Holy Flying Circus
- TV comedy drama
- BBC Four
- 2011
- 1 episode
Dramatisation of the blasphemy row that surrounded the film Monty Python's Life Of Brian. Stars Darren Boyd, Charles Edwards, Steve Punt, Rufus Jones, Tom Fisher and more.
Press clippings Page 3
Holy Flying Circus review
It initially feels like a misjudged disaster, but once you get used to what Tony Roche is trying to achieve, it's difficult to resist its giddily freewheeling pull.
Paul Whitelaw, The Scotsman, 19th October 2011Rufus Jones: Making a drama of Monty Python
Hello. My name's Rufus Jones. I play Terry Jones in BBC Four's Holy Flying Circus. I also play Terry Jones playing Michael Palin's wife, because it's that kind of show, and I'm that kind of guy.
Rufus Jones, BBC Blogs, 19th October 2011The Life of Brian: When Monty Python took on God
Writer Tony Roche explains why his drama Holy Flying Circus about 'the mother of all hoo-hahs' - the row over Life of Brian - could not be more timely.
Tony Roche, The Telegraph, 19th October 2011Holy Flying Circus Review: Bringing Brian to life
In 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian was shrouded in controversy. 32 years later, BBC Four's film Holy Flying Circus opens with a caricature of Jesus speaking Aramaic and then letting loose a massive fart directly into someone's face. Oh, how far we have come.
Peter Chawaga, On The Box, 19th October 2011TV review: Holy Flying Circus
Holy Flying Circus was too clever - why didn't it just stick to the fascinating story?
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 19th October 2011Holy Flying Circus, BBC Four, review
Constantly inventive, often very funny, the drama followed a fictional religious group intent on pillorying the Pythons and having Life of Brian banned.
Chris Harvey, The Telegraph, 19th October 2011The furore surrounding the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979 - which saw the film picketed by nuns, banned by local councils and accused of blasphemy - forms the basis of this one-off drama, a homage to the Pythons by Tony Roche (one of the writers for The Thick of It and its film spin-off, In the Loop). The drama raises good points about freedom of speech, religious intolerance and the boundaries of comedy.
It's also cheeky, fantastical and occasionally very funny. The structure, however, is a bit of a mess, trying too hard to ape the chaos of the Python format - it's often too surreal for its own good. The mix of drama, animation and puppetry builds towards a late-night confrontation on a TV chat show in which John Cleese (played by Darren Boyd of Green Wing and Whites) and Michael Palin (Charles Edwards) are pitted against the media commentator and outspoken Christian Malcolm Muggeridge (Michael Cochrane) and the Bishop of Southwark (Roy Marsden). This chat show debate really did take place; after it, Cleese and Palin said they'd lost their respect for Muggeridge, whom they'd admired in his earlier career as a satirist.
The Telegraph, 18th October 2011Holy Flying Circus: BBC4 looks back at Life of Brian
The controversy around Monty Python's Life of Brian is the basis of a one-off drama Holy Flying Circus due to be shown on BBC4 on Wednesday 19 October 2011.
Steve Rogerson, Suite 101, 17th October 2011Holy Flying Circus, BBC Four, preview
Simon Horsford previews Holy Flying Circus, the BBC Four drama about the furore sparked by the making of Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Simon Horsford, The Telegraph, 14th October 2011Terry Jones: Python wouldn't do a film about Muslims
The resurgence of religion could prevent a modern-day Life of Brian.
Radio Times, 11th October 2011