Reply With Quote
It has always amazed me too, how much Steve Punt looks like Eric Idol!
The chap playing John Cleese doesn`t impress me much going by that photograph lol.
Coming soon to BBC4
BBC - Press Office - press pack: Holy Flying Circus
It has always amazed me too, how much Steve Punt looks like Eric Idol!
The chap playing John Cleese doesn`t impress me much going by that photograph lol.
Last edited by faginsgirl; 01-10-11 at 04:21 PM.
Agree. It was inevitable that he would play him someday!Originally Posted by faginsgirl
But he's a wee bit old to play him as he was in 1979!
Last edited by batman; 19-10-11 at 09:41 PM.
Hmmm ... just watching this. Half an hour in and I really, really don't like it. Maybe the actor playing Michael Palin resembles him but the ones playing Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman are appalling.
And It Just Isn't Funny
Looking forward to the repeat of the debate proper from Friday Night, Saturday Morning later on.
I didn't realise that it was meant to be an impersonation showHmmm ... just watching this. Half an hour in and I really, really don't like it. Maybe the actor playing Michael Palin resembles him but the ones playing Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman are appalling.
And It Just Isn't Funny
As for it not being funny, comics and comic writers aren't funny all the time. The Python crew certainly weren't. Much of most of their meetings were taken up with arguments, they weren't telling each other jokes all the time
a) That wasn't meant to be a comedy. It had a few jokes in it but it wasn't meant to be laugh-a-minute stuff
b) Monty Python isn't the funniest programme ever, a lot of it wasn't particularly funny when it was first broadcast and still isn't funny now
c) The best bits in this programme were Stephen Fry as God (typecast again)
Steve
He's NOT the new Eric Idle...he's a very naughty boy!
Well may I ask what you were expecting to see on a basic publicity photo?
Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens Of Babylon? Herds of Wildebeest sweeping majestically...."
etc etc
Python was always the ultimate comedy curate's egg for me - occasional nuggets of hilarity amidst swathes of embarrassingly unfunny postgrad "humour" which often went well wide of the mark.
Terry Gilliam was my favourite because I always found the animations funniest.
I never liked any of their films.
But since this centres around Life Of Brian I wonder who they got to play George Harrison?
Nobody, they made up a character as the distributor but although the company name was shown quite often it wasn't the real distribution company of the filmBut since this centres around Life Of Brian I wonder who they got to play George Harrison?
Steve
I suspected as much, hence the sardonic wink
They had the chance to show George's vital part in the film's success and they beatled it - sorry, bottled it!
I didn't expect it to be an impersonation show OR a comedy. Neither did I expect it to be an exercise in how many times a show can use the word c--t. As for depicting the events it was pathetic and made what was definitely a story worth telling in a serious manner a chance to be simply crass and offensive, without any reason. It is the worst drama based on real people the BBC have ever done, and against some pretty stiff competition.
Bag o Shite
Your assessment on last night's drama Jim? :)
I was trying to edit my post earlier but failed. What really didn't work in Holy Flying Circus was the reducing of the Pythons to caricatures - so Terry Jones became an idiot who couldn't pronounce the letter 'r', Graham Chapman (probably the most intelligent and mad of the group) declared 'I'm gay' at every possible opportunity, Terry Gilliam was a stupid voice and wig and no personality. That's what I meant by the actor's portrayals being terrible.
I did appreciate (kind of) the tying in of some scenes to sketches in the original show - but that didn't work either. And the church person with Tourettes was just ... meh. Lazy writing.
As Mr Cleese would say himself 'oh it makes me mad ...' that this unfunny bollox even got off the starting board. So many missed opportunities to address the issues of hypocrisy in the media and church, freedom of speech, even the dynamic between the six Pythons at that point in their careers. I guess it was supposed to be satire ... but it wasn't.
I seem to be in a minority but I actually quite enjoyed it, even though with it's cartoons, puppets, female impersonations and all it tried a little too hard to be liked.
Like Python itself it was scatological, occasionally very funny and some scenes and jokes died a death.
The characterisation of the real Python's worked by and large. Michael Palin The Nicest Man in the World, a money obsessed Eric Idle, John Cleese played as Fawlty, the 'r' rolling Jones. Only the Chapman portrayal was a bit thinly written.
The best performance for me was a brilliant turn by Michael Cochrane as Malcolm Muggeridge, Roy Marsden in bouffant wig was less successful as Mervyn Stockwood.
One of Beeb four's better potted biogs of real life entertainers.
I thought it was very poor. Apart from the aforementioned Michael Cochrane as Muggeridge there wasn't one performance that was worth watching. Much more fun, and more enlightening, was the re-run of the original 'debate' straight after this programme had finished.
Most telling was the bit in the green room after the "debate" when the Archbish & Mad Muggeridge confessed that they had missed the first 15 minutes of the film where it is made very clear that Brian isn't Jesus.
The real debate just showed how bigoted those "Christian" gentlemen were
Steve
I thought it was funny and made a refreshing change from the usual BBC4 dramas about comics that all blend into one after a while. The broadbrush stereotyping of the Pythons was cleverly done as were the deliberate anachronisms. More of this sort of thing, BBC4, pleaseI didn't realise that it was meant to be an impersonation show
As for it not being funny, comics and comic writers aren't funny all the time. The Python crew certainly weren't. Much of most of their meetings were taken up with arguments, they weren't telling each other jokes all the time
a) That wasn't meant to be a comedy. It had a few jokes in it but it wasn't meant to be laugh-a-minute stuff
b) Monty Python isn't the funniest programme ever, a lot of it wasn't particularly funny when it was first broadcast and still isn't funny now
c) The best bits in this programme were Stephen Fry as God (typecast again)
Steve
I didn't realise that it was meant to be an impersonation show
b) Monty Python isn't the funniest programme ever, a lot of it wasn't particularly funny when it was first broadcast and still isn't funny now
Steve
What is the funniest programme of all time is a moot point ( not really, it's Victoria Wood As Seen On TV ) but what is beyond doubt is Monty Python was a vastly influential programme on a generation. Which bloke over 40 has n't been bored or bored someone with the Knights that say ni scene, The Dead Parrot sketch,Eric the half a bee,The Cheese shop sketch, Biggus Dickus etc etc no other comedy show has had vast swathes of itself regurgitated into the common usuage.
There are lots of sketches that may have been forgotten but in an unprecedented way much of the shows and films have entered popular culture.
WTF?!?
It's a factWTF?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6aYLOf8CUQ
Posting Permissions
