MovieChat Forums > Holy Flying Circus (2011) Discussion > Comedy worthy of Python itself

Comedy worthy of Python itself


The release of Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979 provoked one of the biggest controversies in movie history. It was a confrontation that was most graphically played out in a live debate on a TV chat show hosted by Tim Rice. Now, after dramas based on the lives of comic actors Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howard, Hattie Jacques and many others, a BBC Four drama based on the Brian controversy was perhaps inevitable.

This is something completely different to most of the other biopics though. For one thing, the real Pythons – with the notable exception of Graham Chapman – are still very much alive. For another, this is anything but drama. Writer Tony Roche bravely attempts to challenge the Pythons at their own game. Yes, this is a comedy.

And, happily, it is funny. Indeed, like Python itself it is zany, inventive and often very silly. It is also (as a taxi driver in this notes of the original series) "a bit hit and miss” at times.

However, the casting is great. As "nicest man in the world” turned reluctant debater, Michael Palin, actor Charles Edwards is pretty much perfect. Darren Boyd is similarly excellent as John Cleese, even if as a mock "Party Political Broadcast by the Cleese Party” hosted by him makes clear, "this is a fictional version of John Cleese loosely based on my Basil Fawlty persona…the real John Cleese is a lovely bloke.” But a great Basil Fawlty impression it undoubtedly is.

And the silliness continues. Rufus Jones, for example, not only plays his lisping namesake Terry Jones but also, in another nod to Python, appears throughout in drag as Michael Palin's wife, the role Terry Jones would undoubtedly have taken were Python producing this themselves. Charles Edwards similarly plays both Michael Palin and Palin's own nervous mother.

Other scenes are funny but have a less Pythonesque feel. At one point, a row between Cleese and Palin erupts into a full blown lightsabre fight fought by hand held puppets. A sequence where Palin is menaced by spectral Messiahs meanwhile, is genuinely eerie. Special mention should also go to Jason Thorpe, who seems to be channelling The IT Crowd's Matt Berry in his role as a macho TV producer and Mark Heap as the leader of the religious opposition who is inexplicably dressed as Frank Spencer throughout.

The debate itself is an enjoyable bit of live TV which famously saw the supposedly short fused Cleese at his most nervous while the legendarily nice Palin got (by his own account) angrier than he had ever been.

Oddly, the real life Pythons objected to Holy Flying Circus mostly on the grounds that it was "inaccurate”. This is a strange complaint, coming from them particularly, as for the most part the drama is so off the wall (UFOs, light sabre fights, Palin's wife being Terry Jones), nobody could ever conceivably think it was supposed to be true to life.

Yet the actual TV debate is the one bit that is delivered almost exactly as it happened (and I do say "almost”). It's a shame the original broadcast isn't included amongst the extras.

Overall Verdict: An endlessly, inventive and amusing take on the controversy, worthy of Python itself. Hilarious, intelligent and silly.
http://www.moviemuser.co.uk/Reviews/8353/Holy-Flying-Circus-DVD.aspx

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I think this show is worth a watch, certainly, especially for a Python fan. But honestly, I found that it kind of dull and dragged a little. The actors playing Palin and Cleese though, were amazing, in that they not only sounded like the real deal, but looked like them as well.

The whole thing seems to be built around the debate hosted by Tim Rice, which is okay. It just takes an awfully long time to get there.

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Despite what I said before, I know what you mean actually.

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