Monty Python At 50 - Oddities & Rarities

Next up, we have a two part screening of just what it says on the tin - a number of sketches from other programmes featuring the Pythons as well as the odd corporate film, public service announcement and, to finish off each session, a selection of Michael Palin’s 8mm home movies with a specially recorded commentary by him.

One of highlights amongst these was, oddly enough, a corporate film for Guinness in which publicans are instructed on how best to pour a pint and keep your pumps clean. Palin and Jones featured in this one as competing landlords, Palin the unsuccessful one who was the butt of his customers jokes with Jones the adept publican showing Palin the ropes. It’s amusing stuff which then stops in the middle for a very earnest demonstration of pump cleaning and maintenance by Jones which I found oddly charming (especially as his character voice seems to slip slightly while he’s dispensing advice). There’s also a slightly risque undertone of Jones having an affair with Palin’s wife which seems surprising in a corporate film.

One element that was intriguing, if a little cringey, was a section from a John Cleese video promoting his company which provided corporate training videos. The clips from the training videos themselves were reasonably funny (more so than a normal training video definitely) but the wraparound presentation from Cleese explaining why humour was essential and why therefore his company was so great had an air of superiority about it that was a little off-putting.

Other fun clips included an item about a hoover from Braden’s Week (a forerunner to That’s Life) featuring quotes from John Cleese and an interruption from Graham Chapman’s military man, a promotional programme about the Guinness Book Of Records presented by Frank Muir and with sketches by Palin, Jones, Cleese and Connie Booth (and featuring heavy drinking of Guinness) and a recently rediscovered interview with Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. There’s a sense of fractiousness between them at this point - they’re asked about doing more shows and make noises about being up for it but it feels like the writing’s on the wall for Python as a group.

Each session concluded with a selection of home movies shot by Michael Palin. The first was behind the scenes of the location shoot for the Dennos Moore (“give me all your lupins”) sketch from the third series while the second showed the Pythons on holiday in Barbados writing the script for Life Of Brian followed up with them being on location in Tunisia filming the crowd for the “welease Woderick” scene. It was perfectly charming listening to Palin’s reminisces over the footage (along with apologies for the lack of focus on any close ups) and the ideal way to cap off these screenings of odds and sods.