Monty Python

Monty Python was a series of surrealist comedy television programs and films made by John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam. Monty Python's Flying Circus was originally broadcast on BBC 1 from 1969 to 1974. This was followed by And Now For Something Completely Different, a film spinoff. Following these, the Pythons produced two feature films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and the controversial Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). They produced one more film, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) which consisted of sketches on different aspects of life and, for that matter, death.

Michael Palin and Terry Jones met at Oxford University, and John Cleese and Graham Chapman met at Cambridge University. Eric Idle also went to Cambridge, and Cleese, Chapman and Idle were members of the Footlights, alongside a number of other comedy performers: Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden (later to become The Goodies) and Jonathan Lynn (writer of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister). Terry Gilliam, meanwhile, was the one member of Monty Python not born in England, having been born in Minnesota and educated at Occidental College. Terry Gilliam met John Cleese while the Footlights were on tour in New York City.

Before Python came about, the members of Python worked on a number of different comedy programs on radio and television including I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, The Frost Report, At Last the 1948 Show, Twice a Fortnight, Do Not Adjust Your Set, We Have Ways of Making You Laugh, How to Irritate People, The Complete and Utter History of Britain and Doctor in the House.