Monty Python At 50 - At Last The 1948 Show

During the run of posts on comedy archeology (they haven’t completely gone away - good or bad news depending on your point of view, I guess), I briefly touched on the impact of Monty Python upon my formative sense of humour. The BFI (I should get getting paid for the free advertisements) is currently running a series of screenings, frequently with an accompanying Q&A, that cover pre, during and post Python works and influences from the main stars. Given their impact upon me and my self-appointed title of comedy nerd, it was always more than likely that I’d be going along to a fair few of these. I’m happy to say that I did not confound expectations on this front. 

At Last The 1948 Show (2 series, broadcast 1967)
Starring and written by:- John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor
Episodes shown:- Series 1 Ep3, Series 2 Ep 4
Guest performers:- Eric Idle, Bill Oddie, Barry Cryer

Of the two, this show is closest to being a proto-Python. A bookshop-based sketch feels very Pythonesque with Cleese as the increasingly irate bookshop owner facing Feldman’s obscure requests and the phrase “and now for something completely different” is even deployed in one episode. It’s also a vision of how different Python could have been with Feldman and Brooke-Taylor as the two of them bring a more visual, physical element to a lot of the sketches (Feldman with a more old-school silent movie feel, almost channelling Harpo Marx at one point, while Brooke-Taylor displays the kind of frantic energy that would be on display in the Goodies).

In fact, some 1948 Show sketches were later appropriated by Python. A sketch in which Graham Chapman wrestles with himself would show up in both Live At Drury Lane and Live At The Hollywood Bowl and the much more famous “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch actually originated here before being incorporated into Python live shows.

There’s some material in here that is genuinely funny and still holds up and a sense that these are four performers still seeing what they can get away with accompanied by “The Lovely” Aimi McDonald who skewers the 60s stule dolly bird hostess. The show was one of those that was largely wiped with only two of the thirteen episodes held in the official archives by the mid 90s. Thanks to the ongoing programme of recovery the BFI operates, almost all of them have been recovered or reconstructed from various sources (more on that in the next post).

Q&A
Present for the Q&A were Tim Brooke-Taylor and the Lovely Aimi McDonald with Barry Cryer chipping in from the audience. A clip from John Cleese showed him talking about the origins of the show which Tim Brooke-Taylor then disputed! Barry Cryer told us how Marty Feldman was one of the few actors able to favour two cameras at the same time while Brooke-Taylor told us how he’d wished he’d been in Monty Python so he could have afforded a bigger house… Aimi McDonald then also revealed her true Glaswegian accent.

A good start to the Python festivities. Don’t worry, there’s more to come…