"Romanes eunt domus"?

Monty Python’s Life of Brian is, of course, a work of absolute genius and I heap nothing but scorn on those who disagree. I’m a bit like that, you see.

Therefore, I was keen to tune in and watch BBC4s feature-length Holy Flying Circus, a retelling of sorts of the fuss made over it on it’s release in 1979, for which we can thank George Harrison, who stumped up the cash personally to ensure it’s completion. For that alone, his post-Beatles career is more worthy than any of the other three. Ringo gets second place for narrating Thomas the Tank Engine. George had the best Simpsons cameo too.

Moving back on topic, Holy Flying Circus wasn't an entirely serious portrayal, perhaps fittingly so. Where it was accurate was having Michael Palin shown as the Nicest Guy In The World, which he obviously is, with only Dave Grohl perhaps challenging for the title. His struggles to make sense of the growing madness around him was brought into sharp relief by getting the actor portraying Terry Jones to also show up as his wife. Quite what Mrs Palin thinks of that would be interesting to know.

A lot of the key scenes were between Palin and John Cleese, who was nailed down brilliantly, albeit by an actor a tad too short (talk about nit-picking…) It was noted by the programme itself that this performance was more playing Cleese-as-Fawlty than the man himself, but I was reminded more of some of the man’s Python creations. Especially brought to mind was how his contrary attitude was like his role in the Argument Sketch*.

The rest of the team were less seen, but still well acted. Steve Punt as Eric Idle may be a bit old, but got some great lines, including one where he mentions to Tim Rice that he’d like to write a musical someday. Graham Chapman was written as a thoughtful, quiet individual, Terry Gilliam as slightly unhinged, thinking up animations. The best of these was having the Python’s thinking up jokes about Jesus to amuse Satan, though Chapman manages to cross even that line.

It all builds up to the one section with a steady basis in reality, with Cleese and Palin debating their film with a bishop and reformed pisshead Malcolm Muggeridge. As has been said many a time, the Python chaps treated the whole thing very seriously in defence of their art, while the God Squad remained condescending. In 2011 it’s easy to see them acting like a right part of bellends, but I’m not entirely certain the verdict at the time that Python "won" was as clear-cut as was made out here.

Where the film did fall down was some of the peripheral characters. Getting a bunch of oddballs to play those protesting on religious grounds seemed a bit of a cheap shot, and their "revelation" at the end was a scriptwriting cliché we could have done without. The producer of the debate show was also constantly irritating, unfortunately reminding me of the boss from the IT Crowd in every worst possible way.

*No it isn't.