Monty Python

Monty Python theme tune: music to madness

How music contributed to Monty Python's demented humour.

Monty Python almost pulled during first series

Monty Python's Flying Circus was almost taken off the air for its "disgusting and nihilistic" humour, according to newly-released files.

As proven by this amiable documentary, hallowed practitioners of the musical spoof include acts as diverse as Bill Bailey, The Two Ronnies, Tom Lehrer, Monty Python and Victoria Wood, who's breathlessly funny Let's Do It is one of the greatest comedy songs ever written, and I'll mud-wrestle anyone who says otherwise.

All of which poses the question: why can't all channels be as good as this?

On the night the BBC went off the air, the opposition fielded A Few of Our Favourite Things (Thames), starring Eric Sykes. Written entirely by Sykes himself, it was a very funny show. One sketch grew out of another. It was the Python no-punchline principle, but Sykes has incorporated it into his writing without easing up on his sense of discipline. The result is a sort of coherent Milligan-ese, with overtones of Tommy Coo... but this is to sound academic.

After two dull episodes, Monty Python (BBC2) was suddenly funny again, thereby ameliorating the viewing week no end. The pressure on the now Cleeseless team to be as good as ever has perhaps been a little fierce, but that's showbiz.

There's also "Radio 5" (Radio 1, Saturday). It's mostly Monty Python-type jokes, which involve a certain amount of the BBC sending itself up, and a good helping of straight lunacy. Eric Idle, who conducts the proceedings with an astonishing range of voices, seems to know all about our secret fantasy lives, which produces some of the best bits.

I had not laughed madly like that since someone, who knows where or when, sang "There's a ferret sitting up my nose" on TV. I strongly suspect it must have ten one of the Monty Python lot in some other show. The humour smells the same. Insane, surreal, subversive.