When was monty python first shown

At this point, I was expecting him to indicate who, if anyone, might be up for taking part, when he said something that made me struggle to contain my excitement. In something of a daze, I promised to get back to him A. I called Ted Little right away, to give him the astounding news. I passed this on to Eric and, quite quickly, the dates and the deal were agreed. In a cloud of euphoria, I passed the good news on to Ted.

Tickets went on sale a few days later…and all three nights sold out in about 20 minutes! Needless to say, every show was a fantastic success.

The student audience was ideal, as they were a proven fan base who already knew most of the sketches, sometimes word-perfect. Not that this in any way diminished their noisy enjoyment of them. The show, meanwhile, had the working title The Circus. Until exhumed by a researcher, the creative entrails of old BBC shows are buried in pink folders, hole-punched and tied with green bootlaces.

The archive is especially important for this show. The Pythons included a prolific diarist — Palin has published three hefty volumes already — but, dismayingly, the months around the start of the first Python show are one of the longest gaps. Palin attributes this to the busy-ness of filming, and having a young child and ailing elderly father. While the head of comedy had persuaded the team to pick a title, he could not persuade them to take editorial procedures seriously.

A memo sent between senior executives reveals that the first episode achieved 1. In comparison, the Rolf Harris Show though in a primetime slot, and with a presenter then seen as a lovable family entertainer, rather than the convicted sex offender he later became attracted 11 million viewers and a 64 enjoyment score. The public response, at least from the correspondence archived by the BBC, seems to have been positive. The fan letters are a rarity, in that they immediately mimic and celebrate the tone of the Pythons.

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