''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' is a sketch comedy show, though it does not adhere to any regular format. The sketches include live-action skits performed by
Graham Chapman,
John Cleese,
Eric Idle,
Terry Jones,
Michael Palin, and
Terry Gilliam, along with animations created by Gilliam, frequently used as linking devices or interstitial between skits. During the first three series, Cleese would be dressed in a tuxedo and introduce the show with the phrase "And Now for Something Completely Different". Afterwards, a long-haired man (called the It's man) played by Michael Palin would run all the way to the camera and say "It's.." which would start the show proper. The show's introductory theme, which varied with each series, was also based on Gilliam's animations and was accompanied by a rendition of "
The Liberty Bell" march by
John Philip Sousa, as performed by the
Band of the Grenadier Guards. The march was first published in 1893; Gilliam chose it as the show's theme because it had fallen into the
public domain under the terms of the
Berne Convention and
United States copyright law, and could thus be used without
royalty payments.
Title The title ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was partly the result of the group's reputation at the BBC.
Michael Mills, the BBC's Head of Comedy, wanted their name to include the word "circus" because the BBC referred to the six members wandering around the building as a circus, in particular, "Baron Von Took's Circus", after
Barry Took, who had brought them to the BBC. The group added "flying" to make it sound less like an actual circus and more like something
from World War I. The group was coming up with their name at a time when the 1966
The Royal Guardsmen song
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron had been at a peak.
Freiherr Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I German flying ace known as The Red Baron, commanded the
Jagdgeschwader 1 fighter squadron known as "The Flying Circus". The words "Monty Python" were added because they claimed it sounded like a really bad theatrical agent, the sort of person who would have brought them together, with
John Cleese suggesting "
Python" as something slimy and slithery, and
Eric Idle suggesting "Monty". They later explained that the name Monty "made us laugh because Monty to us means
Lord Montgomery, our great general of the Second World War". The BBC had rejected some other names put forward by the group, including
Whither Canada?;
The Nose Show; ''Ow! It's Colin Plint!
; A Horse, a Spoon and a Basin
; The Toad Elevating Moment
and Owl Stretching Time''. Several of these titles were later used for individual episodes.
Recurring characters Compared with many other
sketch comedy shows,
Flying Circus had fewer recurring characters, many of whom were involved only in titles and linking sequences. Continuity for many of these recurring characters was frequently non-existent from sketch to sketch, with sometimes even the most basic information (such as a character's name) being changed from one appearance to the next. The most frequently returning characters on the show include: • '''The "It's" Man''' (Palin), a
Robinson Crusoe-type castaway with torn clothes and a long, unkempt beard who would appear at the beginning of the programme. Often he is seen performing a long or dangerous task, such as falling off a tall, jagged cliff or running through a mine field a long distance towards the camera before introducing the show by just saying, "It's..." before being abruptly cut off by the opening titles and Terry Gilliam's animation sprouting the words 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. ''It's'' was an early candidate for the title of the series. •
A BBC continuity announcer in a dinner jacket (Cleese), seated at a desk, often in highly incongruous locations, such as a forest or a beach. His line, "
And now for something completely different", was used variously as a lead-in to the opening titles and a simple way to link sketches. Though Cleese is best known for it, Idle first introduced the phrase in Episode 2, where he introduced a man with three buttocks. It eventually became the show's
catchphrase and served as the title for the troupe's first movie. In Series 3 the line was shortened to simply: "And now..." and was often combined with the "It's" man in introducing the episodes. •
The Gumbys, a dim-witted group of identically attired people all wearing
gumboots (from which they take their name), high-water trousers,
braces,
Fair Isle tank tops, white shirts with rolled up sleeves, round wire-rimmed glasses,
toothbrush moustaches and knotted handkerchiefs worn on their heads (a stereotype of the English
working-class holidaymaker). Gumbys always stand in a hunched, square posture, holding their arms stiffly at their sides with their balled hands curled inwards. They speak slowly in loud, throaty voices punctuated by frequent grunts and groans, display a poor understanding of everything they encounter, and have a fondness for pointless violence. All of them are surnamed Gumby: D.P. Gumby, R.S. Gumby, etc. Even though all Pythons played Gumbys in the show's run, the character is most closely associated with Michael Palin. •
The Knight with a Raw Chicken (Gilliam), who would hit characters over the head with the chicken when they said something particularly silly. The knight was a regular during the first series and made another appearance in the third. •
A nude organist (played in his first two appearances by Gilliam, later by Jones) who provided a brief fanfare to punctuate certain sketches, most notably on a sketch poking fun at
Sale of the Century or as yet another way to introduce the opening titles. This character was addressed as "
Onan" by Palin's host character in the ersatz game show sketch "Blackmail". He wore only a tie and a white shirt collar. •
The "Pepper Pots" are screeching middle-aged,
lower-middle class housewives, played by the Pythons in frocks and frumpy hats, and engage in surreal and inconsequential conversation. "The Pepper Pots" was the in-house name that the Pythons used to identify these characters, who were never identified as such on-screen. On the rare occasion these women were named, it was often for comic effect, featuring such names as Mrs. Scum, Mrs. Non-Gorilla, Mrs. Thing, Mrs. Entity, or the duo Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion. "Pepper pot" refers to what the Pythons believed was the typical body shape of middle-class, British housewives, as explained by John Cleese in
How to Irritate People.
Terry Jones is perhaps most closely associated with the Pepper Pots, but all the Pythons were frequent in performing the drag characters. • Brief black-and-white
stock footage, lasting only two or three seconds, of
middle-aged women sitting in an audience and applauding. The film was taken from a
Women's Institute meeting and was sometimes presented with a colour tint. Other recurring characters include: • "
The Colonel" (Chapman), a British Army officer who interrupts sketches that are "too silly" or that contain material he finds offensive. The Colonel also appears when non-BBC broadcast repeats need to be cut off for time constraints in
syndication. • Arthur Pewtey (Palin), a socially inept, extremely dull man who appears most notably in the "
Marriage Guidance Counsellor" and "
Ministry of Silly Walks" sketches. His sketches all take the form of an office appointment with an authority figure (usually played by Cleese), which are used to parody the officious side of the British establishment by having the professional employed in the most bizarre field of expertise. The spelling of Pewtey's surname is changed, sometimes being spelled "Putey". • The Reverend Arthur Belling is the
vicar of St Loony-Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam, known for his deranged behaviour. In one sketch (within Series 2, played by Chapman), he makes an appeal to the insane people of the world to drive sane people insane. In another sketch (within Series 3, played by Palin), which is among the pantheon of fan favourites, the vicar politely joins a honeymooning couple at an outdoor café, repeatedly insisting he does not wish to disturb them; he then sits down, opens a suitcase full of props, and calmly proceeds to smash plates on the table, shake a baby doll in their faces, bounce a rubber crab from a ping-pong paddle, and spray shaving cream all over his face, all whilst loudly chanting nonsense syllables. Rev. Belling's odd version of 'not being disturbing' serves to convert the couple to his bizarre sect of Christianity. • A somewhat disreputable shopkeeper, played by Palin, is a staple of many a two-person sketch (notably "Dead Parrot Sketch" and "Cheese Shop"). He often speaks with a strong Cockney accent, and has no consistent name. • Mr. Badger (Idle), a Scotsman whose specialty was interrupting sketches ('I won't ruin your sketch, for a pound'). He was once interviewed, in a sketch opposite Cleese, regarding his interpretation of
Magna Carta, which Badger believes was actually a piece of chewing gum on a bedspread in
Dorset. He has also been seen as an
aeroplane hijacker whose demands grow increasingly strange. •
Mr. Eric Praline, a disgruntled man, played by Cleese and who often wears a
Pac-a-Mac. His most famous appearance is in the "
Dead Parrot sketch". His name is only mentioned once on-screen, during the "
Fish Licence" sketch, but his attire (together with Cleese's distinctive, nasal performance) distinguishes him as a recognisable character who makes multiple appearances throughout the first two series. An audio re-recording of "Fish Licence" also reveals that he has multiple pets of wildly differing species, all of them named "
Eric". • Arthur Nudge, a well-dressed mustachioed man, referred to in the published scripts as "Mr. Nudge" (Idle), who pointedly annoys uptight characters (usually Jones). He is characterised by his constant nudging gestures and cheeky innuendo. His most famous appearance is in his initial sketch, "
Nudge Nudge", though he appears in several later sketches too, including "The Visitors", where he claimed his name was Arthur Name. •
Biggles (Chapman, and
in one instance Jones), a World War I pilot. Derived from the famous series of fiction stories by
W. E. Johns. • Luigi Vercotti (Palin), a
mafioso entrepreneur and
pimp featured during the first series, accompanied in his first appearance by his brother Dino (Jones). He appears as the manager for
Ron Obvious, as the owner of La Gondola restaurant and as a victim of the
Piranha Brothers. With his brother, he attempts to talk the Colonel into paying for
protection of his Army base. •
The Spanish Inquisition would burst into a previously unrelated sketch whenever their name was mentioned. Their catchphrase was 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!' They consist of Cardinal Ximinez (Palin), Cardinal Fang (Gilliam), and Cardinal Biggles (Jones). They premiered in series two and Ximinez had a cameo in "The Buzz Aldrin Show". • Frenchmen: Cleese and Palin would sometimes dress in stereotypical French garb, e.g. striped shirt, tight pants,
beret, and speak in garbled French, with incomprehensible accents. They had one fake moustache between them, and each would stick it onto the other's lip when it was his turn to speak. They appear giving a demonstration of the technical aspects of the flying sheep in episode 2 ("Sex and Violence"), and appear in the
Ministry of Silly Walks sketch as the developers of "La Marche Futile". They also make an appearance in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. • The Compère (Palin), a sleazy nightclub emcee in a red jacket. He linked sketches by introducing them as nightclub acts, and was occasionally seen after the sketch, passing comment on it. In one link, he was the victim of the Knight with a Raw Chicken. •
Spiny Norman, a Gilliam animation of a giant hedgehog. He is introduced in Episode 1 of Series 2 in "Piranha Brothers" as an hallucination experienced by Dinsdale Piranha when he is depressed. Later, Spiny Norman appears randomly in the background of animated cityscapes, shouting 'Dinsdale!' •
Cardinal Richelieu (Palin) is impersonated by someone or is impersonating someone else. He is first seen as a witness in court, but he turns out to be Ron Higgins, a professional Cardinal Richelieu impersonator. He is later seen during the "Historical Impersonations" sketch as himself impersonating
Petula Clark. • Ken Shabby (Palin), an unkempt, disgusting man who cleaned public lavatories, appeared in his own sketch in the first series, attempting to get approval from another man (Chapman) to marry his daughter (Booth). In the second series, he appeared in several
vox populi segments. He later founded his own religion (as part of the "Crackpot Religions" sketch) and called himself Archbishop Shabby. • Raymond Luxury-Yacht (Chapman) is described as one of Britain's leading skin specialists. He wears an enormous fake nose made of
polystyrene. He proudly proclaims that his name "is spelled 'Raymond Luxury-Yach-t', but it is pronounced 'Throat-Wobbler Mangrove. • A Madman (Chapman) Often appears in vox pops segments. He wears a
bowler hat and has a bushy
moustache. He will always rant and ramble about his life whenever he appears and will occasionally foam at the mouth and fall over backwards. He appears in "The Naked Ant", "The Buzz Aldrin Show" and "It's a Living". Other returning characters include a married couple, often mentioned but never seen,
Ann Haydon-Jones and her husband Pip. In "
Election Night Special", Pip has lost a political seat to
Engelbert Humperdinck. Several recurring characters are played by different Pythons. Both Palin and Chapman played the insanely violent Police Constable
Pan Am. Both Jones and Palin portrayed police sergeant Harry 'Snapper' Organs of Q division. Various historical figures were played by a different cast member in each appearance, such as
Mozart (Cleese, then Palin), or
Queen Victoria (Jones, then Palin, then all five Pythons in Series 4). Some of the Pythons' real-life targets recurred more frequently than others.
Reginald Maudling, a contemporary
Conservative politician, was singled out for perhaps the most consistent ridicule. Then-
Secretary of State for Education and Science, and (well after the programme had ended) Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, was occasionally mentioned (a reference to Thatcher's brain being in her shin in particular having been well received from the studio audience). Then-US President
Richard Nixon was also frequently mocked, as was Conservative party leader
Edward Heath, prime minister for much of the series' run. The
British police were also a favourite target, often acting bizarrely, stupidly, or abusing their authority, frequently in drag. == Series overview ==