John Cleese

DVD review: At Last the 1948 Show

You've all heard this one: four Yorkshiremen sit round a restaurant table and try to outdo each other with tales of how they had it tough when they were but lads. It's one of the most famous sketches to come from the Monty Python team, and has been restaged several times, including the album Monty Python Live at Drury Lane and the Amnesty International charity show and film The Secret Policeman's Ball. But in fact it's not a Python sketch at all. It first appeared on TV on At Last the 1948 Show.

BBC releases some historic comedy moments

The BBC is making hundreds of clips from its archive available to watch on a new website. Comics featured include Spike Milligan, Pete and Dud, Kenny Everett and Billy Connolly.

Monty Python at 50: The Self-Abasement Tapes is made up of excised sketches from the television show, presented for the first time by Python member Michael Palin. Television now is a lot swearier and shoutier than it was 50 years ago, but I bet it still wouldn't start a Python tribute with the sketch that opened this one: a report from the annual conference of the Fat Ignorant Bastards Party of the USA, whose leader has just become president. "The cult is certainly booming," Eric Idle said in classic old-style Panorama manner.

There followed a court sketch and a school sketch, both subjects dear to Python hearts, as well as the fine country parody song I'm So Worried, exquisitely performed by Terry Jones, with worries that ranged from the Middle East to Heathrow's baggage delivery system and the state of current TV. Palin's linking device, as if he were excavating the material from sewers beneath the Edgware Road while being ironic about that road, its shops and owners, was apt and ingenious.

Python at 50: Silly Talks And Holy Grails, review

A rich collage of chat show appearances, location shoots, guest slots and one-offs worked best when it caught the Pythons in serious mode.

John Cleese: UK journalists write off comedy success

The Monty Python star said the series is not 'going very strong' in the country where it was first launched.

John Cleese is ruining Python's legacy

Is Britain guilty of not showing enough enthusiasm for 50-year-old comedy sketches, or is Cleese just a bit out of touch?

Frauds are at the fore in this week's instalment of the pleasingly superannuated west London comedy. Phil (John Cleese) self-combusts on realising that Wendy's book of animal stories mirrors his own life, and social services spring a surprise on scammer Roger by giving him what he wanted - almost.

Why the Life of Brian was so controversial

Today is the 40th anniversary of the world premiere of the film Life of Brian, the Monty Python team's very irreverent take on religion which shocked many people when it was first released but is now accepted as a classic of British cinema.

How Monty Python saved my life (maybe)

Monty Python - punk before the Sex Pistols - remains the greatest television comedy of all time, writes Aidan Smith.

Season two of the star-packed sitcom about a silvery couple having their retirement plans upended continues. After last week's dire house viewing, fastidious Phil (John Cleese) has vanished, which is probably just as well since daffy Roger (Jason Watkins) has jumped headlong into the Airbnb market. Farcical, fitful fun.