Before Flying Circus Jones and Palin met at
Oxford University, where they performed together with
the Oxford Revue. Chapman and Cleese met at
Cambridge University. Idle was also at Cambridge, but started a year after Chapman and Cleese. Cleese met Gilliam in
New York City while on tour with the
Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus (originally entitled
A Clump of Plinths). Chapman, Cleese, and Idle were members of the Footlights, which at that time also included the future
Goodies (
Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Bill Oddie, and
Graeme Garden), and
Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of
Yes Minister and
Yes, Prime Minister). During Idle's presidency of the club, feminist writer
Germaine Greer and broadcaster
Clive James were members. Recordings of Footlights' revues (called "Smokers") at
Pembroke College include sketches and performances by Cleese and Idle, which, along with tapes of Idle's performances in some of the drama society's theatrical productions, are kept in the archives of the
Pembroke Players. The six Python members appeared in or wrote these shows before
Flying Circus: • ''
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'' (radio) (1964–1973): Cleese (cast member and writer), Idle and Chapman (writers) •
The Frost Report (1966–1967): Cleese (cast member and writer), Idle (writer of
David Frost's monologues), Chapman, Palin and Jones (writers) •
At Last the 1948 Show (1967): Chapman and Cleese (writers and cast members), Idle (guest star and writer) •
Twice a Fortnight (1967): Palin and Jones (cast members and writers) •
Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–1969): Idle, Jones, and Palin (cast members and writers), Gilliam (animation) •
We Have Ways of Making You Laugh (1968): Idle (cast member and writer), Gilliam (animation) •
How to Irritate People (1968): Cleese and Chapman (cast members and writers), Palin (cast member) •
The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969): Palin and Jones (cast members and writers) •
Doctor in the House (1969), Cleese and Chapman (writers) The BBC's satirical television show
The Frost Report, broadcast from March 1966 to December 1967, is credited as first uniting the British Pythons and providing an environment in which they could develop their particular styles. " sketch at the 2014 Monty Python reunion. Written by Cleese, Chapman,
Tim Brooke-Taylor and
Marty Feldman, it was originally performed on their TV series
At Last the 1948 Show in 1967. It parodies nostalgic conversations about humble beginnings or difficult childhoods. Following the success of
Do Not Adjust Your Set (which was broadcast on
ITV from December 1967 to May 1969),
Thames Television offered Gilliam, Idle, Jones, and Palin their own late-night adult comedy series together. At the same time, Chapman and Cleese were offered a show by the
BBC, which had been impressed by their work on
The Frost Report and
At Last the 1948 Show. Cleese was reluctant to do a
two-man show for various reasons, including Chapman's supposedly difficult and erratic personality. Cleese had fond memories of working with Palin on
How to Irritate People and invited him to join the team. With no studio available at Thames until summer 1970 for the late-night show, Palin agreed to join Cleese and Chapman, and suggested the involvement of his writing partner Jones and colleague Idle—who in turn wanted Gilliam to provide animations for the projected series. Much has been made of the fact that the Monty Python troupe is the result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold. By contrast, according to John Cleese's autobiography, the origins of
Monty Python lay in the admiration that writing partners Cleese and Chapman had for the new type of comedy being done on
Do Not Adjust Your Set; as a result, a meeting was initiated by Cleese between Chapman, Idle, Jones, Palin, and himself at which it was agreed to pool their writing and performing efforts and jointly seek production sponsorship. According to their official website, the group was born from a Kashmir tandoori restaurant in Hampstead on 11 May 1969, following a taping of
Do Not Adjust Your Set which Cleese and Chapman attended. It was the first time all six got together, with their first meetings then taking place at Cleese's apartment in
Basil Street, Knightsbridge in central London.
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' Development of the series '' was recorded at
BBC Television Centre in west London (pictured) and on location around the UK, and the show debuted on the BBC on 5 October 1969. According to show director
Ian MacNaughton, the first discussion over the idea for the show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was a result of BBC's comedy advisor,
Barry Took, bringing the Pythons along with
John Howard Davies (director of the first four episodes) and MacNaughton together into one conference room at the BBC Television Centre. The Pythons had a definite idea about what they wanted to do with the series. They were admirers of the work of
Peter Cook,
Alan Bennett,
Jonathan Miller, and
Dudley Moore on
Beyond the Fringe—seminal to the British "
satire boom"—and had worked on
Frost, which was similar in style. They enjoyed Cook and Moore's sketch show
Not Only... But Also. One problem the Pythons perceived with these programmes was that though the body of the sketch would be strong, the writers would often struggle to then find a punchline funny enough to end on, and this would detract from the overall sketch quality. They decided that they would simply not bother to "cap" their sketches in the traditional manner, and early episodes of the
Flying Circus series make great play of this abandonment of the punchline (one scene has Cleese turn to Idle, as the sketch descends into chaos, and remark that "This is the silliest sketch I've ever been in"—they all resolve not to carry on and simply walk off the set). However, as they began assembling material for the show, the Pythons watched one of their collective heroes,
Spike Milligan, whom they had admired on
The Goon Show (a show the Pythons regard as their biggest influence, which also featured
Peter Sellers, whom Cleese called "the greatest voice man of all time") recording his groundbreaking BBC series
Q... (1969). Not only was
Q... more irreverent and anarchic than any previous
television comedy, but Milligan also would often "give up" on sketches halfway through and wander off set (often muttering "Did I write this?"). It was clear that their new series would now seem less original, and Jones in particular became determined the Pythons should innovate. Michael Palin recalls "Terry Jones and I adored the
Q... shows...[Milligan] was the first writer to play with the conventions of television."
Charles Isherwood writes that the Pythons "derived their sketch formats in part from the rowdy tradition of the
music hall." Writing started at 9:00a.m. and finished at 5:00p.m. Typically, Cleese and Chapman worked as one pair isolated from the others, as did Jones and Palin, while Idle wrote alone. After a few days, they would join with Gilliam, critique their scripts, and exchange ideas. Their approach to writing was democratic. If the majority found an idea humorous, it was included in the show. The casting of roles for the sketches was a similarly unselfish process, since each member viewed himself primarily as a "writer", rather than an actor eager for screen time. When the themes for sketches were chosen, Gilliam had a free hand in bridging them with animations, using a camera, scissors, and airbrush. Gilliam's animations ranged from the whimsical to the savage (the cartoon format allowing him to create some astonishingly violent scenes without fear of censorship). ''Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus
was named after a woman Palin had read about in the newspaper, thinking it would be amusing if she were to discover she had her own TV show. Baron Von Took's Flying Circus
was considered as an affectionate tribute to Barry Took, the man who had brought them together. Arthur Megapode's Flying Circus
was suggested, then discarded. The name Baron Von Took's Flying Circus
had the form of Baron Manfred von Richthofen's
Flying Circus'' of WWI fame, and the new group was forming in a time when
the Royal Guardsmen's 1966 song "
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" had peaked. The term 'flying circus' was also another name for the popular entertainment of the 1920s known as
barnstorming, where multiple performers collaborated with their stunts to perform a combined set of acts. Differing, somewhat confusing accounts are given of the origins of the Python name, although the members agree that its only "significance" was that they thought it sounded funny. In the 1998 documentary
Live at Aspen during the
US Comedy Arts Festival, where the troupe was awarded the AFI Star Award by the
American Film Institute, the group implied that "Monty" was selected (Eric Idle's idea) as a gently mocking tribute to
Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, a British general of
World War II; requiring a "slippery-sounding" surname, they settled on "Python". On other occasions, Idle has claimed that the name "Monty" was that of a popular and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub; people would often walk in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to become stuck in his mind. The name Monty Python was later described by the BBC as being "envisaged by the team as the perfect name for a sleazy entertainment agent". An example of this is the "It's" man: Palin, outfitted in
Robinson Crusoe garb, making a tortuous journey across various terrains, before finally approaching the camera to state, "It's ...", to be then interrupted by the
title sequence and theme music. On several occasions, the cold open lasted until mid-show, after which the regular opening titles ran. Occasionally, the Pythons tricked viewers by rolling the
closing credits halfway through the show, usually continuing the joke by fading to the familiar
globe logo used for BBC continuity, over which Cleese would parody the clipped tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion, the credits ran directly after the opening titles. On the
subversive nature of the show (and their subsequent films), Cleese states "anti-authoritarianism was deeply ingrained in Python". , as used by ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. A trademark of Gilliam's stop-motion animation, the giant foot would suddenly squash things, including the show's title at the end of the opening credits. Another favourite way of ending sketches was to drop a cartoonish "16-ton weight" prop on one of the characters when the sketch seemed to be losing momentum, or a knight in full armour (played by Terry Gilliam) would wander on-set and hit characters over the head with a rubber chicken, before cutting to the next scene. Yet another way of changing scenes was when John Cleese, usually outfitted in a dinner suit, would come in as a radio commentator and, in a rather pompous manner, make the formal and determined announcement "And now for something completely different.", which later became the title of
the first Monty Python film. The Python
theme music is the
Band of the Grenadier Guards' rendition of
John Philip Sousa's "
The Liberty Bell" which was first published in 1893. Under the
Berne Convention's "country of origin" concept, the composition was subject to
United States copyright law which states that any work first published prior to 1924 was in the
public domain, owing to copyright expiration. This enabled Gilliam to co-opt the march for the series without having to make any
royalty payments. The use of Gilliam's
surreal,
collage stop motion animations was another innovative intertextual element of the Python style. Many of the images Gilliam used were lifted from famous works of art, and from
Victorian illustrations and
engravings. The giant foot that crushes the show's title at the end of the opening credits is the foot of
Cupid, cut from a reproduction of the
Renaissance masterpiece
Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time by
Bronzino. This foot, and Gilliam's style in general, are
visual trademarks of the programme. Jones specialised in playing the working-class housewife, or "ratbag old women" as termed by the BBC. In some episodes, and later in the stoning scene in ''
Monty Python's Life of Brian'', they took the idea one step further by playing women who impersonated men. Many sketches are well-known and widely quoted. "
Dead Parrot sketch", "
The Lumberjack Song", "
Spam" (which led to the coining of the term
email spam), "
Nudge Nudge", "
The Spanish Inquisition", "
Upper Class Twit of the Year", "
Cheese Shop", "
The Ministry of Silly Walks", "
Argument Clinic", "
The Funniest Joke in the World" (a sketch referenced in
Google Translate), and "
Four Yorkshiremen" are just a few examples. Featuring regularly in skits,
Gumbys (characters of limited intelligence and vocabulary) were part of the Pythons' satirical view of television of the 1970s which condescendingly encouraged more involvement from the "man on the street".
Introduction to North America and the world The
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) added ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' to its national September 1970 fall line-up. They aired the 13 episodes of series 1, which had first run on the BBC the previous autumn (
October 1969 to January 1970), as well as the first six episodes of series 2 only a few weeks after they first appeared on the BBC (
September to November 1970). The concept was to show clips from comedy shows produced in other countries, including tape of the Python sketches "Bicycle Repairman" and "The Dull Life of a Stockbroker". Through the efforts of Python's American manager Nancy Lewis, during the summer of 1974, Ron Devillier, the programming director for nonprofit
PBS television station
KERA in
Dallas, Texas, started airing episodes of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus
. Ratings shot through the roof, prompting other PBS affiliates to pick up the show. The popularity on PBS resulted in the 1974 re-release of the 1972 ...Completely Different
film, with much greater box office success. The success of the show was captured by a March 1975 article headline in The New York Times'', "Monty Python's Flying Circus Is Barnstorming Here". Asked what challenges were left, now that they had made TV shows, films, written books, and produced records, Chapman responded, "Well, actually world supremacy would be very nice", before Idle cautioned, "Yes, but that sort of thing has got to be done properly". With the popularity of Python throughout the rest of the 1970s and through most of the 1980s, PBS stations looked at other British comedies, leading to UK shows such as
Are You Being Served? gaining a US audience, and leading, over time, to many PBS stations having a "British Comedy Night" which airs many popular UK comedies. In 1976, Monty Python became the top rated show in Japan. The popularity of the show in the Netherlands saw the town of
Spijkenisse near Rotterdam open a 'silly walks' road crossing in 2018. Believed to be a world first, the official sign asks pedestrians to cross the road in a comical manner.
Departure of Cleese Having considered the possibility at the end of the second series, Cleese left the
Flying Circus at the end of the third. He later explained that he felt he no longer had anything fresh to offer the show, and claimed that only two sketches penned by Cleese and Chapman in the third series ("Dennis Moore" and the "Cheese Shop") were truly original, and that the others were bits and pieces from previous work cobbled together in slightly different contexts. The rest of the group carried on for one more "half" season before calling a halt to the programme in 1974. While the first three seasons contained 13 episodes each, the fourth ended after just six. The name ''Monty Python's Flying Circus
appears in the opening animation for season four, but in the end credits, the show is listed as simply Monty Python''.
Films And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) The Pythons' first feature film was directed by
Ian MacNaughton, reprising his role from the television series. It consisted of sketches from the first two seasons of the
Flying Circus, reshot on a low budget (and often slightly edited) for cinema release. Material selected for the film includes: "Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "Upper Class Twit of the Year", "Hell's Grannies", "Self-Defence Class", "
How Not to Be Seen", and "Nudge Nudge". Financed by
Playboys UK executive
Victor Lownes, it was intended as a way of breaking Monty Python into America, and although it was ultimately unsuccessful in this, the film did good business in the UK, and later in the US on the "
Midnight movie" circuit after their breakthrough television and film success, this being in the era before home video would make the original material much more accessible. The group did not consider the film a success.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) , Seattle In 1974, between production on the third and fourth series, the group decided to embark on their first "proper" feature film, containing entirely new material.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail was based on
Arthurian legend and was directed by Jones and Gilliam. Again, the latter also contributed linking animations (and put together the opening credits). Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam performed several roles in the film, but Chapman took the lead as King Arthur. Cleese returned to the group for the film, feeling that they were once again breaking new ground.
Holy Grail was filmed on location, in picturesque rural areas of Scotland, with a budget of only £229,000; the money was raised in part with investments from rock groups such as
Pink Floyd,
Jethro Tull, and
Led Zeppelin, as well as UK music industry entrepreneur
Tony Stratton Smith (founder and owner of the
Charisma Records label, for which the Pythons recorded their comedy albums). The backers of the film wanted to cut the famous
Black Knight scene (a
Sam Peckinpah send-up in which the Black Knight loses his limbs in a duel), but it was eventually kept in the film. "Tis but a scratch" and "It's just a flesh wound…" are often quoted.
Holy Grail was selected as the second-best comedy of all time in the
ABC special
Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time. and viewers in a
Channel 4 poll placed it sixth. However, they soon began to seriously consider a film lampooning the
New Testament era in the same way
Holy Grail had lampooned Arthurian legend. Despite sharing a distrust of organised religion, they agreed not to mock Jesus or his teachings directly. They also mentioned that they could not think of anything legitimate to make fun of about him. Directing duties were handled solely by Jones, having amicably agreed with Gilliam that Jones' approach to film-making was better suited for Python's general performing style. ''Holy Grail's'' production had often been stilted by their differences behind the camera. Gilliam again contributed two animated sequences (one being the opening credits) and took charge of set design. The film was shot on location in
Tunisia, the finances being provided this time by
The Beatles'
George Harrison, who together with
Denis O'Brien formed the production company
Hand-Made Films for the movie. Despite its subject matter attracting controversy, particularly upon its initial release, it has (together with its predecessor) been ranked among the greatest comedy films. In 2006, it was ranked first on a Channel 4 list of the
50 Greatest Comedy Films.
Empire magazine called it "an unrivalled satire on religion". In 2013,
Richard Burridge, a theologian decorated by Pope Francis, called
Life of Brian an "extraordinary tribute to the life and work and teaching of Jesus—that they couldn't actually blaspheme or make a joke out of it. They did a great satire on closed minds and people who follow blindly. Then you have them splitting into factions...it is a wonderful satire on the way that Jesus's own teaching has been used to
persecute others. They were satirising
fundamentalism and persecution of others and at the same time saying the one person who rises above all this was Jesus". The released film also incorporated footage from the German television specials (the inclusion of which gives Ian MacNaughton his first on-screen credit for Python since the end of
Flying Circus) and live performances of several songs from the troupe's then-current ''
Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album''. Monty Python's four-night stint as headliners at the Hollywood Bowl set a record for a comedy act at the venue; it has since been equalled by
Dave Chappelle in May 2022.
''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' (1983) from
The Meaning of Life (played by
Terry Jones, pictured) has been called "the ultimate gross-out icon" and the "film's signature" scene. The Pythons' final film returned to something structurally closer to the style of
Flying Circus: a series of sketches loosely follows the ages of man from birth to death. Directed again by Jones solo,
The Meaning of Life is embellished with some of the group's most bizarre and disturbing moments, as well as various elaborate musical numbers, which include "
Galaxy Song" (performed by Idle) and "
Every Sperm Is Sacred" (performed by Palin and Jones). The film is by far their darkest work, containing a great deal of
black humour, garnished by some spectacular violence (including an operation to remove a
liver from a living patient without
anaesthetic and the morbidly obese
Mr. Creosote exploding over several restaurant patrons after finally giving in to the smooth maître d' telling him to eat a mint – "It's only a wafer-thin mint..."). The Liver Donor scene (in which a paramedic appears at the door of a living man to take his liver) is a satire on bureaucracy, a common Python trope.
''Secret Policeman's Ball'' benefit shows Members of Python contributed their services to charitable endeavours and causes—sometimes as an ensemble, at other times as individuals. The cause that has been the most frequent and consistent beneficiary has been the human rights work of
Amnesty International. Between 1976 and 1981, the troupe or its members appeared in four major
fund-raisers for Amnesty—known collectively as the ''
Secret Policeman's Ball'' shows—which were turned into multiple films, TV shows, videos, record albums, and books. The brainchild of John Cleese, these benefit shows in London and their many spin-offs raised considerable sums of money for Amnesty, raised public and media awareness of the human rights cause, and influenced many other members of the entertainment community (especially rock musicians) to become involved in political and social issues. Among the many musicians who have publicly attributed their activism—and the organisation of their own benefit events—to the inspiration of the work in this field of Monty Python are
Bob Geldof (organiser of
Live Aid),
U2,
Pete Townshend, and
Sting. Sting stated, "before [the Ball] I did not know about Amnesty, I did not know about its work, I did not know about torture in the world." On the impact of the Ball on Geldof, Sting quipped, "he took the 'Ball' and ran with it." The ''Secret Policeman's Ball'' were the first stage shows in the UK to present comedic performers (such as Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson) in the same setting and shows as their contemporaries in rock music (which included
Eric Clapton, Sting and
Phil Collins).
Going solo at 11
Neal's Yard, London, marking where Palin and Gilliam bought offices in 1976 as studios and editing suites for Python films and solo projects. Each member has pursued various film, television, and stage projects since the break-up of the group, but often continued to work with one another. Many of these collaborations were very successful, most notably
A Fish Called Wanda (1988), written by Cleese, in which he starred along with Palin. The pair also appeared in
Time Bandits (1981), a film directed by Gilliam, who wrote it together with Palin. Gilliam directed
Jabberwocky (1977), and also directed and co-wrote
Brazil (1985), which featured Palin,
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), which featured Idle; he followed these with writing and directing an additional six (as of 2021) films. Palin and Jones wrote the comedic TV series
Ripping Yarns (1976–79), starring Palin. Jones also appeared in the pilot episode and Cleese appeared in a nonspeaking part in the episode "Golden Gordon". Jones' film
Erik the Viking also has Cleese playing a small part. In 1996 Terry Jones wrote and directed an
adaptation of
Kenneth Grahame's novel
The Wind in the Willows. It featured four members of Monty Python: Jones as Mr. Toad, Idle as Ratty, Cleese as Mr. Toad's lawyer, and Palin as the Sun. Gilliam was considered for the voice of the river. The film included
Steve Coogan who played Mole. Cleese has the most prolific solo career, appearing in dozens of films, several TV shows or series (including
Cheers,
3rd Rock from the Sun, Q's assistant in the
James Bond movies, and
Will & Grace), many direct-to-video productions, some video games and a number of commercials. His BBC sitcom
Fawlty Towers (written by and starring Cleese together with his wife
Connie Booth) is the only comedy series to rank higher than the
Flying Circus on the
BFI TV 100's list, topping the whole poll. Cleese's character,
Basil Fawlty, was ranked second (to
Homer Simpson) on Channel 4's 2001 list of the
100 Greatest TV Characters. Idle enjoyed critical success with
Rutland Weekend Television in the mid-1970s, out of which came the Beatles parody
the Rutles (responsible for the
cult mockumentary All You Need Is Cash), and as an actor in
Nuns on the Run (1990) with
Robbie Coltrane. In 1976 Idle directed music videos for George Harrison songs "
This Song" and "
Crackerbox Palace", the latter of which also featured cameo appearances from Neil Innes and John Cleese. Idle has had success with Python songs: "
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" went to no. 3 in the UK singles chart in 1991. The song had been revived by
Simon Mayo on
BBC Radio 1, and was consequently released as a single that year. The theatrical phenomenon of the Python musical
Spamalot has made Idle the most financially successful of the troupe after Python. Written by Idle (and featuring a pre-recorded cameo of Cleese as the voice of God), it has proved to be an enormous hit on Broadway, London's West End and
Las Vegas. This was followed by
Not the Messiah, which revises
The Life of Brian as an
oratorio. For the work's 2007 premiere at the
Luminato festival in
Toronto (which commissioned the work), Idle himself sang the "baritone-ish" part.
After Python reunions Since
The Meaning of Life, their last project as a team, the Pythons have often been the subject of reunion rumours. The final appearance of all six together occurred during the 1989
Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python TV special. Chapman's death in October 1989 put an end to the speculation of any further reunions. However, there were several occasions after 1989 when the remaining five members gathered together for appearances — albeit not formal reunions. In 1996 Jones, Idle, Cleese, and Palin were featured in a film adaptation of
The Wind in the Willows, which was later renamed ''
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. In 1997, Palin and Cleese rolled out a new version of the "Dead Parrot sketch" for Saturday Night Live''. In 1998, during the
US Comedy Arts Festival, where the troupe were awarded the AFI Star Award by the
American Film Institute, the five remaining members, along with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an interview called
Monty Python Live at Aspen, (hosted by
Robert Klein, with an appearance by
Eddie Izzard) in which the team looked back at some of their work and performed a few new sketches. On 9 October 1999, to commemorate 30 years since the first
Flying Circus television broadcast,
BBC2 devoted an evening to Python programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team, interspersed with new sketches by the Monty Python team filmed especially for the event. In an interview to publicise the DVD release of
The Meaning of Life, Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, and I'm not joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of busyness rather than one of bad feelings. A sketch appears on the same DVD spoofing the impossibility of a full reunion, bringing the members "together" in a deliberately unconvincing fashion with modern bluescreen/greenscreen techniques. Idle responded to queries about a Python reunion by adapting a line used by George Harrison in response to queries about a possible Beatles reunion. When asked about such a possibility in November 1989, Harrison responded: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as
John Lennon remains dead." Idle's version of this was that he expected to see a proper Python reunion, "just as soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead", but added, "we're talking to his agent about terms." '' at the
Shubert Theatre, New York in 2006. Winning the 2005
Tony Award for Best Musical, Idle's musical opened in London's
West End a year later. The original Broadway cast included
Tim Curry as King Arthur,
Hank Azaria as Sir Lancelot, and Cleese as the (recorded) voice of God.
The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons (2003), compiled from interviews with the surviving members, reveals that a series of disputes in 1998, over a possible sequel to
Holy Grail that had been conceived by Idle, may have resulted in the group's split. Cleese's feeling was that
The Meaning of Life had been personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and did not wish to be involved in another Python project for a variety of reasons (not least amongst them was the absence of Chapman, whose straight man-like central roles in the
Grail and
Brian films had been considered to be an essential anchoring performance). The book also reveals that Cleese saw Chapman as his "greatest sounding board. If Graham thought something was funny, then it almost certainly was funny. You cannot believe how invaluable that is.' Ultimately it was Cleese who ended the possibility of another Python movie. A full, if nonperforming, reunion of the surviving Python members appeared at the March 2005 premiere of Idle's musical
Spamalot. Based on
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it also spoofs popular musicals, including those of
Andrew Lloyd Webber. It opened in Chicago and has since played in New York on Broadway, London, and numerous other major cities across the world. In 2004,
Spamalot was nominated for 14
Tony Awards and won three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for
Mike Nichols, and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for
Sara Ramirez, who played the
Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the musical. The original Broadway cast included
Tim Curry as King Arthur,
Michael McGrath as Patsy,
David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin,
Hank Azaria as
Sir Lancelot and other roles (e.g., the French Taunter,
Knight of Ni, and Tim the Enchanter),
Christopher Sieber as
Sir Galahad and other roles (e.g., the Black Knight and Prince Herbert's Father). Cleese played the voice of God, a role played in the film by Chapman. Owing in part to the success of
Spamalot,
PBS announced on 13 July 2005 that it would begin to re-air the entire run of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus
and new one-hour specials focusing on each member of the group, called Monty Python's Personal Best''. Each episode was written and produced by the individual being honoured, with the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Chapman's programme, the only one of the editions to take on a serious tone with its new material. at the premiere of
The Seventh Python in 2009 In 2009, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first episode of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus
, a six-part documentary entitled Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyers Cut) was released, featuring interviews with the surviving members of the team, as well as archive interviews with Graham Chapman and numerous excerpts from the television series and films. Each episode opens with a different re-recording of the theme song from Life of Brian'', with
Iron Maiden vocalist and Python fan
Bruce Dickinson performing the sixth. Also in commemoration of the 40th anniversary, Idle, Palin, Jones, and Gilliam appeared in a production of
Not the Messiah at the
Royal Albert Hall. The European premiere was held on 23 October 2009. An official 40th anniversary Monty Python reunion event took place in New York City on 15 October 2009, where the team received a Special Award from the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In June 2011, it was announced that ''
A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman, an animated 3D movie based on the memoir of Graham Chapman, was in the making. The memoir A Liar's Autobiography'' was published in 1980 and details Chapman's journey through medical school, alcoholism, acknowledgement of his gay identity, and the tolls of surreal comedy. Asked what was true in a deliberately fanciful account by Chapman of his life, Terry Jones joked: "Nothing ... it's all a downright, absolute, blackguardly lie." The film uses Chapman's own voice—from a reading of his autobiography shortly before he died of cancer—and entertainment channel
Epix announced the film's release in early 2012 in both 2D and 3D formats. Produced and directed by London-based Bill Jones, Ben Timlett, and Jeff Simpson, the new film has 15 animation companies working on chapters that will range from three to 12 minutes in length, each in a different style. John Cleese recorded dialogue which was matched with Chapman's voice. Michael Palin voiced Chapman's father and Terry Jones voiced his mother. Terry Gilliam voiced Graham's psychiatrist. They all play various other roles. Among the original Python group, only Eric Idle was not involved. On 26 January 2012, Terry Jones announced that the five surviving Pythons would reunite in a
sci-fi comedy film called
Absolutely Anything. The film would combine
computer-generated imagery and live action. It would be directed by Jones based on a script by Jones and
Gavin Scott, and in addition to the Python members it would also star
Simon Pegg,
Kate Beckinsale and
Robin Williams (in his final film role). The plot revolves around a teacher who discovers aliens (voiced by the Pythons) have given him magical powers to do "absolutely anything". Eric Idle responded via Twitter that he would not, in fact, be participating, although he was later added to the cast.
Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go , London, in July 2014 In 2013, the Pythons lost a legal case to
Mark Forstater, the film producer of
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, over royalties for the derivative work
Spamalot. They owed a combined £800,000 in legal fees and back royalties to Forstater. They proposed a reunion show to pay their legal bill. On 19 November 2013, a new reunion was reported, following months of "secret talks". The original plan was for a live, one-off stage show at
the O2 Arena in London on 1 July 2014, with "some of Monty Python's greatest hits, with modern, topical, Pythonesque twists" according to a press release. The tickets for this show went on sale in November 2013 and sold out in just 43 seconds. Nine additional shows were added, all of them at the O2, the last on 20 July. They have said that their reunion was inspired by
South Park creators
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone, who are massive Monty Python fans.
Mick Jagger and
Charlie Watts featured in a promotional video for the shows: "Who wants to see that again, really? It's a bunch of wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth and make a load of money—the best one died years ago!" Michael Palin stated that the final reunion show on 20 July 2014 would be the last time that the troupe would perform together. It was screened to 2,000 cinemas around the world. The last show was broadcast in the UK on
Gold TV and internationally in cinemas by
Fathom Events through a
Dish Network satellite link. In April 2015, the five surviving Pythons participated in a reunion event moderated by
John Oliver as part of the
Tribeca Festival at the
Beacon Theatre in New York City following a 40th anniversary screening of
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. ==Broadcast rights==