Monty Python's Flying Circus  Series 2, Show 9 Show Recorded: 25/09/70 TX: 24/11/70

b) In the script version of 'Bruces', Bruce 4 (Cleese) announces that New Bruce (Jones) has been told that he's welcome to "teach Marx, Engels and Lenin, provided he makes it clear that they were wrong". In the tx, the names above were abbreviated to the simpler "any of the great socialist thinkers". Also at the close of the sketch, as Bruce 1 (Idle) exclaims "Sydney Nolan! What's that!" the camera was meant to 'ZOOM IN DRAMATICALLY' on Bruce 4's ear and we were to hear 'A CHORD'. In the tx it's a simple cut and no chord, rendering the link from the sketch back to 'How To Recognise...' a bit limp.

c) Raymond Luxury-Yacht's nose was originally said to be "made of fibreglass" by the Specialist, although it's still referred to as 'polystyrene' in the stage directions.

d) The "precision display of bad temper" by the Derbyshire Light Infantry originally went on for a bit longer:

	SOLDIERS My goodness me, I am in a bad temper today all right, two, three, damn, damn, two, three, I am vexed and ratty. (SHAKE FIST) Two, three, and hopping mad. (STAMP FEET, ENORMOUS SHOUT OF RAGE) fume fume ooooooooh! (ACCOMPANIED BY LITTLE STAMPS) Ruddy heck I am wild and spitting with fury strewth Bah! Bother two three Livid Hah! That is scarcely a strong enough word, crikey scarlet with rage is more like it. (THEY COME SMARTLY TO ATTENTION) Drat drat drat drat! Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

The above extra bit of script was most probably filmed, but cut during VT editing. Also in the script, Palin's presenter introduces them as the Second Battalion" of the Derby Light Infantry. The subsequent soldiers are also said to be from the "second armoured parachute division", though no parachute reference made it performance.

e) In 'Cut-Price Airline' Idle says "Oh, we don't fly to America ... (VICAR NUDGES HIM) Oh, the American flight... Er, on the plane... the flying plane... oh yes, oh we do that..." He doesn't perform the line "the flying plane" in the tx. There are also some large chunks of dialogue removed from later in the sketch:

	MRS IRRELEVANT (CLEVELAND) Is it really 37/6d? MAN (IDLE) Thirty bob. I'm robbing myself. MR IRRELEVANT (CHAPMAN) Thirty bob! MAN Twenty-five. Two quid the pair of yer. Er, that's without insurance. MR IRRELEVANT Well, how much is it with insurance? MAN Hundred and two quid. That's including the flight. MR IRRELEVANT Do we really need insurance? MAN No. (VICAR NUDGES HIM) Yes, essential. MR IRRELEVANT Well, we'll have it with insurance please. MAN Right - do you want it with the body and one relative flown back, or you can have both bodies flown back and no relatives, or four relatives, no bodies, and the ashes sent by parcel post. MR IRRELEVANT Well I mean, is it likely to be dangerous? MAN Well let me put it this way... Where are you going to sit? MR IRRELEVANT At the back? MAN Yes, well that is dangerous. In fact the insurance policy doesn't cover you if you sit at the back. Here, it says specifically "provided you don't sit at the back". No, you stick up at the front and take a chance with the pilot. MR IRRELEVANT How long will it take? MAN Er, let me put it this way - no idea. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

Curiously, part of the omitted section above (none of which was present on the original BBC videos) is included in the Just The Words scriptbook (everything up to the line about ashes and parcel post) - which is either a lapse on the part of editor Roger Wilmut or points towards the existence of a longer, unreleased edit. Get in touch if you've seen it on any Yugoslavian copies.

The next section wasn't included in Just The Words or anywhere else:

	MR IRRELEVANT When are you taking off? MAN Well I'll be taking off as soon as we get the loot... er 8. Eight. MR IRRELEVANT Eight. VICAR (PALIN) SEVEN. MAN Ten for the pair of you. (VICAR NUDGES HIM) Yeah. Definitely ten. We'll be taking off at seven and again whenever necessary. And we'll be coming down, landing, wherever necessary. In America-ish. MRS IRRELEVANT When? MAN 3300 hours. MR IRRELEVANT What. MAN 2600 hours for the pair of you. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

The VT edit is pretty good, but noticeable once you know what's been cut out.

[NOTE: The copy of the script we consulted appears to have lots more extra lines Tipp-Exed out throughout this particular sketch. Now where can we find a copy of the rehearsal script?]

The "Underwater version of 'Measure For Measure'" originally had a longer ending:

	PAN OFF ANNOUNCER TO JUST AN EXPANSE OF SEA WATER. NOTHING ELSE AT ALL. DUBBED OVER THIS IS MUFFLED, WATERY SHAKESPEARIAN BLANK VERSE. WE ZOOM IN. TWO SHAKESPEARIAN ACTORS (TERRY J AND MICHAEL) LEAP UP. THEY DELIVER A LINE, TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO UNDER AGAIN. THE DIALOGUE CARRIES ON MUFFLED. PULL OUT TO SEE A ROWBOAT. THREE SHAKESPEARIAN CHARACTERS ARE SITTING THERE WAITING FOR THEIR CUE, PLAYING CARDS (A LA BACKSTAGE). ONE OF THE CHARACTERS LEAPS UP AND SHOUTS CHARACTER Servant ho! HE THEN GOES UNDERWATER AGAIN. THE SERVANT IN THE BOAT (JOHN) DROPS THE CARDS AND HOLDING A FLAMING TORCH STEPS INTO THE WATER AND GOES UNDER. THERE IS A SHORT PAUSE, LAUGHTER AND THEN APPLAUSE FROM LARGE AUDIENCE. AS MANY PEOPLE AS WE CAN GET, NOT LESS THAN SIX, LADIES AND GENTS IN EVENING DRESS EMERGE ALL TOGETHER AND START TO WALK OUT OF THE SEA HOLDING SOGGY PROGRAMMES. CUT TO ANNOUNCER, THE WATER IS LAPPING JUST BELOW THE TOP OF HIS DESK. HE IS LOOKING THROUGH BINOCULERS [sic] WHICH HE LAYS DOWN NOW ANNOUNCER (CLEESE) The underwater version of Measure For Measure. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

No "binoculers" in the tx (Cleese is instead seen finishing a phone conversation), and the water level is higher than originally stated. Maybe they had to do a lot of retakes!

g) In 'How To Recognise...' the script doesn't acknowledge that the photo refers to "the bottom two thirds" of the nape of the neck.

h) 'The Death Of Mary Queen Of Scots' originally featured a few extra lines - cut for TV but present in the version reperformed for Another Monty Python Record (Charisma 1971):

	THERE NOW FOLLOWS A SERIES OF NOISES INDICATING THAT MARY IS GETTING THE SHIT KNOCKED OUT OF HER. THUMPS, BANGS, PNEUMATIC DRILLING, SAWING, FLOGGING, ALL INTERLACED WITH MARY'S SCREAMS. THE TWO WOMAN LISTEN CALMLY. AFTER A FEW SECONDS: WOMAN'S VOICE (JONES) Lay off. MAN'S VOICE (PALIN) Take this Mary Queen Of Scots. THE SOUND EFFECTS OF VIOLENCE ARE REDOUBLED AS IS THE SCREAMING. BUT VERY QUICKLY THESE SOUNDS FADE AS THE SIG. TUNE 'CORONATION SCOT' IS BROUGHT UP LOUDLY TO DENOTE ENDING OF EPISODE. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

The script also mentions that during the second end-sig tune the much-abused Queen 'IS JUST HEARD TO SHOUT "GIVE OVER!"'. Beautiful.

A script note passed over for Just The Words:

	THE RADIO SET EXPLODES. THE TWO PEPPERPOTS, WHO HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE PREVIOUS PROGRAMMES WITH GREAT CONCENTRATION BUT NO SIGN OF ANY FORM OF EMOTION, NOW LOOK DISAPPOINTED. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

i) In 'Penguin On The TV' the Pepperpots were originally intended to 'swivel round' (in what reads like some kind of fey double-take) when noticing the penguin perched atop the TV set. In the tx they regard it for a few seconds beforehand.

There is no mention in the script of the two singing 'The Girl From Ipanema' as they turn the TV on so it's likely that this was a private joke ad-libbed on the day.

[NOTE: For later edits of the sketch 'The Girl From Ipanema' was overdubbed with a mumbled 'I Dream Of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair', although details are sketchy. Monty Python Speaks claims the change occurred for repeat showings (yet it was still '...Ipanema' in the 21/12/90 BBC2 repeat). Others suggest that the cut was more recent and only made for American video releases. Either way the reasons for the change are down to boring, sensible, grey-socks-and-flipcharts 'copyright'.]

If "intercourse..." was indeed an ad-lib then this also perhaps accounts for Cleese's somewhat surprised face after the line is delivered.

[NOTE: The final edit of the sketch appears to be made up of three takes. The first cut comes after "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.]

[NOTE (2): Not an edit-spot but has anyone else noticed how much like Ade Edmonson Chapman looks when he delivers the line "They stamp them when they're small!"]

The biggest edit in the sketch however takes place after 'Sgt Duckie's Song':

	CHORUS He's a little bit sad and lonely Now his baby's gone away He's feeling kinda etc. etc. (NB THEY ACTUALLY SAY ETC. ETC.) MUFFIN A lovely song, Duckie. DUCKIE Do you think it's Eurovision Song Contest material, sir? MUFFIN (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 there first with a terrible song about Garlands of Flowers... and sunny bowers and all that sort of thing. MUFFIN 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 F/X: 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... Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

No mention is made in the script of exactly why Inspector Muffin The Mule has placed a lampshade over his head by the time we rejoin the action.

k) The final 'How to Recognise...' announcement is originally written as "Number thirty. The End." In the tx it was Number thirty one", yet all the other numbering tallies with the script. So either Cleese miscounted on the night of recording or they inserted another one which was later cut.

Oh yes, the final script direction:

	RUN THE CREDITS OVER THE SONG, SO THAT THEY FINISH JUST AS HE FINISHES THE FINAL SONG. INSPECTOR ZATAPATIQUE BOWS TO THE LEFT AND THEN BOWS TO THE RIGHT. HE HOLDS THIS BOW. A WHITE ARROW IS SUPERED POINTING TO HIS (LET'S FACE IT) BUM. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Series 2, Show 9 (24/11/70)

18.   Series 2, Show 10 (01/12/70) has, to many Python scholars, always sat rather oddly within the run. It isn't a bad episode by any means but it does have an odd atmosphere, partly as a result of most of the episode having been shot on film (a total of 27'30 - with only a few short links actually recorded in the studio). The sketches themselves are also quite long and ponderous - 'French Subtitled Film', 'Scott Of The Antarctic', etc. 'Fish License' was also shot on film - seemingly on location in an actual post office - when it would arguably have benefited from being studio-based.

The decision behind using so much pre-recorded material in one show may not necessarily be artistic but one of convenience. For reasons that aren't quite clear, the Pythons recorded Shows 10 and 2 on the same evening (02/07/70). Having so much pre-filmed (and pre-edited) material would have pushed the session time down a little (no need for retakes or scene-shifting, just a basic projection and a couple of mics to catch the squawking laughs of that woman in the back row).

Show 2 has a lesser amount of overall pre-filmed material - about 13mins (which, including animations, seems to be the average for Series 2, bearing in mind that we're basing all this on the length of the finished tx's), and a lot more studio material, including 'Spanish Inquisition'. Two of the inserts are however quite lengthy. Again, this would presumably have made things easier on studio time.

It is quite an eye opener to know that these two shows were recorded on the same evening considering how differently they come across in terms of drive and performance. It is also worth noting that Michael Palin had voiced his disappointment with the way 'Fish License' turned out - and elsewhere had mentioned that he'd assumed 'Spanish Inquisition' had 'failed' as a sketch, until he saw the edited version.

This wasn't the only occasion during Series 2 where the team crammed two shows into one session. Another was on 10/09/70 - to record Shows 5 and 6. The former is another film-heavy episode (a total of 21'41) and there are only three studio-shot sections - 'Blackmail', Society For Putting Things On Top Of Other Things' and 'Rude And Polite Butcher'. There would of course have been a lot of stopping and starting in relation to the "I'm on film" amusements but, again, the lengthy chunks of celluloid which follow (most probably shown to the audience as pre-edited packages) would have saved time on the evening.

Show 6 meanwhile has an average amount of pre-filmed material, most of which is integrated into other sketches (eg the 'NF Dibley' films, the riverbank sequences and the location inserts in 'Election Night Special'.

[NOTE: According to official logs the warm-up man for recordings of Series 2 was guitarist Paul McNeill. He was paid £20 a show. Idle once mentioned an unidentified member of the team "saying 'oh, I met this bloke on holiday who plays guitar...' when they were trying to find a warm-up man, but don't recall the origins of the anecdote.]

The first snip must surely have occurred as Arthur Crackpot (Idle) says "We have a far more modern approach to religion...". In the edit we cut away to a pre-filmed joke about a church collection box signposted 'For The Rich' (a coin is deposited which travels down a series of pipes and onto Crackpot's desk. By the time we return to the studio and the coin finishes its journey, Crackpot has just finished reading from the Handbook with the words "...blessed is Arthur Crackpot and all his subsidiaries Limited". How they originally planned to accommodate the collection box film is open to conjecture. It is possible that part of the Handbook readings were intended to continue as a voiceover for the film sequence.

As for Ali Bayan and his Lunatic Religion, he does appear in the show but seemingly gets cut, mid-maniacal laugh, to be replaced by Graham Chapman's sensible priest.

There are some other very obvious VT edits throughout the sketch where things appear to have been removed - notably the cuts between 'Bishop Sarah' / 'Archbishop Gumby' and 'The Most Popular Religion Ltd' / 'Cartoon Religions'. Both edits (particularly the latter) leave behind evidence of an audience laughing at something the TV audience never got to see.

Something the viewers did get to see - at least initially - was a delightful piece of animation which depicted Jesus Christ crucified on a telegraph pole. This was cut for all repeats and no longer exists on the mastertape. Telerecordings of the sequence have however recently been found, after thirty two years. First, though, a bit of background story:

The first reference to the cut in biographies was in Robert Hewison's Monty Python: The Case Against (Methuen, 1981), although this was very much in passing: '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.'

Exactly when the 'self-censorship' took place has always been a matter of confusion. Several UK viewers claim to remember it from the original BBC transmission. When questioned about the cut in David Morgan's Monty Python Speaks! (Fourth Estate 1999, page 107) Terry Gilliam suggested that it was only cut 'on the reruns'. He also blamed John Cleese for its censorship - although Cleese denied having the clout necessary to demand such a snip at the time.

Andrew Pixley meanwhile suggests in his TV Zone coverage that BBC records indicate the sketch had been cut before transmission.

We had a little sniff around ourselves. The production file for Series 2 gives three different running times for the show - 28'57, 28'52 and 28'30 - although the paperwork does not make it clear to which edits (pre-tx, original broadcast or repeats?) these durations refer. The changes, which more or less reflect the absence of both the animation and another cut line from 'Conquistador Coffee' (see below), have actually been made in handwriting on different pages of a carbon copy - the blue, yellow and pink sheets each giving the different times. There is no mention of the subject matter or even an acknowledgement of the cut.

The full offending sequence was broadcast in the USA. Python fan Lee Johnson on alt.fan.monty-python elucidated on the 9th of February 1999:

	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).

[NOTE: It's worth noting that the jump-cut sequence doesn't feature anything from the pre-titles sketch 'Conquistador Coffee', although this may just have been an artistic decision.]

Anyway. Typical innit. You wait thirty years for a missing blasphemous Gilliam animation and then two come along at once.

The first copy was discovered in 2003 by the excellent Matthew K. Sharp who, during a discussion about the existence of Python kinescopes on Missing Episodes, mentioned that he'd come across a black and white telerecording of Series 2, Show 11. We asked if it included the obvious. The answer came back that it did. Not only the full 'Telegraph Pole' animation but an extra bit in 'Conquistador Coffee' in which Cleese berates Idle's ad campaign for references to "cancer and leprosy".

Sharp later put up this marvellous page. Top bloke.

And, for reference, here's our version of the animation sequence, with Sharp's screenshots recoloured:

	CARTOON VICAR We want you to think of us as your friend. THE VICAR SMILES WIDELY. THE TOP OF HIS HEAD COMES OFF AGAIN AND A DEVIL POPS OUT. THE VICAR NAILS THE TOP OF HIS HEAD ON AND SMILES CARTOON VICAR Now, as I was... oh. A PHONE RINGS - THE VICAR ANSWERS IT CARTOON VICAR Hello? What? I can't hear you! CUT TO A SOLDIER UP A TELEGRAPH POLE WITH A FIELD TELEPHONE SOLDIER (TERRY JONES) Hey, Ally, we've got a bad connection on line 422! Can you switch the points over? PULL OUT TO REVEAL THE TELEGRAPH POLES ARE CRUCIFIXES - WITH JESUS ON ONE OF THEM. SOLDIER No, no, that's still not got it, no, no, over this way. CLAP OF THUNDER - THE GROUND SHAKES AND SPLITS OPEN WITH A FANFARE, SATAN HIMSELF POPS HIS HEAD OUT OF THE CRACK, SURROUNDED BY RECRUITMENT SIGNS SAYING 'ONLY 2 YARDS TO THE ONE, THE ONLY PRINCE OF DARKNESS', 'GROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE' AND 'LIVE NOW, PAY LATER'. SATAN (IDLE) Did somebody call? [PAUSE] Oy, did I pick the wrong moment for sales talk-up![?] Terribly sorry, my fault. SATAN SHRINKS, TURNS INTO A BAT, AND FLIES AWAY SATAN Excuse me, please. CUT TO SHOT OF A WOODLAND CLEARING. THE BAT FLIES ACROSS IT AND EXITS THE FRAME CLEESE (VO) In this picture there are forty people. None of them can be seen. Monty Python's Flying Circus Series 2, Show 11 (08/12/70)

The second copy was acquired by archivist Steven Sigal who, not realising the amazing scoop he had, arranged to sell it on E-Bay (starting bid £30!). After a tip-off from us, explaining the rarity of the material, he changed his mind somewhat, withdrew it from sale, contacted Christine Slattery at the BBC Archives and offered to send it over so that they could make a digital copy to stick it in a lead-lined box and forget about it for another thirty years. Hooray.

As a result of all this, the 'Satan' footage was shown at 'Missing Believed Wiped' on the 29th November 2003. The event was announced thus:

	The 10th Anniversary Missing Believed Wiped will take place at the National Film Theatre in London on the 29th November. Exact time tbc but sometime around 4pm. There will be two bumper packed screenings and it is hoped the line-up will be as follows: Screening One: BBC2 Opening; ITN News bulletin; 1950's OB; extracts from various series (probably Mogul, No Hiding Place, Blackmail); Cool for Cats; complete Adam Adamant Lives: D for Destruction; plus more. Screening Two: Extracts from Scott On ...; Heart of Show Business (colour); Julie Andrews Hour (with Mama Cass); Till Death Us Do Part: Arguments, Arguments; Python Satan animation; The Morecambe and Wise Show; plus more. They'll will also be announcements about some major new finds and details of an important new initiative to help reclaim lost programmes. Sadly no room for ABC's seminal Moroccan Tree Plantations (1964) but there's always next year ...

Nobody thought to actually alert the Python office that any of the above was going on. So we did. Terry Gilliam was said to be extremely keen to see the animation after all these years. And it would appear that, should the BBC ever get round to updating the music licenses for the series so that it can actually be cleared for a DVD release (something which, in the light of the recent abominational Young Ones Series 2 release, they seem in no hurry to do) then 'Jewish Satan' would definitely be included.

We'll probably stick up a standalone page about this later, but for now - if anyone out there has telerecordings of Flying Circus then do check through them, there's good chaps. Compare them to the currently available edits. If there's something there that later wasn't, Python Productions would like to here from you. God, we sound like David Croft.

[NOTE (1): The telerecordings of Series 2, Show 11 are edited in other ways - the 'Crelm Toothpaste' sequence is cut down slightly, ending with the line "Crelm Toothpaste goes on to win with 100% protection" before cutting straight to 'Railway Timetables'. The second copy has 'Armed Forces Radio and Television Service' printed on the leader, along with 'Copy B'.]

[NOTE (2): An American documentary series about the history of comedy, the title of which we forget but which often aired on late-night ITV in the mid-80s, did one show which centred on risqué humour. Several clips of Flying Circus were shown, including 'Gumby Flower Arranging' and 'Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook'. If we remember correctly the footage shown was from telerecordings rather than VT.]

[NOTE (1): Inclusion of the original track in its entirety would have caused major problems in the event of the series being sold overseas. Ohio Express' recording of the song had already been licensed twice - by Kasenatz Katz productions and the American record label Buddah (amusingly the same label which later released Python LPs in the US) - before it was released in any other territories around the world. Moreover, using the genuine article wouldn't have been a fraction as funny. Autumn Chartbusters was, as you may have guessed, a 'not the original artists' hit collection, released in 1968 (Marble Arch was a Pye offshoot). The LP also included a version of The Kinks' 'Days'.]

[NOTE (2): Johnson notes that, in the camera script, Jackie Charlton and the Tonettes were going to perform Helen Shapiro's 'Don't Treat Me Like A Child'. We can only assume that either the PRS demands were unreasonably high or the team no longer found it funny enough on the day of recording.].

22.   Gilliam's spoof 'Surgical Garment' ad (Series 2, Show 13 - 22/12/70) gets knowing laughs from the audience due to the animation parodying a famous Babycham commercial of the day.

A Babysham commercial of the day		A Gilliam animation

The latter item, which had initially caused some unease within the group, had been referred up to Paul Fox (then Head of BBC1) at script stage. Fox allowed it to be recorded on the condition that it concluded with a disgusted studio audience invading the stage and putting a stop to the proceedings. The shooting script (typed 29/09/70) describes the scene like this:

	[Large section of text unreadable, then:] ANYWAY, IT ENDS WITH A LINE OF SUCH EPOCH-SHATTERING BAD TASTE THAT THE STUDIO AUDIENCE INVADE THE ENTIRE ACTING AREA AND IN PARTICULAR THIS SET, REMONSTRATING WITH THE ACTORS AND REFUSING TO ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE. A V/O COMMENTARY TO THIS WILL BE NECESSARY. AT THE END, THE COMMENTATOR INFORMS US THAT THE QUEEN HAS SWITCHED OVER AND EVERYONE STANDS TO ATTENTION WHILE THE NAT ANTHEM PLAYS AND THE CREDITS RUN. Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series 2, Show 13 (22/12/70)

No 'commentary' in the final tx of course. The audience simply stop in their tracks as they hear the drum roll of the National Anthem.

The show provoked a huge volume of complaints, including one from a vicar who wrote an incensed letter to Radio Times:

	'Monty Python': A Protest My friends and I endured Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC1) for the full half-hour on 22 December, fascinated by its crescendo of loathsomeness. Had the producers of this drivel no feelings for the sleepless bedridden watching the hospital act on their sickroom screens? Or for the recently bereaved, seeking escape from their sorrow by some late evening viewing, having the cannibal-undertaker sequence thrust before them? I seriously suggest that people who can think up this sort of rubbish should consult a psychoanalyst before they proceed any further. (Rev) Francis Coveney Battle, Sussex Ian MacNaughton (producer, Monty Python's Flying Circus), replies: I deeply regret that the Rev Francis Coveney and his friends were so deeply distressed at the (I quote his own words) 'crescendo of loathsomeness' in the whole half-hour of Monty Python's Flying Circus on 22 December. I have always believed in freedom of speech, and � in relation to television � freedom of choice. Surely as soon as Mr Coveney, or indeed any of his friends, realised how loathsome was the programme they had switched over to, albeit unknowingly, they had, at the turn of a knob, every opportunity to switch off again. Assuming, however, that the only reason Mr Coveney and his friends stayed tuned to the programme was to see for themselves how much more loathsome it could become, I would make just one point. The final sequence, the cannibal-undertaker sketch, was included for only one reason. We wanted to show there was a limit to Bad Taste. The fact that the studio audience objected vociferously throughout the sketch, and invaded the studio at the close and remonstrated in no uncertain fashion with the actors involved, did in fact make a point which I should have thought would have pleased Mr Coveney and his friends. Radio Times, 14 January 1971

	The Monty Python Protest Now I've seen everything � a producer, Ian MacNaughton, defending a show because its showed what bad taste can be, and using in his defence the fact that the studio audience protested strongly both during and after the show! Why should Mr MacNaughton think we need to be shown what is bad taste? Is he trying to say we should never criticise a show unless it is as bad as that particular episode of Monty Python? Viewers have every right to praise or condemn a show. As for the old 'switch it off' gambit, how do we know what is coming before we see it? The studio audience is almost without exception a tame and quiet-mannered bunch of people; their protests should have made Mr MacNaughton squirm with shame. I think there should be a large notice displayed in Broadcasting House: 'Licence' is not the way to spell freedom'. Finally, the day a BBC producer admits that he has been wrong, and the viewers right, I shall decorate my home with flags and fairy lights and ask that a national holiday be ordered. (Mrs) A. Ford Banstead, Surrey I am amazed to read that someone should actually find Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC1) loathsome. It is the funniest and most delightfully stupid programme on TV and I love it, cannibal-undertaker and all. In fact, John Cleese and the gang can come and eat me up any time! (Mrs) K.M. Pearman Basingstoke Radio Times, 28 January 1971

	BILBOW Stay with us for an exclusive report right from the heart of Python Regis. A Line Up reporter Michael Dean was smuggled into the final recording of the series at great personal risk for some unbiased muckraking about the hideous malpractices of Cleese, Chapman, Idle, Gilliam, Jones and Palin. Stay tuned. Late Night Line Up, (22/12/70)

And his intro to the actual item went like this:

	BILBOW We end Line Up tonight with that moment of deja vu we've all been waiting for. The present series of Monty Python's Flying Circus ended tonight and Michael Dean was in the audience to do what he could on our behalf to try to put a stop to the sort of bad taste exampled here. Goodnight. Late Night Line Up, (22/12/70)

So a reporter from Late Night Line-Up was part of the audience which stormed the soundstage? And then interviewed the Pythons? And this has most probably been junked? There is no God.

The show was discussed unfavourably at a BBC governors' meeting, with the dubious taste of the material concerning the Queen apparently being a particular point of worry. Unsurprisingly, the episode wasn't chosen for inclusion as part of the selected repeats aired in 1971, and was not shown again for quite some time after that.

At some point in the 1970s, an alternate edit was assembled which replaced all of the cannibalistic material with the 'Take Your Pick' sketch from Series 2, Show 7, which itself had been removed from its parent episode for the 1971 repeat run (researching matters at the BBC Archives in 1980, Roger Wilmut noted that the sketch had 'mysteriously disappeared from the videotape'). This provides something of an explanation of why the edited version of Series 2, Show 7 (with 'Railway Timetables' instead of 'Take Your Pick') was unintentionally repeated for so many years - the cut sketch was presumed to be present in Series 2, Show 13. However, this re-edited version of the show was never repeated, and it seems that for many years some kind of block was placed on its broadcast.

The full version of the episode was seen for the first time in over fifteen years when it was included on the BBC's original video release of Series 2 in 1985. Some surgery was necessary - the 625-line master of the original edit had long since been junked, and so everything from the cannibalistic Gilliam animation up to the end of the episode had to be re-inserted from a 525-line American mastertape, which was of noticeably lower quality than the rest of the episode. However, even if the colours are a little washed-out in places, the resulting reconstruction is surprisingly watchable and at least it's a complete copy, something that is particularly welcome in light of the fact that the censored material could easily have been lost forever. The reconstructed show was finally repeated by the BBC during the 1987 repeat run.

It's amazing now to think there was once a time when enough people cared about the show to go to all the bother of restoring material of this kind. In 2003, getting anyone to even recognise the existence of the above-mentioned 'Satan' animation is something of an uphill struggle.

[NOTE (1): A query - if, as Wilmut stated, the 'Undertaker' sketch had 'mysteriously disappeared' from the mastertape, then what source material was he consulting when he described in great detail how stilted and 'forced' the audience revolt at the end of the sketch looks, noting that 'because of the fire regulations, only about a quarter of the audience were allowed on stage' and the rest 'just sat there laughing'. (From Fringe To Flying Circus, (Page 214) ]

[NOTE (2): Both Johnson and Pixley mention a sketch filmed but cut from this show called 'International Chess and Life Saving' in which 'two Australian life-savers rescue a chess player'. Johnson mentions that this was to come after 'Exploding Version Of The Blue Danube' with a 'critic' linking us to 'Girls Dormitory'. An allusion to "International Chess" was later made by Cleese's Brigadier in Series 3, Show 9 (14/12/72), just before the lights go out, but this is probably unrelated.]

24.   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 German 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 would be possible, by returning to the original film stock, to re-master the original film for visual clarity (as per the recent Goodies DVD which looked rather glorious). 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): Keen-eared listeners will have noted that the Series 3 recording of 'Liberty Bell' runs at a slightly slower speed than the earlier series. This may well be because of the need to sync it together with the 'Fliegende Zirkus' animation sections dropped in. Amusingly the 1999 Best Of Monty Python video compilation box set did attempt to cut in a 'clean' set of Series 3 titles for the third volume. However the compilers didn't bother resyncing the audio properly so it still looks like shit.]

[NOTE (3): Cartoon artwork from 'Fliegende Zirkus' appears as collage paste-ups in Terry Gilliam's book Animations Of Mortality (Methuen), including the title-sequence doctors opening up a woman to extract a baby.]

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