MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS

You’re either a Monty Python fan or you ain’t. If you are … read on!

Running from August 16 every weekday at 15h55 on BBC Entertainment (channel 120 on DStv), Monty Python’s Flying Circus promises to delight old fans and gain new ones from a whole new generation of television viewers with a whacky sense of humour.

The “Pythons” writing effectively threw away the rulebook of traditional sketch writing, dispensing with punch lines and allowing sketches to blend into each other or simply stop abruptly, and there’s no better programme to illustrate the work of the Python gang than Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Including surreal topics and random themes, the Pythons joyfully weave sketches throughout every show leaving viewers with no idea where they will be taken next. Terry Gilliam's unique animation style is crucial, segueing seamlessly between any two completely unrelated ideas and making the stream-of-consciousness work.

The Pythons take on virtually every acting role themselves, and each cast member has developed his own specialities. Terry Jones portrays middle-class English gentlemen and ratbag old women, the towering John Cleese and Graham Chapman master pompous authority figures and do a fine line in cantankerous old ladies, Eric Idle often plays more feminine women as well as TV anchor roles and slimy, more sinister men, and Michael Palin makes his own anyone from Cardinal Ximinez of the Inquisition to sleazy end-of-the-pier variety compères.

With a huge and growing global following, the Pythons continued working together on three hilarious and groundbreaking feature films, while the Flying Circus, which started it all, has come to be seen as probably the most ingenious and imaginative comedy show ever to grace British television.