h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

More information on the TV special for all you Lumberjacks out there.

Yes, there is going to be one, and yes, for the moment it will only be shown on British TV. It will be a four hour extravaganza, featuring previously unreleased material, some brand new material (I have heard that Eric Idle is the only one who didn't contribute ny new material - don't ask me why), and some other stuff. The whole evening will be hosted by the wonderfully funny Eddie Izzard, himself a big python fan. I saw a trailer for the evening on BBC2 the other day and was in hysterics - not least at the sight of a group of middle-aged Gumbies.

The evening will be broadcast on BBC2, and I think it is on Saturday the 9th of October, probably around 9pm. I'll be watching.

Terry Gilliam is also not involved. Graham Chapman may have problems writing these days too as he's "stone f**king dead" to quite John Cleese. Izzard is now the unofficial seventh Python, and they say he's more Python than Python. I wonder if I can use the word "Python" any more often? Hmm. Python. There.

According to the "Daily Express", not only has Eric Idle not contributed any new material, but he hasn't performed in the new sketches at all - which seems a tremedous pity.
The September 30 edition of the paper quotes Michael Palin as follows: "Well, Graham Chapman is dead, Eric Idle lives in America - not quite the same thing - but the remaining four of us spent three days together. We got into drag again and it was lovely. To me, seeing Terry Jones in a great padded brassiere is an incredible sight. And John Cleese is enormous. Wearing a wig, he looks like a terrified Arnold Schwarzenneger playing Virginia Woolf."
Sounds fun, but the absence of Eric is a real let-down. You'd have thought that between them the other four could have found the money to buy him a transatlantic plane ticket, but apparently not...

I thought I saw Eric on Talkback with Clive Anderson saying how it had ben misquoted, or misreported that he lived in the US and that he had contributed to the re-union thingy. I mean I know I saw him on Talkback with Clive Anderson, but I think I thought I saw him saying so. Perhaps we'll have to wait and see. Perhaps he was just plugging his new book.

Well, having just finished watching it, I thought it was excellent. Good to see Mr. Idle joining in (albeit by satellite), Carol Cleveland getting a say and having her contribution acknowledged, and the old disrespectful attitude to the BBC apparently intensified rather than mellowed, by the passage of time. (For any non-Brits reading this: a remarkable amount of the new material in the BBC special involved John Cleese aiming sharply pointed barbs at the host channel.)
They're still not the messiahs, but they can still be very naughty boys.
Oh, all right then - fairly naughty middle-aged men.

He got his own back on Sainsburys quite well too.

I watched it. I enjoyed it. But it was rather like seeing some old punk band like the Clash doing all their old hits, at least as far as the new sketches were concerned (except, of course, Gilliam's new animation which was thoroughly sick). The interesting stuff was the documentaries, which were very good on the whole.

Two other things struck me:

1. Eddie Izzard has the capacity to be very very UNfunny at times, like last night.

2. This is the end of Monty Python, for ever. There were quite a few obvious pointers to this, and call me paranoid if you will, but this feeling was only enhanced by seeing the stickers thay Palin put up over London that read 1969-1999. It was like RIP ...

Err... Did anyone spot the "lost stuff". What they put on was just some resequnced stuff already seen (some of it that very night..).

I was disappointed overall with last night.

Alex

About half of the bit done for the European thing was "unseen".

I too get the feeling that that was the end of Python. Perhaps they are just sick of people saying, "Oh go on, get together just once more" Can't blame them really but I would like to be able to go and see them live. But then, you get the impression that you would be sat there in a hall full of people quoting along to the sketches. It would be like being at a gig and everybody inthe place singing along out of time and out of tune. I admit that it can work at times, but in general?

As I didn't get to see the special, and have recently finished the book "MONTY PYTHON SPEAKS", I'm wondering if we need another group to come along and rip up the forms and conventions of television with clever comedy the way Python did....

...and somehow avoid being compared to Python. Reminds me of a sketch that "Not The 9 O'clock News" did as a combined Python/Life of Brian parody, featuring their comic messiah John Cleese (who happens to have the same initials as this fraudulent bloke Jesus Christ).....

The comedy is classic and twenty years old. The men are likely utterly tired of doing the same things over and over. And yet a hungry audience awaits something intelligent, hilarious and unconventional (which means what, given our times?).

About the best way for the fans to end this is to tip our hats to them, say "Thanks for the laughter, the memories, and the attitude. We'll miss you." and let them be. That way we can all find the Meaning of Life.

Fruitbat
(for Virtual Mayor of London)

Already been done. "The Fast Show" is essentially a 90s Python, albeit with a greater emphasis on catchphrases. They have the same idea about no punchlines, inconsistency in sketches, surreal elements, etc.

Okay, so how long before this programme crosses the pond and the rest of the world gets to see it? This is one of the drawbacks of living in Canada.

Fruitbat
(for Virtual Mayor of London)

Some small USA networks have picked it up, as have some European stations so perhaps it's just a matter of time, but unfortunately there's a big problem. Paul Whitehouse (one of the main people behind the Fast Show) worked a lot with Harry Enfield a few years back, so many see his show as a kind of B version of Enfield's. Which is a shame as TFS is far better than any of Harry Enfield's shows and is one of the best recent examples of British comedy which hit the skids a few years back and is yet to recover (stand-up ommited).

Also, TFS finsihed for ever with the last series. They since did a TFS night on BBC2 and have since decided to do another "last series". Perhaps this will gain interest (and also push it to the 40-odd episodes required for many overseas networks).