Just the Words

Monty Python's Flying Circus

ISBN 10: 0413741001 / ISBN 13: 9780413741004

Published by Methuen, 1999

About this Item

Unread book in perfect condition. Seller Inventory # 1404694

Bibliographic Details

Title: Just the Words

Publisher: Methuen

Publication Date: 1999

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis:

October 1999 marked the 30th anniversay of the first broadcast of Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBC television. This book contains the scripts of all 23 episodes from the first and second series.

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