Monty Python At 50 - Pre-Python Picks

Still going with the material that would lead into Monty Python and this screening (with no Q&A for this one) comprised of a selection of sketches from the Frost Report (featuring John Cleese and Michael Palin alongside the Ronnies Corbett and Barker), a chunk of the Christmas episode of Do Not Adjust Your Set, a hefty chunk of one-off special made for American TV How To Irritate People and a complete episode of the Palin and Jones created The Complete And Utter History Of Britain.

The Frost Report Sketches
The most interesting thing about these is that they show the evolution of two shows which, for a time, were seen as almost polar opposites. On the one hand, you have Cleese and Palin and the other you have Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker, later to go on to mainstream comedy success in The Two Ronnies. What the Frost Report highlights is that a strong or weak sketch idea is carried by its performers and the four of them in these sketches are already good performers (Barker in particular in the examples shown). Of the ones shown, the best sketch involved two doctors (Cleese and Barker) being vague yet alarming in front of  bed-ridden patient (Corbett). You can see the genesis of both shows here - the mistrust of authority figures that was so prevalent in Python and the love of nonsense language that both played around with. The weakest was one inj which Barker plays a distant father to Palin’s returning son - solid performances but the script feels a little undercooked.

How To Irritate People
Coming out of the format of The Frost Report with a smattering of At Last The 1948 Show thrown in, with Cleese serving as an anchor figure tying together the sketches on the theme of irritation (very John Cleese), this was a one-off made to crack the American market in 1968. In many ways, it’s the beginning of the link between 1948 Show and Python as Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor are both present but with the addition of Michael Palin (and Connie Booth later to be co-creator of Fawlty Towers and  future ex-Mrs Cleese). There are even the beginnings of a Python classic in here as the car salesman sketch in which Chapman attempts to return a faulty car to a slippery and disinterested Palin is very much the forerunner of the Dead Parrot sketch. It’s not fully formed yet - there’s the nugget of something there but it’s not yet been teased out into something funny. This special also explicitly names the standard Python woman as Pepperpots - something they’d be referred to as in scripts but not on screen in Python.

I’ve already talked about Do Not Adjust Your Set so won’t go into further detail here but The Complete And Utter History Of Britain probably deserves a few words on its own so let’s cover that off next time.