previous Record (1972).]
[NOTE (2): A sculpture of a man with a huge Pinocchio-style nose can be seen behind the sherry-drinking vicar in Series 3, Show 10. (A sculpture of the vicar in fact)]
Now read the actual
scripts...
[NOTE (3): On the subject of production shots, a photo of Jones and Palin rehearsing the ‘Bavarian Couple’ sketch from Series 4, Show 1 (31/10/74) appeared on a Python trading card in 1994. It is unusual in that both actors are out of costume, and possibly out of character. Most ‘stills’ which appear in Python guide books (with the exception of the screen-grabs in Wilmut’s scriptbooks) are taken from dress rehearsals, and were intended as publicity for the show) Most are from the Radio Times archive). It is unclear why the ‘Bavarian Couple’ sketch was singled out in this way. It is possible that the photograph comes from a private collection.]
The best Python production shot in existence
29.
A subliminal shot of the old BBC Globe is evident at the end of Series 3, Show 13 (the final episode of the series, broadcast on 18/1/73), and follows the unsettling fade-out from ‘The Dirty Vicar Sketch’. Since this show under-runs by four minutes, it is possible that this indicated extra material. The globe is present on both the 1986 BBC video and the BMG re-issue.[UPDATE: It was due to a section being snipped out and inserted into another show, as you'll know if you've read all the unbroadcast scripts from earlier. And if you haven't then get back there this instant and read the fuckers. What did you think that link was there for? Decoration?]
30.
The second German show, Monty Python’s Fliegende Zirkus (aka ‘Schnapps With Everything’, performed in English and broadcast on BBC2 on 6/10/73) featured a performance of the ‘Princess With The Wooden Teeth’ sketch hitherto issued on Previous Record. The line ‘Because she’s a fucking princess, that’s why’ was bleeped; this was still the case when the show was repeated on BBC2 in April 1994, but this was possibly because it was transmitted in a pre-watershed slot. The excellently no-nonsense video release by Guerrilla Films in 1998 (featuring both German shows) leaves the line intact.[NOTE (1): Some German copies of ‘Schnapps With Everything’ utilise the original English dialogue with German subtitles. In these versions, ‘fucking princess’ is unbleeped. Also, some editions of the first Fliegender Zirkus show omit the entire ‘Bavarian Restaurant’ sketch. Paramount Comedy have broadcast the first show with subtitles. However, these don't necessarily always correspond with the dialogue: in the Lumberjack Song, for example, the line subtitled as ‘Just like my dear Papa’ is actually (translated into English) ‘Just like my Uncle Walter’. BBC 2's 'Monty Python Night' confirmed this by showing a properly subtitled version of the clip in which the German Lumberjack also reveals that he wants to be a little girl at the end of the song, possibly a reference to the masculine/feminine/little girl gender nouns of the German language.]
[NOTE (2): Idle’s cheesy punchline at the end of the ‘Hearing Aid’ sketch (‘You should see them after a couple of drinks...’) ends with him sporting a cigar, Groucho Marx-style, and saying ‘That’s all, folks - only a fairy tale’ (which links into ‘The Princess With The Wooden Teeth’). When the Paramount Comedy Channel showed the episode as part of its ‘Python Weekend’ in June 1998, an ad break was scheduled between the two sketches, meaning that the entire Groucho tag was cut and the irony of the ‘couple of drinks’ line completely lost.
31.
A piece of animation was cut from ‘The Golden Age Of Ballooning’ (31/10/74) involving America becoming the ‘new Scotland’, complete with a bagpipe version of The Stars And Stripes. Another cut section featured ‘The Life of Benny Zeppelin’.32.
In the ‘Michael Ellis’ episode (Series 4, Show 2, 7/11/74), the biologically-challenged lift operator at the department store recites what’s on offer at each level. As Idle leaves the lift, we hear her mention ‘Fourth floor...kiddies’ vasectomies’. This line has been over-dubbed. An earlier draft of this sketch (published in the Holy Grail book) had the line as ‘kiddies’ condoms’.33.
Okay, now we'd like some answers. If you've read through the notes on previous entries you'd realise that we regard the 30th Anniversary box set as a piece of shit. Unfortunately we can't just ignore it outright as it features exclusive material never before released. The material in question comes from Series 4, Show 3 ('L.E. War', generally regarded as the best of the fourth series) and comes in the form of longer edits of two sequences.First of all, the two pepperpots (‘Bloody repeats’) have an extra bit of dialogue, following the revelation that ‘the public are idiots’ and they may as well put on the last five miles of the M2. There are overtones of Mrs Zambesi’s new brain, following the ‘At last, they’ve done been put on somethin’ interesting’/‘Oh, most interesting’ exchange:
CHAPMAN They certainly ought to s’ow shummin’ what, like, which what we are about to...I’m sorry I got lost in that sentence, Mrs Elizabeth III. Could you help me out?
JONES Oh, certainly. How far had you got?
CHAPMAN (Correcting her) How far had I become.
JONES Oh, of course - so sorry. ’Ow far ’ad you become? (To herself) What? Hello!
CHAPMAN Hello?
JONES ’Ow far?
CHAPMAN ’Ow far what?
JONES What?
CHAPMAN Let’s just watch the motorway.
JONES Yes, let’s...
CHAPMAN I think that was the gist of what I was just about to be done being saying-ed, I was...
JONES Oh don’t start again dear, please. (Cut to programme planners conference)
The section gets very little laughter and both Jones and Chapman look on the point of losing it a bit. Even more exciting is this huge chunk, cut from the programme planners conference. It follows Gilliam’s entry as the Nazi in the wheelchair and Palin’s triumphant line that ‘You’re not allowed to suggest programme ideas’. The drunken Chapman misunderstands:
CHAPMAN I am! I’ve been in light entertainment, L.E., for the last twenty five tits... years. And I’m fed up with pusillanimous, chocolate pompous asses like you...who just do not, doughnut, jam in the middle...(Drifts off; Palin clearly corpsing)
GILLIAM There’s terrible trouble in studio five, sir!
JONES (To Idle) Never did like cripples. Too damn disturbing, eh?
IDLE Good television though.
JONES Really?
CHAPMAN (Head on table) Chocky fudge, chocky fudge...
PALIN My auntie had a budgie. Funny little chap, what was his name now? Phylemon...
CHAPMAN Chocolate...
PALIN Aristotle, er...Crippin...Cripple, Cripple, that’s it. Half a beak, no wings. Funny little chap, but he died of course - she trod on him. Terrible noise. He went (Makes loud shrieking noise)
IDLE What?
PALIN (Repeats the shriek)
IDLE Blind people are the worst, tapping you on the legs with their sticks. Not very funny.
GILLIAM It’s the world war, sir!
JONES No, no, no - cripples are worse. Those damn wheelchairs. They only do it to attract attention, you know. Hang-dog expressions (Makes hang-dog expression)...ugh, ugh, ugh!
IDLE Mind you, I should know - the wife’s in an iron lung.
PALIN (Triumphant again) ‘I Married An Iron Lung’!
IDLE No, I married an iron lung.
JONES ‘And Mother Makes Iron Lungs’!
CHAPMAN (Almost comatose) ‘Doctor At Iron Lungs’.
It’s then that Gilliam says ‘It’s the world war series in studio five - they’re not taking it seriously any more’. So there we have it. It’s the Monty Python team satirising public perception of the disabled. Like they gave a fuck. Bloody great!
So what's the problem, you may ask. Bit of unreleased Python - that's what you've been advocating for the past 750 pages. Fair enough, but it's the lack of information on the subject that irritates us. Nobody really knows the score as to what's survived. The Pythons hire one bloke to open all their mail and answer questions. His attitude is purely business-based. It's probably safe to say that few of the Pythons would actually know the transmitted versions of their work if they were strapped to a BMG video of it. No reason why they should of course but if they could at least hire somebody who cares about the material enough to make sure that business deals don't result in film rushes being trashed by Canadian twats (see EDIT NEWS / MONTY PYTHON FILMS); recognise that 'rehearsal footage and inserts' from 'Flying Circus' are something to get excited about (historically, if not financially) and generally check tapes properly for out-takes like the stuff on the boxed sets. If that stuff exists who knows what else there might be?
Whether or not the Python office actually realise that the box set contains longer edits is debatable. The sketches in question aren't generally considered as pleb-pleasers so it's probable that the compilers chose them especially for their extra bits. On the other hand such a discovery would usually result in a blurb across the front of the box which announces 'Contains Extra Spammy Parrots' or something equally dire.
It is possible of course that this was the intention but that The Pythons had some say over such PR twattery, if only not to raise the hopes of those sections of the audience who might not be familiar with the original edits of the sketches anyway.
35.
Neil Innes (who was the warm-up man for the fourth series) was due to perform ‘Protest Song’ at the close of the ‘Mr Neutron’ episode (28/11/74). If this was cut - at the script stage - for reasons of time, it perhaps explains Idle’s request for ‘one more minute, Mr Cotton’ .36.
Material concerning beekeeping and Hitler was also possibly cut from the final show. George Perry, ineptly summarising the episode in his book Life Of Python, wrote: ‘The last show in the series [featured] the finals of the Worst Family In Britain, and an interview with Surrey housewife Mrs Ursula Hitler, who was puzzled in 1939 when she received an ultimatum on Poland from the then prime minister.’ No such material is present in the episode, although Idle does introduce an item about 'Ursula Hitler' (who ‘revolutionised British bee-keeping in the 1950s’) at the close of the show, handing over to Terry Jones who gets cut off just as he is about to speak. This perhaps sheds more light on the ‘alternate edit’ theory (see below). It is likely that Perry’s main source was shooting scripts rather than videotapes (hence his ‘Half -A-Bee’ reference), and he may have been unaware that the sketch was removed. There is also a huge chunk cut from the ‘Icelandic honey week’ sketch, which may have originally tied in with the beekeeping reference.[NOTE: Robert Ross (The Monty Python Encyclopaedia, Batsford Books 1988) asserts that a ‘direct reference to Michael Ellis’ was used in the ‘Icelandic Honey Week’ sketch, which perhaps ties in with a scene featuring ‘Chris Quinn and the honey salesman’ cut from Series 4, Show 2. This material, removing the Ellis and Quinn references, was presumably reworked for Show 6.]
37.
The final episode of Series 4 (the last ever episode, 5/12/74) has three edits on its American videotape release, making it run at 27’29 rather than 28’01. One cut is the scrolling narration that comes between the titles and the ‘Doctor Whose Patients Are Stabbed By His Nurse’ sketch, another is the wife who calls down to Eric Idle (as the sentence-finisher) and announces that she’s had another baby, and the third is the talk of ‘Ursula Hitler’ at the close of the show, with Idle’s ‘Welcome back’ cutting immediately to the ‘Party Political Broadcast’ sign-off. Since America was contractually obliged not to tamper with the material (and since these cuts don’t seem to be the result of taste and decency problems), it’s possible that this was an alternate edit prepared and approved by the Pythons themselves. So which is the definitive version? And which version was transmitted originally?38.
The running times of the 45 TV shows are quite varied - many under-run by several minutes (e.g., the last two episodes of Series 3), while some (Shows 8, 9 and 11 from Series 3) exceed the half-hour slot, something which was presumably tolerated in the 1970s more easily than it is now.39.
As a parting shot to the BBC, the Pythons managed to slip in some genuine ‘Full Frontal Nudity’ in the final sketch of the final show. Answering a request to re-live her soft-porn days, Carol Cleveland danced knickerless on a table, lifting her skirt to reveal her pubic region behind Eric Idle’s nonsense news report.
40.
In 1989, BBC2 began a well-publicised, long-awaited, 20th Anniversary repeat run of the first series. However, the broadcasts jumped from Show 7 to Show 9, without any explanation being given. In fact, the offending item in Show 8 (originally broadcast 15/12/69) was the section at the end of ‘Hell’s Grannies’, about gangs of babies kidnapping fully grown men - the BBC were worried that it was insensitive following a baby-snatching incident which had been in the news that day. However, since the repeat run co-incided with the release of Roger Wilmut’s diligently-edited Flying Circus scriptbooks (Just The Words: Volumes 1 & 2, Methuen, 1989), many viewers noticed the omission, their irritation further roused by the fact that this censorship deprived them of the ‘Parrot Sketch’. Some viewers feared that the show had been lost or destroyed, and a brief snatch of the famous sketch was broadcast on Points Of View to placate such rumours. The first-series repeats ended after Show 10, and viewers had to wait a further ten months before the remaining episodes were shown, beginning with Show 8 on 28/10/90. Fortunately for the BBC, this allowed them to smugly publicise this second run in a ‘look, everyone - it’s the one with parrot sketch’ type fashion.[NOTE: These repeats continued into the second series, but stopped at Show 11 (Shows 12 and 13 were
dropped due to the Gulf War. The BBC feared that the ‘Ypres 1914’ sketch (Show 12), in which a group of soldiers play juvenile elimination games to decide who should commit suicide, was insensitive to viewers whose relatives may be serving in Iraq, and Series 1, Show 3 was inserted in its place. Show 13 also suffered a similar fate, presumably because of the ‘Lifeboat/Cannibalism’ sketch, and its slot was filled with a non-Python replacement).]
41.
In 1994, BMG began releasing all 45 Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Monty Python episodes on video. They did several things right - they dispensed with the unamusing restaurant menus/film posters/book club parodies which had adorned the BBC’s Series 2 volumes (the author of which remains unknown, although they smelt of Eric Idle and his ways) and the gushing editorial blurbs on the back of the short-lived Series 3 releases, sensibly deciding instead on Roger Wilmut’s no-nonsense sketch lists from Just The Words. The episodes were in the right order, and the identity of each episode was clearly labelled. Each cassette also had a uniform design - a solitary Gilliam animation (albeit one smudgily taken off-screen, rather than a reproduction from a Python book), against a white background. On the back of each tape were three screengrabs. It all looked wonderful.But then they had to fuck it up, didn’t they? They tried to be clever by placing Gilliam animation of a hand pulling down a blind (from Series 1, Show 13) between each show, presumably so those who did not have access to Wilmut’s scripts could determine where one episode ended and the next one began. No problem with this, of course - in fact, we quite like the idea (the BBC had rather annoyingly tried segueing some episodes on their Series 3 tapes - the studio applause at the end of Show 6 mixing into the canned applause at the start of Show 7, for example, and the ‘One more minute of...’ gag in Show 3 cutting straight into Show 4’s ‘Blood, Devastation, Death, War And Horror’), and it was a good idea that viewers new to Python came to each episode as a separate event. However, it was spoilt by the fact that - despite having Wilmut’s scripts in their possession - they sometimes got the cut-off point seriously wrong:
a.) The It’s Man’s chat show (with Ringo Starr and Lulu) ends Series 3, Show 2. Evidently confused by the second appearance of the opening titles, the compilers decided that this sketch began Show 3.
b.) The ‘Comedy Ahoy’ trailer ends Series 3, Show 10. But for some reason, BMG decided to screen it twice - once in its correct place, then again as the start of Show 13 (which opens with the ‘Thames’ logo anyway, and would have made no sense coming after the closedown/little white dot amusement).
c.) Further déjà vu was afoot on the first Series 4 video. Show 1 does not feature an opening title sequence, although it does include credits; however, the confused BMG compilers allowed the episode to run on into Show 2 (which opens with the titles immediately followed by the credits), inserted the Gilliam divider, and then presented Show 2 from the top. Thus, Show 1 had two sets of credits - the second of which included erroneous writing credits for John Cleese - plus the viewer had to sit through the titles/credits joke twice.
[NOTE (1): The second two examples would actually have worked fine, had they been original Python ideas (David Hamilton suddenly appearing after the TV had been switched off, as if he is part of some creepy Secret Television concept - fucking great!), but because they are mistakes made by boring people they deserve nothing but our disdain.]
[NOTE (2): This confirms that BMG mastered their videos from a continuous piece of footage, and - since the BBC archives operate a one-episode-per-tape policy - it is not obvious what this source was.]
[NOTE (3): The Series 4 tapes are still labelled Monty Python’s Flying Circus rather than Monty Python, presumably to keep things tidy. Is this a pedantic complaint? Fucking right it is. To be fair, though, the ‘...Flying Circus’ tag is actually used in the Series 4 title sequence. To be less fair, however, BMG are run by people with cancer of the comedy.]
