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“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” turns 40
18-Oct-2009
Written by: Justin Carbone
We are the knights who say “Ni!”
Five British comedians and one American animator came together and changed the history of comedy as we know it. This group of slapstick satirical performers formed under the lineage of comedy’s past to be named Monty Python.
The six men are animator Terry Gilliam and comedians John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman who passed away in 1989 from throat cancer. Their career together spanned from 1969 to 1983, but they continued to work together on each other's projects, a bond they share till this day. The surviving members came together recently to promote a documentary they were all involved in that discusses the history of the group. The documentary is called “Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut)” and was co-directed by Bill Jones (Terry Jones’s son) and Ben Timlett.
The documentary comes out in connection with the comedy group’s 40th anniversary of their television show, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” which played on BBC. The six hour documentary series begins tonight at 9 p.m. on IFC.
As reported on ChicagoTribune.com, “‘Almost the Truth’ beats any Python documentary yet made for comprehensiveness and depth. It is at its heart the story of six men and their sometimes contentious, sometimes gleeful relationship to one another, their work and their culture, as told by themselves, the people they worked with and the people they influenced. From ‘Flying Circus’ to ‘Holy Grail’ and ‘Life of Brian’ and beyond, their best work remains -- after 26 to 40 years, depending -- timelessly funny.”
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