Monty Python Flying Circus - Just the Words: v. 1 - Softcover

Python, Monty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413741001 ISBN 13: 9780413741004

Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

The complete unexpurgated scripts of the original television series--except for, of course, the animation bitsThis volume includes the scripts of all 23 episodes from the first and second series of the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus shows. Well loved and much quoted pieces such as The Lumberjack Song, The Architect Sketch, The Spanish Inquisition, Archaeology Today, Dead Parrot, Test Match, and Hell's Grannies are included in this volume.

About this title

Review

Python had such a strong visual component it might be thought that just reading the scripts would be a denuded sort of experience, even with a 12-page insert of photos in the middle. But, in fact, the reverse is true: Going straight through this volume, quite apart from being actively hilarious, also reminds you just how well- written many of these sketches are. The 1970s was a period of a great deal of self-important dramatic and theatrical writing in this country but how many playwrights from that period, and how many plays, have created scenes and written dialogue that have entered into universal popular consciousness the way the Python team have managed? Pinter , Stoppar d and Bond have nothing as penetrating as "its not pining, its passed on, this parrot is no more" or "nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition."

This volume includes scripts from the whole of the first series and most of the second and includes some of Python's most famous moments, not just the aforementioned parrot and the Inquisition, but the Pirhana brothers, the Lumberjack Song, the Minehead bye- election ("not much fun in Stalingrad, no"), the Ministry of Silly Walks, and a delicious range of others. Part a joyous prompt to memory, partly a wholly new experience, finishing this volume has you reaching automatically for Monty Python's Flying Circus: Jus tThe Words, Vol 2. --Adam Roberts

About the Author

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group that created Monty Python's Flying Circus, an influential British television comedy sketch show. With the success of the show, The Pythons became a phenomenon that included touring stage shows, films, albums, books, and a stage musical, and that eventually granted members individual stardom.

Edition details

• Publisher: Methuen Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0413741001
• ISBN 13: 9780413741004
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368