Throughout the following we will also be consulting a rather odd little cassette which features an audiodub of the full show - with some of the extra sections mentioned below preserved in all their 1970s glory. This may simply be a dub of the original TV transmission, but since it also include sections which Pixley suggests were cut before broadcast we're not so sure... (Enormous amounts of thankings to Jocelyn Briggs for this audio.)

	Show 5: "Mr Neutron"  Rehearsal Script - Typed: 20/08/74 Show Recorded: 09/11/74 TX: 28/11/74

The audiodub edit features an extra thirty or so seconds to this scene (before the GPO van pulls up) so the Concorde joke may be what's missing. Note that, in the shot which first shows the van, the scrap man's cart is suddenly filled up with nuclear weaponry, whereas in the previous shot there were only about three missiles. There's no sudden jump-cut in sound - instead we mix through to the sound of the van.

There is no actual dialogue in the missing section to quote, aside from the continued calls of "Any old iron..." and the odd clatter / doors being opened and closed. We wonder whether there may have been an expanded amount of Douglas Adams, who apparently played one of the Pepperpots in this scene.

b) In 'Postbox Ceremony' Palin's odd stresses on the word "box!" are not noted in the rehearsal script. Meanwhile, in the opening narration there is amusement concerning the voiceover man being unable to pronounce the word 'irrevocably', stammering over it for a while.

The audiodub of this scene is edited slightly differently. The more familiar version has the initial voiceover cut in over the top of part of the GPO man's French speech (note how the audience are still heard laughing at the "boit!" silliness underneath the narration), and finish in time for a pause and the German speech. It then continues as we cut to the train station.

In the audiodub the voiceover doesn't come in until after the GPO official has finished both French and German speeches. Moreover it's a completely different take - one which features the mispronunciation joke mentioned above.

The voiceover continues as per the more widely known edit as Mr Neutron gets off the train. There is however an extra section, in both the script and the audiodub. The following is a transcript from the latter:

	VOICEOVER (PALIN) Mr Neutron! The most dangerous and terrifying man in the world! The man with the strength of an army! The wisdom of all the scholars in history! The man who had the power to destroy the world. ANIMATION OF PLANETS IN SPACE Mr Neutron. No one knows what strange and distant planet he came from, or where he was going to!... Wherever he went, terror and destruction were sure to follow. MUSIC: SIG TUNE TO 'THE WORLD ABOUT US' For this little neighbourhood would surely never be the same again. Nothing was ever the same in the world of Mr Neutron! MUSIC ENDS CUT TO MR NEUTRON'S GARDEN. HE HAS THREE LITTLE PICNIC TABLE AND IS HAVING TEA WITH MR AND MRS ENTRAIL, A MIDDLE-AGED COUPLE. Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

The script notes that, for the cut section of dialogue above Mr Neutron was shown with a piece of paper in his hand looking up at a mock-Tudor house boasting a 'For Sale' sign. Have a quick listen.

Note that the World About Us sig tune was also used in Series 4 Show 6 over the filmed piece about the Batsmen of the Kalahari.

e) The following bit where Mrs Entrail discusses her son Gordon isn't present in the tx:

	MRS ENTRAIL (PALIN) He works�well, I say works, he plays the guitar most of the time (SHE EMITS A PIERCING LAUGH AT THIS � A DEAD BIRD DROPS ON THE TABLE). He works for the post office. MR NEUTRON (CHAPMAN) The post office? MRS ENTRAIL Yes, the post office. Oh! I keep forgetting you're from another planet! The post office is in charge of all the letters and, er, postcards and parcels and telephones and that. MR NEUTRON So if you want to get in touch with Shirley or Kenneth, you use�the post office? MRS ENTRAIL That's right. MR ENTRAIL (JONES) Terrible bloody service they give. I hate 'em. Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

The above doesn't feature on the audiodub. But the following extra bit of voiceover does, coming at the end of the above scene but before the link to the next:

	VOICEOVER So, Mr Neutron, the most powerful man in the universe, the man who could see through ten-inch steel, the man who could catch H-Bombs in his teeth, sat and bided his time, surely just waiting for the moment to use his incredible powers to destroy and lay waste all around him. Meanwhile, in Washington, at the headquarters of F.E.A.R... Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

f) For the audiodub there is quarter of a second's extra pause between Chapman's "It was Margot Fonteyn dancing 'Les Sylphides'... oh, it was so beautiful..." and Idle's next line. Yes, it may very well seem a bit pedantic and ridiculous to draw attention to it here, but somebody evidently felt quite strongly about it back then, otherwise why go to the bother of cutting it out, eh? In fact there are a few bits in the ensuing narration and music where the audio doesn't match the more familiar edit. There's also a little bit of extra voiceover as we join the next scene where Neutron is wallpapering his living room:

	VOICEOVER Already Neutron - who, you will remember, is infinitely the most dangerous man in the world, he really is - was gathering allies together. Men of weak will who he could bend to his evil trade of world domination! NEUTRON Try having an omelette for your evening meal... perhaps with yogurt and grapefruit. Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

g) As the Trapper and Mr Carpenter move over to the trees and attempt to engage the heavily disguised Teddy Salad in conversation there's an extra few seconds on the audiodub. We hear the Trapper saying "Come on, then, boy" to the dog. On the more familiar version there's a rather nasty celluloid jump-cut. Again, the audiodub boasts a looser edit in general for this scene, with extra pauses here and there. For the more familiar edit the ensuing voiceover obscures the Trapper's assertion that if Carpenter takes Teddy Salad for walkies he can "talk on the way". For the earlier edit there's quite a pause beforehand.

h) Part of the scene with the Prime Minister in his Downing Street office-cum-restaurant was recorded but cut from the final version of the show. This is of course in the original rehearsal script. The material has been quoted, almost in full - in David Morgan's Monty Python Speaks, which also claims that, despite its absence from current available masters, it was present in the version of the Series which BBC Time Life sold to American commercial channel ABC in 1975 (and remains one of the few sections which the station didn't censor). If this is the case does it point towards the audiodub discussed here being a special, longer, Time Life edit? If so, does a master copy exist? As mentioned previously, the longer edit of Series 4, Show 3 is most probably the version sold by Time Life. Yet, unlike 'L.E. War' the more recent showings of 'Mr Neutron' on Paramount have been the usual version.

The text below is mainly based on the audiodub rather than the rehearsal script. The stage directions for the cut section are ours.

	CUT TO A PICTURE OF THE OUTSIDE OF 10 DOWNING STREET. ZOOM IN ON THE DOOR. MUSIC: 'RULE BRITANNIA' TYPE THEME. CUT TO INTERIOR - A FEW CIRCULAR TABLE, DIM LIGHTING. THE DECOR OF A RATHER EXCLUSIVE RESTAURANT. SUBDUED MURMUR OF UPPER-CLASS PEOPLE STUFFING THEIR FACES. A GYPSY VIOLINIST IS GOING FROM TABLE TO TABLE PLAYING AND SINGING. IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS IS THE PRIME MINISTER AT A BIG LEATHER-TOPPED DESK, COVERED WITH OFFICIAL PAPERS, THREE TELEPHONES, AN INTERCOM, TAPE RECORDER, A PHOTO OF EISENHOWER WITH A VERY SMALL BUNCH OF FLOWERS IN FRONT OF IT IN A SORT OF SELF-CONTAINED SHRINE, AN IN/OUT TRAY, BLOTTER, ETC. THE INTERCOM BUZZES. VOICE (CLEVELAND) The Secretary of State to see you, Prime Minister. PRIME MINISTER (IDLE) Very well, show him in VOICE I beg your pardon? PRIME MINISTER (LOUDER) Show him in! VOICE Ah, that's what I thought you said. PRIME MINISTER Good. VOICE Sorry? I didn't quite catch the last bit? PRIME MINISTER (DETERMINED) Show. Him. In! VOICE No, no - the bit after that. PRIME MINISTER I didn't say anything after that. VOICE I'm sure you did. PRIME MINISTER No, I didn't VOICE You did! It was just one word. PRIME MINISTER Well, it doesn't matter anyway. VOICE Oh it does! You told me to write everything down! PRIME MINISTER Alright, I'll have a listen. VOICE What? THE PRIME MINISTER PRESSES REWIND ON THE TAPE RECORDER. WE HEAR CHATTERING SPOOLING BACKWARDS PRIME MINISTER I'm just gonna listen to what I said. HE PRESSES PLAY. WE HEAR THE EARLIER CONVERSATION AGAIN VOICE (ON TAPE) The Secretary of State to see you, Prime Minister. PRIME MINISTER (ON TAPE) Very well, show him in VOICE (ON TAPE) I beg your pardon? PRIME MINISTER (ON TAPE) (LOUDER) Show him in! (CONTINUES UNDER) VOICE I'm sorry? PRIME MINISTER I... I'm just listening to what I said! VOICE Oh, sorry. PRIME MINISTER Damn - now I've missed it! HE PRESSES REWIND AGAIN AND WE HEAR: PRIME MINISTER (ON TAPE) I am the Prime Minister. I am the Prime Minis... I am the Prime Minister... I am... PRIME MINSTER SHUTS OFF THE TAPE. VOICE Oh, and there's a Mr Bartlett to see you. PRIME MINISTER (AGITATED) I don't wanna see anyone! VOICE (PLEASED) I heard that perfectly! THE SECRETARY OF STATE ENTERS, WENDING HIS WAY THROUGH THE TABLE. HE SITS AT THE DESK. HE IS IN A RATHER AGITATED CONDITION. SECRETARY OF STATE Prime Minister. PRIME MINISTER Do take a seat. Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

Lovely back-reference to Show 1's 'Golden Age Of Ballooning' there - and one which the audience pick up on with pleasure. As you can hear.

g) Pixley's TV Zone article alludes to a filmed-but-cut cut scene from this show in which a dialogue coach played by Terry Gilliam 'gives an American character training in how to pronounce "OK".' This is present in the rehearsal script - he comes on after Teddy Salad has eaten his meatball. Gilliam wears a tracksuit with 'AMERICAN DIALOGUE COACH' on the back and carries a sponge bag and towel.

	CUT TO ARCTIC WASTES. THE WIND HOWLS. THE TRAPPER IS SITTING BESIDE A FIRE, PICKING HIS NOSE THOUGHTFULLY AND TENDING A STEWPAN. THE DOG BOUNDS BACK, CARPENTER ON THE END OF HIS LEAD, BREATHLESS FROM TRYING TO KEEP UP. TRAPPER (JONES) Well. Did he tell you anything? CARPENTER (IDLE) (WORN OUT BY THE WALK) No ... we chased sticks ... we chased a few reindeer... TRAPPER (PATTING THE DOG) You been chasing reindeer, have you? You're a naughty boy... yes... ain't you a naughty boy... CARPENTER Look, we haven't got much time ... He hasn't given me any information yet... TRAPPER OK. Tell you what, let's eat. You give him one of your meatballs, he'll tell you anything... OK? CARPENTER OK. A MAN BOUNDS INTO SHOT CARRYING A SPONGE BAG AND TOWEL. HE IS WEARING A TRACKSUIT WITH 'AMERICAN DIALOGUE COACH' WRITTEN ON THE BACK. DIALOGUE COACH (GILLIAM) No, no, no, you guys! It's 'Owww-kayy' - more round on the 'O'. CARPENTER Oh, I see. (LOUDLY) 'Owwww-kayy'... Is that better? DIALOGUE COACH That's better - that's good. CARPENTER Okay. DIALOGUE COACH No, no, no - 'Owww-kayy'! CARPENTER Oh, sorry, love, I wasn't doing the voice then. DIALOGUE COACH Oh I see. Carry on! CARPENTER Okay. (IN CHARACTER) Owww-kayy! TRAPPER Owww-kayy. CARPENTER Now then, I give him the meatball - then what? SUDDENLY THE DOG WOOFS, GETS UP ON BACK LEGS AND STARTS PAWING THE TRAPPER TRAPPER Wait a minute - he's trying to tell us something. A STRANGLED, STRAINED AMERICAN VOICE COMES FROM WITHIN THE DOG. SLIGHTLY MUFFLED PERHAPS DOG Carpenter ... er ... ugh ... ah...Carpenter... Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

Gilliam later referred to this incident in an anecdote for the Live In Aspen reunion interview (8th March 1998), explaining that he'd suddenly realised on set that he couldn't perform a convincing American accent himself anymore. In the absence of an out-take to illustrate this they played part of the next Teddy Salad scene with the puppet dog voiced by Palin. They should of course have used this.

h) The Dialogue Coach also turns up during the next scene. This is also present on the audiodub:

	CUT OT THE OFFICE OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER. HE IS NOW NUDE BEHIND HIS DESK. A KIDNEY BOWL OF WATER IS ON THE DESK; HE IS DABBING AT HIMSELF WITH A SPONGE. THE INTERCOM BUZZES, HE SWITCHES IT ON. VOICE (CLEVELAND) Still no sign of Captain Carpenter, sir... or Mr Neutron. COMMANDER (PALIN) Okay. Time's up! DIALOGUE COACH No, no, no. 'Owww-kayy'! COMMANDER Get out! (COACH LEAVES) There's only one thing left to do. But I enjoy doing it! We'll bomb Neutron out!! Get me Moscow! Peking! and Shanklin, Isle of Wight! Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

Also mentioned, during ...Speaks' coverage of the ABC fiasco, is the fact that The Pythons had had a clause in their 1969 contract precluding the BBC from tampering with their shows for repeat showings...

g) After the line '�and Shanklin, Isle of Wight', we cut to animation: TERRY HAS FUN WITH A WORLD MAP

h) Great script direction after Mr Neutron tells Mrs S.C.U.M. that he has won £5000:

	HER EYES GO ROUND AS SAUCERS AND ALL THOUGHTS OF RETURNING TO HER MARITAL BED VANISH UNDER THE IMPACT OF SUCH IMMINENT WEALTH. (STAGE DIRECTION COURTESY OF THE MILK MARKETING BOARD.) Monty Python - Show 5 (28/11/74)

i) This is interesting - towards the end of the txd version, Eric Idle, as 'A Man From The Radio Times', reads from said magazine in an excited voice, telling us how the story ends. In the original script, they intended him to sound bored and yawning throughout. He's not reading the Radio Times either. He finishes explaining what happened to Mr Neutron, says "That's how it ends", clears his throat and leaves the studio (a similar ending to the Holy Grail LP in fact). We then cut to him being hit on the head by 'an absolutely enormous' hammer outside Television Centre. In the tx the joke is that they've run out of time and can't show all the exciting scenes as promised ("Oh come on you can give us another minute, Mr Cotton, please."). The hammer scene made it to broadcast.

j) The original credits were meant to roll over stock footage of Hiroshima to the strains of Neil Innes' 'Protest Song'. And, yes, 'Had me a fucking good time' is in the script. The 'World domination t shirts' announcement (which in the tx accompanies Idle getting hit by the hammer) was also intended to go over the credits.

k) There's no mention in the rehearsal script of 'Conjuring Today'.

NEW  David Morgan mailed to mention that a few more of the above missing sections featured on ABC's edit of the material:

	The "Mr. Neutron" bits that you quote but which are not in current masters were in the ABC (U.S.) bastardization - in addition to Eric's Prime Minister, Terry G's American dialect coach (both appearances), the Narrator's over-the-top descriptions of Neutron's power, and also the differing overlay of narration and the postal box dedication.

54   Finally, the rehearsal script for Series 4, Show 6 (05/12/74):

	Show 6: "Party Political Broadcast"  Rehearsal Script - Typed: 22/08/74 Show Recorded: 16/11/74 TX: 05/12/74

b) In the script the 'Most Awful Family In Britain 1974' show is sponsored by 'Heart-attacked Margarine' rather than the tx's 'Heart Attacko Margarine'. This could be a misprint (unless there was a 'Heart' brand margarine in the 70s).

c) The (otherwise indecipherable) dialogue of the Fanshaw-Chumleighs, part of which was reproduced in Just The Words, is here revealed in all its glory:

	- What a super meal. - Absolutely super. - I must tell my little man at the grocers how super it was. - Oh what a super idea. - I'm having my face lifted again tomorrow. - Oh, how super, how absolutely super. - Pat and Max are coming down from Eton to help Daddy count money. - How absolutely super. - My man at Poirier's says I could have my whole body lifted for £5,000. - How super. Mind you, if Nigsy's going to cope with this wealth tax, we've going to have poor old Benji put down, and he was doing so well at Sandhurst. - Frightful pity. Monty Python - Show 6 (05/12/74)

d) The "Jodrell family of Durham" were originally called... (wait for it) the "Shite family of Durham". We almost ruptured ourselves when we read that.

e) There is no 'Icelandic Honey Week' sketch in this script (for reasons explained earlier). Instead, the pepperpot mother opens her door to a milkman. "Milko!", he calls, and the pepperpot smashes a milk bottle over his head. Also, a quick stage direction: 'JEREMY THORPE SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY ACCURATE. MAYBE A MASK NEEDS TO BE MADE.' And so it was, and a bloody unnerving one at that.

f) The 'Patient Stabbed By The Nurse' sketch is even less subtle in its original scripted incarnation, with the Doctor (Chapman) doing all sorts of sporting mimes throughout. He also exclaims "Bloody socialism!" at one point. At the start of the sketch, when he says "Dirty little man" in reference to the patient with a naughty complaint" (Gilliam), the patient in question replies "What?". Chapman then says "Nothing, nothing." There is however this very nice bit which didn't make it to the final draft:

	PATIENT (JONES) Doctor, do I have to answer this question on the economic development of Skelmersdale? DOCTOR (CHAPMAN) No need to go into any detail � just jot down the basic plan for rechanneling industrial resources. PATIENT I really can't think at the moment� DOCTOR If you don't know anything, just put a cross. Monty Python - Show 6 (05/12/74)

g) When the 'middle aged man' emerges from the cupboard in the 'Finishing Sentences' sketch, the stage directions state: 'HE HAS NO IGUANA ON HIS SHOULDER' (actually this one was reprinted in Just The Words but we thought we'd include it anyway). Meanwhile, Mrs Long Name (Jones)'s walk through the city was, according to the script, originally going to be accompanied by 'A COUNTRY AND WESTERN SONG � SEE NEIL'. Wonder if 'Crystal Balls' had been written around that time... In any case the tx simply used some swelling, dramatic music.

h) More stage direction: INTO FINAL CREDITS ON BLACK, USE OF NEIL'S EXCELLENT VERSION OF PYTHON THEME AS PLAYED BY ONE LEARNING THE GUITAR.

i) A few early lines, later changed, in Idle's newsreader amusement:

	NEWSREADER (IDLE) Good evening. Over 400,000 trillion pounds were wiped off the value of shares today when someone in Caterham said they didn't really like the new Stock Exchange that much. Sport: capital punishment is to be re-introduced in the first and second division. Any player found tackling from behind or controlling the ball with the lower part of the arm will be hanged. But the electric chair remains the standard punishment for threatening the goalie. Referee's chairman, Len Goebbels said 'at last the referee has been given teeth'. Finally, politics: the latest opinion poll shows Labour 14 points ahead with people who don't like sugar in their tea second, and people who think the mini-skirt should come back third. Monty Python - Show 6 (05/12/74)

There are no multiple handovers either � just the one to Paignton, followed by 'Welcome back'.

j) And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Well, we have anyway. For bloody years. Yes, it's...

Fans have long wondered about this lost sketch - with inadvertent clues left by George Perry, who, summarising the episode in his book Life Of Python (Methuen, London 1983), 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.' Perry's main source material for research was shooting scripts rather than videotapes (hence his earlier erroneous 'Half -A-Bee' reference), and he may have been unaware that the sketch was removed. Maybe he even remembered it from a studio recording.

Both Johnson and Pixley have alluded to the sketch, and it is of course present in the rehearsal script. In this version Idle's introductions leads straight into the film - there's no reference to Terry Jones replacing him at the desk:

	GENTLE MUSIC. MIX TO MONTAGE OF FADED 1920s-STYLE PHOTOS IN BLACK AND WHITE OR SEPIA � PERHAPS TERRY G COULD MAKE THEM UP. MOSTLY OF A NICE LADY WITH NET OVER HER HEAD WALKING AROUND HER HIVES IN A GENTEEL GARDEN. POSING WITH OTHER APIARISTS, DOING THINGS TO HIVES, ETC. ONE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SLIDES SHOWS HER IN A BIG FISH MARKET OR INDUSTRIAL FISH-CURING FACTORY HOLDING A BIG FISH. CAPTION: URSULA HITLER � BRITAIN'S GREATEST APIARIST CAPTION: PART 4: THE DIFFICULT YEARS VOICED-OVER Born plain Ursula Lloyd George in North Wales in 1897, she had changed her name to Baldwin in 1922 to avoid publicity. But when Stanley Baldwin became prime minister in 1923, she was forced to change it again, being briefly Mrs Doris Ramsey McDonald and Mrs Ursula Hoare-Belisha, before becoming Mrs Ursula Hitler in 1934. But her beekeeping had suffered from years of insecurity and confusion. Parts of the hive were still arriving under the name Baldwin and being sent back by Mrs Hitler's assistant Miss Roosevelt under the mistaken impression that she was still Mrs Hoare-Belisha. CUT TO FILM, PRESENT DAY. AN APIARY. A DEAR OLD LADY IS ROVING AROUND THE APIARY, TALKING TO CAMERA. AT BOTTOM OF HIVES A LITTLE HOLE MARKED 'BEES ONLY' MRS HITLER I well remember in September 1939 I was out at the hives, de-coning the queen, when the postman� CUT TO PEPPERPOT DRESSED AS A POSTMAN MRS HITLER �brought me a letter from Whitehall saying that if I did not withdraw my troops from Poland before midnight I would be in a state of war with Britain. Well of course I threw the letter away, and Europe was immediately plunged into a bloody imbroglio which lasted six bitter years and unleashed economic changes which swept away the last crumbling vestiges of the western imperialist hegemony. CUT TO INTERVIEWER � A SHERIDAN MORLEY TYPE INTERVIEWER Yes�yes�of course, but�(WE NOTICE THAT HE IS HOLDING A GUN POINTED AT MRS HITLER)�how did this affect the beekeeping? MRS HITLER The fighting? INTERVIEWER No�no, the beekeeping. How was it affected in the war years? Were the hives disrupted? I expect supplies were difficult. MRS HITLER Well, there were marked changes certainly. The tench became shorter and developed a lot of fish mould, so obviously I couldn't keep them in the same hives as the trout. INTERVIEWER In 1946, as Mrs Sir Stafford Cripps, you introduced a revolutionary new concept into beekeeping. MRS HITLER Yes I did. I marked each of them with a tiny red mark and then dropped them into the pool (INTERVIEWER LOOKS PUZZLED). This enabled us to restock the salmon grounds which had become so depleted after the years of conflict and ensure that what was in danger of becoming purely a saltwater fish� A SHOT IS HEAD. SHE STOPS AND LOOKS UP AT INTERVIEWER. CUT TO INT WITH SMOKING GUN, HOLDING HAND TO HIS HEAD WHICH IS BLEEDING PROFUSELY. INTERVIEWER (IN PAIN) Do�go on� JEREMY THORPE, THIS TIME DRESSED COMPLETELY AS A FROGMAN (EXCEPT FOR ROSETTE AND TRILBY) LEANS INTO SHOT AND WAVES AND GRINS. FADE TO BLACK CAPTION: That was a party political broadcast on behalf of The Liberal Party Monty Python - Show 6 (05/12/74)

Finally, we can rest. Okay, back to normal Edit News.

55.   A piece of animation was apparently cut from 'The Golden Age Of Ballooning' (Series 4, Show 1 - 31/10/74) involving America becoming the 'new Scotland', complete with a bagpipe version of The Stars And Stripes. Recent reports suggest that the BBC still holds some Series 4 film stock. If the animation was ever completed then it might be there.

56.   What a rotten ending!" announces Idle as an overhead announcement declares that "Michael Ellis Week" is now over and from that point onwards it was "Chris Quinn Week". He's right - the joke only works if you know Idle's character is called 'Chris Quinn'. At no point during the preceding half-hour was this fact actually mentioned.

57.   Series 4, Show 6 (05/12/74) has three edits on its original Paramount American video release (as part of a cassette called Despicable Families, Naughty Complaints and Killer Fruit where it was coupled with Series 1, Show 4 ), 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. Special 'non-confusing ending' BBC Time Life edit? No idea.

58.   Off-air audio recordings of original Flying Circus broadcasts aren't exactly buzzing around the air attached to balloons making their presence felt, but they are out there. Somewhere. We're quite keen to hear these, especially if they feature a) any of the material described as 'lost' in these pages, or b) nice avuncular BBC announcements before or after the shows.

59.   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.

60.   A quick bit about video releases and repeats.

The first video releases of Flying Circus were on BBC video. After viewing the shows again in the cold light of day the team elected to make Series 2 available first. This in itself was a remarkable and admirable decision - foregoing the opportunity of releasing 'the one with the parrot' as an obvious selling point and cutting straight to a series which they felt held up well in itself. No crappy 'sampler' tapes were assembled for lightweights to watch their favourite bits - just a straight, no-nonsense take-it-or-leave-it chronological release. The first two tapes, featuring Shows 1-4 and Shows 5-7 respectively, were well-publicised and video shops could send off for a large cut-out Statue Of David (with 'flippable fig-leaf') as an in-store display. The next two tapes, boasting Shows 8-10 and 11-13 were available shortly afterwards. All four tapes were later available as a boxed set. As mentioned earlier great care was taken to present the shows as complete as possible - to the extent of reconstructing Show 13 from NTSC masters when it was discovered that the BBC had wiped the 'Undertakers' sketch.

The following year more videos were released. The parrot sketch, yeah? Look good on the posters and that. Nope - Series 1 was again nobly pushed aside in favour of a full Series 3 release. This followed much the same form as the previous release - four tapes; one with four shows, the others with three. The cover art was great too, depicting Gilliam's Clodagh Rogers'-miming monster emerging, step-by-step, from the Series 3 titles' Hawaiian scene. The release featured the uncensored 'Summarised Proust', although Python scholars frowned at the absence of 'Choreographed Party Political Broadcast'. Like Series 2 all four tapes were also available as a boxed set.

American Python fans also got a video release (on Paramount Home Video) but this was an altogether different state of affairs. All four series were eventually made available, over a few years, but the way they were presented was a nightmare - twenty two individual cassettes, each with two shows apiece, apart from the final one which had three, and those shows in a somewhat random order. To add insult to injury each volume was given a 'wacky' title, the author of which deserving of a good kicking. A great shame as the actual cover art for the releases was quite attractive. The entire set was advertised in National Lampoon magazine around the time. Several of them were also given lazerdisc releases.

[NOTE: Details about the full contents of those American video releases can be found at this Daily Llama page, usually.]

	"You can play them, rewind them, pause them, fast forward them, basically enjoy them - these Monty Python's videos, immortalised in the shops... now"

In 1987 BBC2 began repeating Series 2 Flying Circus. These repeats carried ads at the end of most shows for the available Python videos. The repeats carried on into Series 3. For a more detailed look at these and other repeat-showings try our broadcasts page.

In 1989, BBC2 began a well-publicised, long-awaited, 20th Anniversary repeat run of Series 1. 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 coincided with the release of the Just The Words script books, many viewers noticed the omission, their irritation further roused by the fact that this postponment deprived them of the 'the one with the parrot'. Some viewers feared that the show had been lost or destroyed, and a brief snatch of the famous sketch was broadcast on the BBC's viewers' letters show Points Of View to placate such rumours. The Series 1 repeats ended after Show 10, and viewers then 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).]

But then they had to screw 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 d�j� 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 - brilliant!), but because they are mistakes made by boring people they deserve nothing but 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? Of course 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.]

The special SOTCAA Jury Prize goes to the Kerosene Choruser on one DVD review site who got annoyed at the shows being released 'with a laugh track'. These people don't deserve Python. Or comedy in general. Or lungs.

NEW  Dave Rushforth was kind enough to send us the following edit-spot as regards the DVDs:

	From: Dave Rushforth To: [email protected] Subject: Great website and an edit you may have missed Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 14:31:14 -0000 Hi Can I just congratulate you on the website. I've always been annoyed myself at the varying versions of the TV episodes. I haven't been into Monty Python for years, but you've rekindled that interest thanks. Anyway you may be interested in the following edit of Series 1 Episode 2, to a Gilliam animation that wasn't on your site: On my off air VHS copy (and the US DVD) it has the following sequence: (1) A little girl is chopping off hands on a grave: (2) Some pepperpots rise into shot saying "Isn't he an impressive figure of a man.": (3) Cut to a guy mumbling and moaning about something: (4) Some people quickly run past him in the background, and then they obscure him in the foreground. We hear sawing and they run off again revealing: Then we hear the pepperpot say "Ohh yes. That's much better." (5) Then a hand raises a blind, before pulling it down again: My 1994 BMG VHS copy however misses this sequence, it goes straight from (1) to (5). Hope this is of interest. Regards Dave

The BBC have theoretically announced that a DVD release of Series 1 is scheduled for 2004, to tie in with the 35th Anniversary. As usual Python Productions hadn't been told anything about such a release, but if it does happen then hopefully - considering the care and effort which the team have put into DVD releases of their films - then all the various anomalies mentioned above (and throughout these pages) will be corrected. If not, you'll find this site still whining away despondently well into the middle of the decade.

Good innit, this Monty Pythons.

Edit News: Monty Python's Flying Circus

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