Holy Flying Circus

I'll keep this relatively short.

Probably one of the best written comic scripts I've seen for many years.

The acting was absolutely superb especially Darren Boyd's turn as John Cleese. It perfectly shows the absurdity of the censorship battles comedy had to endure thanks to groups including Mary Whitehouse and shows how far we've come in a short period of time.

Most fans of MP know the outcome of this film and the problems with local council's bans with a recent lift of a ban only recently occurring.

Recommend this to anyone who's a fan of well written comedy.

To quote Mr Gumby. I laughed so much my brain hurt. Brilliant cast, had the Python team off pat. Wonderful script which as well as being very funny gave pause for thought. Loved the religious extremists. Roy Marsden gave a wonderful performance, and made the Bishop look and sound even more ridiculous than he was (which is saying something). It was that good even God made a guest appearance. Actually, the only omission, and something I was really looking forward to was the Spanish Inquisition. But NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition. Apologies my brain is starting to hurt again urgh!!! nghh! uuunnnh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just seen this television play, which I recorded some time ago. I haven't laughed so much in ages. The subject is the events in 1979 when the Monty Python team launched "The Life of Brian", and came under attack from Christians on both sides of the Atlantic. The whole thing is done in the spirit of MP, with fantasy sequences and lots of silliness. The actors, particularly those portraying John Cleese and Michael Palin, are so realistic, that I had trouble remembering that I was not watching the originals. Steve Punt also makes a very convincing Eric Idle. The highlight of the play is the well-known confrontation on the chat show, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning between Cleese and Palin on the one side, and Malcolm Muggeridge, former Communist and then born-again Christian journalist, and Mervyn Stockwood, the closetly homosexual Church of England bishop, on the other. A straightforward representation of the facts would not have been worthwhile, but the hilarious way in which events and characters are represented is like watching MP in their prime. Utterly recommended!

This pythonesque drama about the subsequent controversy of the Monty Python film, Life Of Brian breaks out of the usual docudrama route and instead goes for the surreal, re-imagined route.

It even gets downright silly. The opening scene features Stephen Fry as God. Only the Spanish Inquisition is missing.

The cinema release of Life of Brian aroused a lot of controversy. The film depicts the threats the actors received and the subsequent showdown that had on a television debate with the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Of course tensions surrounding the event are heightened and parodied. The Python team are exaggerated persona's of themselves, with Palin being too nice, Idle the money grabber, Cleese being Basil Fawlty even doing the funny walk at one point, Terry Jones appears in drag as Palin's wife.

It does show the effect the controversy had on the actors especially Palin who is shown as the reasonable everyman, frightened with the protesters outside his door.

It very much captures the absurd spirit of Python and the actors playing Palin and Cleese come out of it best.

I was too young to know about the controversy surrounding "The Life Of Brian" when it was first released, but in my adult years I discovered that not everyone felt the same way I did about the film - their loss.

Casting of the actors playing Monty Python cast was just about perfect from a visual point of view. The only issue I had was with the actor portraying Terry Gilliam not being able to fake an American accent effectively.

There are so many shout outs to the way the Flying Circus series was made in this film to make it almost seem like the original cast had made it in the early '80's and it had gotten lost somewhere and recently found and broadcast.

The irony of Stephen Fry portraying his particular character is outstanding.

I laughed out loud a lot while watching this "mockudramedy" and I would have given it a 10 star rating if not for the aforementioned bad American accent.