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Dom Robinson reviews

The Best Of

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Volume 1

Distributed by

Cat.no: BBCDVD 1005

Cert: PG

Running time: 96 minutes

Year: 1969/70

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 30 plus extras

Sound: Mono

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Biographies, Palindromes, Sing-a-long Lumberjack song, Photo Gallery, Radio Times: the original billing

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Producers:

John Howard-Davies and Ian MacNaughton

Animation:

Terry Gilliam

Scriptwriters:

The Monty Python Team

It's !

Graham Chapman
John Cleese
Terry Gilliam
Eric Idle
Terry Jones
Michael Palin

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Monty Python's Flying Circus, for anyone living with their head in the clouds for the past 31 years, was an irreverent comedy sketch show that ran from October 5th, 1969 to December 5th, 1974 and it would change the face of TV forever, blending bizarre humour with even more bizarre animation from Terry Gilliam, director of films such as Brazil and Twelve Monkeys

This compilation contains 28 sketches from the first series, prefixed by the opening titles and Michael Palin desperately crawling up to the camera after being thrown off the edge of the cliff and the closing credits are sandwiched inbetween a pet shop and a parrot.

The chapters, including the titles of the sketches on show, are :

1. Programme Start 2. Hell's Grannies 3. Storytime 4. It's the Arts 5. Pearl Harbour 6. Pram Animation 7. Self-Defence 8. Operation Animation 9. Come Back To My Place 10. Nudge Nudge 11. Kilimanjaro 12. Dirty Fork 13. Lingerie Robbery 14. Lion Tamer 15. Sheep

16. Bicycle Repair Shop 17. Falling Bodies 18. Three Buttocks 19. Albatross 20. Northern Playwright 21. Unwelcome Guests 22. The Funniest Joke in the World 23. It's...Trees 24. Crunchy Frog 25. Nudity Animation 26. Upperclass Twits 27. Lumberjack Song 28. Pet Shop Sketch 29. End Titles 30. Parrot Sketch

Of the above, if I had to choose five favourites, they would be :

Nudge Nudge: Smuttiness abound as Eric Idle winds up Terry Jones by asking if his wife is a bit of a "go-er". Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, knowworraimean? A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.

Kilimanjaro: Cross-eyed eccentric John Cleese offers Eric Idle the chance to climb BOTH peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro...

Dirty Fork: The late Graham Chapman complains about the dirty fork on the table in his restaurant of choice. He gets the back up of the waiter and manager, not to mention incurring the wrath of mad chef John Cleese.

Lumberjack Song: Michael Palin: he's a lumberjack and he's okay, but he's got something else up his sleeve - and under the rest of his clothes.

Parrot Sketch: The one about the dead parrot. If you've never seen this sketch of John Cleese complaining to Michael Palin about the dodgy livestock on sale, you must be lying.

The one sketch I would have included? Quite simply, The Larch.

The picture quality isn't perfect, but it's as good as it's going to get. Presented in fullscreen and artifact-free I certainly recommend it. If watching on a widescreen TV though, it's perfectly comfortable to zoom the picture into 14:9. The average bitrate is a brilliant 8.17Mb/s, often holding steady close to 9Mb/s.

The sound is in mono and quite adequate with no complaints. The opening tune, Liberty Bell, still sounds as good today as it always did and for some reason, while hearing it at University in a drunken haze, I swore blind that the lyrics to "A finger of Fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat" fit the music exactly.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages & Subtitles :

And there's more :

Menu :

Overall :

Scheduled for March/April release are : Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and Tweenies.

As for which DVDs I'd like to see from the BBC in future. They include : Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form), The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and - depending on whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash - Eldorado...

FILM	 		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: ***
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OVERALL			: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: