Monty Python's Flying Circus

How Monty Python was formed

Terry Jones recounts the absurdist playwrights who shaped unique Monty Python humour.

BBC nearly killed off Monty Python, says Terry Jones

Monty Python was nearly killed off by BBC executives who feared it would never make money, according to Terry Jones.

Why Eric Idle is happy to revisit his Python past

At the height of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Eric Idle made a promise to himself. When the performers went their separate ways in 1983, and when the Ministry of Silly Walks had been closed for good, he would in the spirit of the show prepare to do something completely different. As it turned out, things didn't quite work out that way.

Michael Palin: I'm very proud of fish-slapping dance

Michael Palin, 67, is best known for being part of the Monty Python comedy team and for travel documentaries.

Gateways To Geekery: Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus ran four series, for a total of 45 episodes. None of these are outright horrid, but the quality varies, especially in the latter half, when the writing loses steam and some sketches of questionable humor get stretched longer than necessary. The movies range from passable to excellent.

It leaves me absolutely cold. Cleese and those other guys are completely up their own arses. It is humour made for dolts. I never made it through a complete episode of Flying Circus because it was so bad. I hate sacrilege too - so Life of Brian was an unfunny idea, too easy to sustain a whole film. It was the same with The Goons and Charlie Chaplin, who I could never stand - that kind of dopey, physically silly, male, oh-look-at-us humour. I prefer girls in backless dresses saying witty things in 1940s films, the kinds of movies that have a dry, crisp wit to them, and screwball comedies too. Python and its like rely on easy laughs - the parrot sketch is just ghastly - I prefer the kind of humour that creeps up on you, the kind that builds up so that, out of nowhere, you find yourself in hysterics. Humour should be subtle.

Terry Jones' favourite Monty Python sketches

40 years of Monty Python.

And now for something completely familiar...

The Independent talks to the predictably anarchic Pythons in Manhattan.

Monty Python and the cardboard cut-out

Their waistlines have expanded along with the alimony payments, but 40 years after their television debut, the surviving members of the Monty Python crew were reunited on stage.

Pythons reunite for Bafta award

The five surviving members of Monty Python have been joined on stage in New York by a cardboard cut-out of the late Graham Chapman for a 40th reunion.