 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Monty Pythons' Flying Circus: Series One
- Directed by: Ian MacNaughton, John Howard Davies
- Starring: John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle
- Release Date: 26 March 2007
It's always a pleasure to watch the seminal show - but the real joy's in the less familiar material
It's hard to imagine what British comedy would be without Python's Flying Circus. No dead parrots, camp battalions of soldiers or cross-dressing lumberjacks - dull indeed. Why on earth it has taken so long to bring the wonderful first series to DVD is beyond me, but it's a pleasure to sit back and let the absurdity flow.
Sadly, the box set offers no extras, although each episode is broken down by sketch making it easy to skip through to favourite moments. But do that and you'll be missing something; it can be easy to forget that the series is important for more than just memorable sketches.
Flying Circus gave the Pythons the opportunity to gleefully deconstruct the sketch-show format while simultaneously re-creating it - all the conventions of comedy are abandoned with an enthusiasm that's lacking in most of today's TV. Sketches blur into each other, stop halfway through, or switch locations, characters and subjects without warning.
With old ladies on the rampage, knights with rubber chickens, dreadful architects, Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson and Gilliam's wonderfully ludicrous animations, Flying Circus remains an example of how good sketch comedy can be when imaginations run wild.
Anna Winston
