A fascinating portrait of an era when
comedy had a hand in changing the world and shaking out the comfort zones.
(Review by Margaret von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Way back in time, longer ago than I care to
remember, one of the highlights of life at boarding school in England was
listening on a clandestine transistor radio to a mad late night comedy show, I’m Sorry, I’ll Read that Again. One of
the performers was a young Eric Idle, not long down from Cambridge: others
included Graeme Garden, John Cleese and Bill Oddie. Later, after I had left
school, I went to a recording session, even madder than the finished product.
It was the 1960s, and Britain was emerging
from post war gloom into a new, wacky daylight of comedy, culminating in the
great Monty Python. Idle and Cleese
were two of the stars, but the mainspring of the Python genius was the fact that it was ensemble work, and the
disparate characters who made up the team managed to create together, and
despite rumours to the contrary, remain friends to this day.
In this book, which is subtitled “A Sortabiography” Idle tells the story
of his life, from his tragic childhood – his father was killed in a traffic
accident on his way home from the Second World War – through his dismal
schooldays and on to life as a Python and increasing celebrity. He is also the
creator of the song that gives his book its title, and is the most popular
choice at British funerals. And the brains behind the musical Spamalot.
The name-dropping is pretty relentless, but
they are names to conjure with. Idle was a close friend of George Harrison and
Robin Williams and still is close to Steve Martin – and, of course, the
remaining Pythons, sadly now without Graham Chapman or Terry Jones, who, though
still alive, has slipped into a twilight world of dementia. By turns hilarious
and moving, Always Look on the Bright
Side of Life is also a fascinating portrait of an era when comedy had a
hand in changing the world and shaking out the comfort zones. We could do with
some of that outrageous humour now.
Always
Look on the Bright Side of Life is published by Weidenfeld
& Nicolson - Margaret von Klemperer
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