16 August: Monty Python Day

Today is Monty Python Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about Monty Python:

1. Who are they? Monty Python is a comedy troupe consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
2. Palin and Jones met at university – they both went to Oxford. Chapman, Cleese, and Idle all went to Cambridge and were part of the Footlights Revue. Gilliam was an American cartoonist and animator who moved to England, where he worked on animated programmes for children, meeting the rest of the group through his work.
3. The group didn’t have a name until they were commissioned to make a comedy show for the BBC. Then, they came up with a number of names, including “Owl Stretching Time,” “The Toad Elevating Moment,” “A Horse, a Spoon, and a Basin,” Whither Canada?; Ow! It's Colin Plint; A Horse, a Spoon, and a Bucket; The Algy Banging Hour and “Bumwacket, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot.” In the end the BBC ended the dilemma by choosing one, Flying Circus, and actually printing it in their programming so it was no longer possible to change it. They decided the flying circus needed a name to go with it. Python is meant to represent something slithery while Monty is a name suggestive of a posh British drunk.
4. The show was nearly cancelled after just one episode because, according to one internal BBC memo, it went "over the edge of what was acceptable." The audience ratings weren’t great at first, either. Nevertheless, the BBC kept it and there were 45 episodes before it finally bit the dust in 1974, when John Cleese left.
5. The theme song is called The Liberty Bell by John Philip Sousa, played by the Band of the Grenadier Guards. One of the main reasons for choosing it was that the group were strapped for cash. This tune was in the public domain so they wouldn’t have to pay to use it.
6. The big foot in the opening credits isn’t just any old foot. It actually comes from an old painting by Bronzino, An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, dating back to around 1545. It was presented to King Francis I of France as a gift. It was in The National Gallery in 1969 where Terry Gilliam spotted it while searching for inspiration. The foot belongs to Cupid.
7. The Dead Parrot sketch was originally written for a US show called How to Irritate People and featured a customer complaining that the used car they’d just bought was falling apart and the vendor constantly denying the fact. They re-worked the idea for the BBC show.
8. Like many 1960s BBC shows, the original episodes were to be taped over. However, Terry Gilliam, on hearing this was about to happen, bought up all the tapes so they wouldn’t be lost.
9. The American channel ABC acquired the rights to show some episodes as late night specials in the States. However, 1970s America was so prudish that words like "damn," "hell," and "naughty bits" were considered too over the top even for a late night show. Their censorship meant that an awful lot got edited out. Monty Python weren’t at all impressed and sued ABC. The judge watched both versions, and even though he found the British version funnier, still ruled in favour of ABC. The Pythons appealed and this time they were given back the rights, which they sold to another channel.
10. They also made some films – And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life (which was intended, the Pythons admitted, to offend absolutely everyone).

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book