John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983).
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".
Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
Barry Took was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series Bootsie and Snudge, the radio comedy Round the Horne and other projects.
"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.
How to Irritate People is a US sketch comedy television broadcast recorded in the UK at LWT on 14 November 1968 and written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor also feature in it, along with future Monty Python collaborators Michael Palin and Connie Booth.
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.
"Argument Clinic" is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman. The sketch was originally broadcast as part of the television series and has subsequently been performed live by the group. It relies heavily on wordplay and dialogue, and has been used as an example of how language works.
Out of the Trees is a 1975 television sketch show pilot written by Graham Chapman, Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna that was broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. The show shared some of the stream-of-consciousness style of Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Chapman was a member. Actors included Chapman, Mark Wing-Davey and Simon Jones. The instrumental theme tune was by Neil Innes.
Edward Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team.
"Patient Abuse" is a sketch from the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Party Political Broadcast". The sketch is among the few not entirely written by members of Monty Python, and is notable for its considerable amount of black humour. It was co-written by Python Graham Chapman and his friend Douglas Adams, later known for creating The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Mind-boggling bureaucracy is a recurring comic theme of Adams' work.
The Goodies is a British television comedy series shown in the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by the BBC, initially on BBC2 but soon repeated on BBC1, from 1970 to 1980. One seven-episode series was made for ITV company LWT and shown in 1981–82.
"Devil's Galop" is a piece of light music composed by Charles Williams. It became famous as the theme tune to the radio serial Dick Barton – Special Agent. The word "galop" in the title refers to the galop dance.
Python Night was an evening of Monty Python-related programmes broadcast on BBC2 on 9 October 1999, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first broadcast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It featured newly written sketches, three documentaries and a screening of Monty Python's Life of Brian.
This is a list of British television related events from 1969.
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.
Monty Python: Almost the Truth is a 2009 television documentary series in six parts that covers 40 years of the surreal comedy group Monty Python, from Flying Circus to present day projects such as the musical Spamalot. The series highlights their childhood, schooling and university life, and pre-Python work. The series featured new interviews with surviving members John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, alongside archive interview footage of Graham Chapman and interviews with several associates of the Pythons, including Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, along with commentary from modern comedians.
"The Mouse Problem" is a Monty Python sketch, first aired on 12 October 1969 as part of "Sex and Violence", the second episode of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words is a two volume collection of the scripts for the TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, published in 1989 on the 20th anniversary of the broadcast of the first episode. Volume 1 features the first 23 episodes, with Volume 2 containing the remaining 22. The books were edited by Roger Wilmut, who transcribed the dialogue from the original programmes, minus the animation sequences. Episodes 3 and 5 of the fourth series are missing some material from their original 1974 broadcast, as they were transcribed from the 1976 edited repeat versions. Both volumes contain black and white stills taken from videotapes of the series. The books were reissued in paperback as one volume.
