Monty Python were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, which aired on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Their work then developed into a larger collection that included live shows, films, albums, books, and musicals; their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Their sketch show has been called "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy".
"The Spanish Inquisition" is an episode and recurring segment in the British sketch comedy TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, specifically series 2 episode 2, that satirises the Spanish Inquisition. The sketches are notable for the catchphrase, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!", which has been frequently quoted and become an Internet meme. The final instance of the catchphrase in the episode uses the musical composition "Devil's Galop" by Charles Williams. Rewritten audio versions of the sketches were included on Another Monty Python Record in 1971.
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, popular historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
"The Lumberjack Song" is a comedy song by the comedy troupe Monty Python. The song was written and composed by Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Fred Tomlinson.
Connie Booth is an American actress and writer. She has appeared in several British television programmes and films, including her role as Polly Sherman on BBC Two's Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then-husband John Cleese. In 1995, she quit acting and worked as a psychotherapist until her retirement.
"Piranha Brothers" is a Monty Python sketch from the first episode of the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The 14th episode of the series overall, it premiered on BBC1 in the United Kingdom on 15 September 1970. The sketch constitutes a loose pastiche of the Kray twins, notorious gangsters from the East End of London in the 1950s and 1960s.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert comedy film directed by Terry Hughes and starring the Monty Python comedy troupe as they perform many of their sketches at the Hollywood Bowl. The film also features Carol Cleveland in numerous supporting roles and Neil Innes performing songs. Also present for the shows and participating as an 'extra' was Python superfan Kim "Howard" Johnson.
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus is a pair of 45-minute Monty Python German television comedy specials produced by WDR for West German television. The two episodes were respectively first broadcast in January and December 1972 and were shot entirely on film and mostly on location in Bavaria, with the first episode recorded in German and the second recorded in English and then dubbed into German.
The Karnstein Trilogy is a series of vampire films produced by Hammer Films. They were notable at the time for their daring lesbian storylines. All three films were scripted by Tudor Gates. All three feature vampires of the noble Karnstein family, and their seat Castle Karnstein near the town of Karnstein in Styria, Austria.
Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck is the name of a bootleg of an unreleased album by Monty Python, mostly made up of outtakes from the 1980 sessions for their Contractual Obligation Album. The album was compiled by producer Andre Jacquemin in 1987 but pulled from release in favour of a compilation of previously released material, The Final Rip Off.
Edward Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team.
Twins of Evil is a 1971 British horror film directed by John Hough and starring Peter Cushing, with Damien Thomas and the real-life identical twins and former Playboy Playmates Mary and Madeleine Collinson.
Kilimanjaro Expedition is a sketch from the episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus "The Ant, an Introduction", also appearing in the Monty Python film And Now For Something Completely Different. It has been compared to a comic episode in Franz Kafka's The Castle in which the protagonist, K., is confused by twins assigned to assist him.
Maureen Flanagan, best known by her stage name, Flanagan, was an early tabloid model.
Monty Python's Flying Circus is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, who became known collectively as "Monty Python", or the "Pythons". The first episode was recorded at the BBC on 7 September 1969 and premiered on 5 October on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. A feature film adaptation of several sketches, And Now for Something Completely Different, was released in 1971.
Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years, dedicated by Michael Palin to his mother and father, has reduced "mountains to molehills", according to his own words, to take the reader inside the period of the author's life that corresponds to the Monty Python era. In the introduction Palis states that he began keeping this specific diary in April 1969, at 25 years of age, one month before the Python experience began in earnest. The diary started as a means to keep away from smoking, after fellow Python Terry Gilliam accused him of being addicted to cigarettes. Palin has continued the diary, written on Ryman's reporter's notepads, for 37 years . The first entry on the book-diary corresponds to 17 April, 1969, and there is a four-month gap after 11 August, 1971, owed, according to the Palin's family folklore, to William's stage of "putting things inside other things"; in this case the reporter's pad in the rubbish bin. The diary is resumed on resumes December, 1971, and the last entry corresponds to 31 December, 1979.
The Colonel is a recurring fictional character from the British television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, played by Graham Chapman.
"Albatross" is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. It is particularly known for its opening lines: "Albatross! Albatross! Albatross!"
