Exploding babies, bishops and orchestras

The latest piece of correspondence I’ve received from an ex-BBC staffer who worked on the Flying Circus are some recollections from Peter Logan, who was assigned by BBC Visual Effects Designer John Horton to work on several filmed items for the show in 1970 and 1971 as a Visual Effects Assistant.  Here, he kindly takes time to share some memories of his contributions to the sketches

‘The Bishop’ (Series 2, Show 5)

I was assigned by John Horton to make a bishop’s crozier light up and become a telephone for the Bishop sketch.  The brief for the crozier was to produce a realistic staff which would stand up to knocks and still be able to detach to make it look like he was on a phone, this was my first job as an assistant on a proper programme so I had to make an impression.

The head of the crozier was constructed from sections of a cheap standard lamp and lamp bracket purchased in Shepherds Bush Market (where most of our props were bought) and glued together with a wire running through to the bulb at the tip and joined by a PO plug at the other end.  A socket connected to a battery and push switch in the staff completed the whole effect but with only one prop it had to be repaired a few times!  The exploding pulpit and baby doll were down to John Horton.  The baby was my mutilation of a doll from the market with a spring clip and 'gubbings' inside.

‘Man Powered Flight’ (Series 2, Show 2)

I will never forget the cyclist sketch, going down the cliff face of Beachy Head on the Birling Gap.  Wearing a harness I was fixed to a cable that stretched back from the cliff face the same distance down, you get the idea, it was a hot day and I was in shorts and the stinging nettles had to be endured.  When all was set up (on the beach) I had to run back across the top, warning walkers to avoid the wire, then on a cue from the walkie talkie (which I was also carrying) I had to run as fast as I could to the cliff edge and hope I could stop in time.  The bike and dummy were fixed to two parallel wires hanging off a scaffold and pulley vertically down the cliff.  Having proved my competence on the previous sketch, John Horton basically left me to it while he sat on the beach and enjoyed the results.

‘How Not To Be Seen’ (Series 2, Show 11)

The actual explosions were 'soft' flashes where artists were in close proximity otherwise it was a cut shot with the explosion in place of the artist.  In those days loud explosions were tolerated by the nearby residents – not like the action taken when I did my bit on Brainiac at Pinewood!  At that time, I was not allowed to wire up pyrotechnics but I was in charge of the firing box and laying out the firing lines.  I think the explosions with the bushes were done in the woods behind Pinewood but I can’t be certain.

‘The Exploding Version of the Blue Danube’ (Series 2, Show 13)

The exploding blue Danube was another wonderful experience, a very hot day after a field had been cut, and photographic 'cut-outs' of ourselves with instruments mounted on plywood with moving arms, were wired up to with explosives on the back and cables attached to the arms to make them move back and forward.  On the start of the music over a loudspeaker several of us tugged at the numerous cables to start a rocking motion then John H fired off the explosions in time to the music, the downside of this was at the finish everyone on the team was then in a panic as the pyrotechnics had set fire to the stubble and was in danger of spreading out of control so an emergency beating session began.

‘Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days’ (Series 3, Show 10).

I don’t remember being on the location for the Salad Days sketch but I was involved in making some of the pumps and rigging for the blood.  Quite often the major blood effects were fire extinguishers filled with blood and then pressurised with a foot pump, polythene tubes fed to false limbs etc.  Lots of these were used as you can guess!

I may have been involved in other locations at later dates but I had been assigned to other designers for other shows after this so I was shared out so to speak.  Unfortunately I only have a couple of snapshots but not of printable quality.

AJ 'Mitch' Mitchell on a typical day in the life of Python in the studio...

AJ 'Mitch' Mitchell of BBC Electronic Effects worked on Monty Python's last series in 1974, kindly elaborated on a typical day in TV Centre based upon the duty sheet for Michael Ellis* which gives a good eye-view of how a typical studio session would run.  *''Michael Ellis' was recorded on Saturday October 19, 1974, in TC8, while 'Parkinson', 'Warhead' and 'Dick Emery' were being taped and the Doctor Who episode The Ark In Space was being rehearsed elsewhere in TVC that evening....

I worked on 5 episodes of Monty Python in 1974 – this was on video effects which was probably called "electronic effects" at that time...

I was part of the studio crew in TVC so had nothing to do with the exterior sequences which would have been done on film.  I do remember that the director Ian MacNaughton was on a pretty short fuse because of all their ad-libbing and messing about, although the audience thought it was hysterical.  Mind you my memory is particularly confused because i also worked with Ian on Spike Milligan’s Q9 and that was the same thing - he was incapable of ever doing a scene the same twice, making it worse to shoot than a football match, especially since they all played to the live audience who lapped it up!

Overnight the previous days set will be removed and the one for Monty Python brought in - this is done by overnight crews...

Once the previous day’s set had been removed the night before, the lights would all be adjusted according to the plan on their respective scaffold barrels according to the plan (e.g. each light could be made soft (fresel end) or hard (spot end), they could be pointed in the correct direction and they might have coloured or diffusing gels put over the faces).  Once the rig was all correct the entire rig would be taken up (sky'd) to the grid (roof).  The new set (in this case monty python) would then be moved in (they were all prefabricated previously) and erected according the set designers plans... once this was done the entire lighting rig would be dropped to just above this set.

Set and light: 9.00 - 9.30

The day crew of sparks (electricians) come in & start adjusting the lights to point more precisely at the set according to the plan - vaguely adjust barn doors and height using the pantographs (spring loaded extensions which give a bit more vertical accomodation).  At the same time the scene crew (chippies and prop men) start adjusting and properly dressing the set - like hanging up pictures and so on.

Technical Lighting and rigging: 9.30-10.30

The camera crew pull all the cameras out from their stores and cable them up according to the Technical Manager's floor plan - they then point them all at a chart for the engineers and vision operator to line them up - line up was from ten to ten thirty. The camera crew go for breakfast during this half hour.

At the same time the lighting supervisor (TM1) will go round with the chargehand spark (lighting/electrical chargehand) and fine light the sets one at a time starting with the first to be rehearsed - here they adjust the

barn doors acurately, the focus of spots and exact angles they are pointed at - on this style of shooting the TM1 would go stand where he thought the actor would be and looked directly at the light and new from experience how it and the barn doors should be adjusted - this is the opposite of a film

lighting cameraman or director of photography who would have a stand in (or the actual actor) stand in position whilst he (or she) would stand by the camera - since TV used multi cameras the lights needed to be adjusted in a different way and much more quickly...

Camera rehearsal 10.30 - 12.30

During this time the scenes would be "blocked" - they would all have been created and rehearsed during the week in a hall somewhere with just tape on the floor representing the sets - then on the last day they'd have a "technical run through" where the senior cameraman and both TMs (there was a TM2 who looked after general technical stuff such as vt and sound liaison since the TM1 though in theory in charge of everybody would not have the time due to his lighting activities), sound supervisor, etc. would come and see a walk-through of each sketch - this is when the TM1 would plot his lighting and ultimately create the plan used to set the lights in place.

So now for the first time the artistes and director get to see the show in the actual set and with the real props - thus the action would have to be adjusted to accommodate the real location and indeed the feeling of the set and props would inspire the artistes and director into perhaps changing the business or even be inspired to ad lib some new ideas...

During this time the various shots would be decided and marked up by all and sundry and TM1 would "fine light" as everything else was happening because now of course he'd see the real heights and adjusted positions of the various players...

12.30-1.30 Lunch will be taken during this period

During this time all the cameras would usually be pointed at the charts again for the engineers to have a quick "tweak" - the EMI2001 cameras though amazing for their time did drift a bit and needed constant attention!

1.30-6.30 Rehearsal

Either finish blocking if not already - then run through the show at least a coupla' times to make sure everything worked at speed and in sequence…

6.30 - 7.30 Camera line-up

At end of rehearsals the cameras would be pointed at the charts when we all went off to dinner until 7.30

7.30 - 8.00 Sound and vision lineup

This was still the line up being finished but with all the tech ops back to help in any way necessary - this really was for live shows and didn't apply to these recorded types of shows – in fact the camera and sound crews would go to the directors gallery for notes - this was last minute changes based on the final run-through just before dinner and maybe other things that had been thought of during the break – e.g. last minute script alterations...

8.00 - 10.00 Videorecording on tape

A lot of these recordings were infact 1930-2200 rather than starting at 8.00: they would let the audience in at 7.30 and we'd pull all the cameras into position in that time so that the actual recording could start exactly at 8 o'clock...

10.00-10.30 Strike lighting practicals and studio lighting

Camera clearance, technical de-rig and property movement.   This is all the technical equipment such as the cameras and floor standing lamps and props to be moved out again.

NIGHT STRIKE - OVERNIGHT LIGHT RIGGING AND SCENERY SETTING

First the Monty Python set is removed immediately the show is finished - usually around about ten in the evening - by 1974 they didn't tend to over run...  When the set is cleared the entire lighting rig was lowered to the floor - then using the floorplan supplied by the lighting supervisor (in those days

called the TM1 for "technical manger one" - he was sort of equivalent to the director of photography on a movie - did the lighting and had ultimate responsibility for all technical services - infact apart from the producer he was the only person with the power to shut down a production - say if it were over running or the director was incompetent - i worked on a show where the TM1 did it for the latter reason - seriously amazing i can tell you!

That was the procedure for a studio recording session back in that period...  it was all done very quickly and efficiently - different world – different era!

'Sorry!' Ian Davidson's Python connections

"Can I butt in at this point and say this is in fact the very first time I've appeared on television?"

I met Terry and Mike at Oxford, they were both a year behind me.  The Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club put on an annual revue and I can remember Terry performing 'Custard Pies' in the revue in 1962, which we then took to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1963. Mike had been working with Robert Hewison while he was in the University.  Our ‘63 revue went to the West End where ‘Cambridge Circus’ – which was much better! – was on. We met Bill Oddie and John Cleese at this point. 

After Oxford I worked in television, at Granada - where I met Barry Took - and in the States.  Mike and Terry at that time worked on The Frost Report.  In 1966 I made contact with them again. I was working at the BBC and I got them to write short film scripts for 'The Late Show'.  Terry and Mike’s stuff always had an element of the absurd, whimsical or plain silly. Their strength was being able to give it a satisfying form. Then I worked for the Frost show and we all wrote scripts for him.  Eric did too.

I actually produced the second series of 'Do Not Adjust Your Set'. It was a childrens' programme which adults liked as well. I didn't have a lot to do - the production was running well by then.

When Python started I was working at the BBC as a Script Editor. Because it had such a small cast and was recorded in front of an audience, the boys often got themselves into a situation where, for the sake of speed, they needed an extra bod. So they'd ring me and get me down to the studio. My fee was a 'special low' - which I've lived to regret!

I did go to rehearsals, up the road from TV Centre, but only to pop in.  One or two appearances must have been virtually unrehearsed (as a Welsh miner, I seem to recall). My oddest appearance was as a dead Indian - carried in the studio by John Cleese but also filmed on a bit of motorway with T Jones driving a car straight at me. I should have got danger money - his brakes might have failed!

I was in The Secret Policeman's Ball when we did 'Custard Pies'.  They wanted me to be in The Life of Brian but I think I was busy with The Two Ronnies and had to say no. Blast!  I've stayed in touch with Mike and Terry throughout, Mike particularly - our families even went on holidays together.

A Classical Dish... Python's David Ballantyne speaks!

One of the more recognisable supporting actors in Python, David Ballantyne appeared in several episodes recorded in 1969 and 1970.  He already had quite a varied career – in the Swinging Sixties he appeared in the BBC’s childrens’ series ‘Quick Before They Catch Us’ and starred in Thames TV’s ‘The Tinagree Affair’ as Martin Ferrera in May 1969, as well as pursuing fame as a budding pop star.  His first single, ‘I Can’t Express It’ outperformed David Bowie’s ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’ – Ballantyne’s single peaked at Number 2 on the Melody Maker chart while Bowie’s disc slummed it at Number 34.  David’s second single, ‘Love Around The World’, was heavily promoted by Radio London.

“I did several promotional appearances with Bowie for Radio London. The release of my first single coincided with his second as David Bowie and my second came out at the same time as his next single so I used to see him quite often at Radio London promotional events. The thing I remember most about him was his sense of humour.  I always thought he was a very charismatic performer, even in the days of the beehive hairdo and the outrageously large flares made of lining material – more like a flamenco dancer's skirt than a pair of trousers.”

Later singles included ‘Crazy Crazy’ in 1971, as part of Just Plain Jones, ‘Roof Above My Head’, credited to David Ballantyne & Solitude and released by Regal Zonophone in 1972 to support the homeless charity Shelter, and 1972’s ‘If’ by Esprit De Corps, now considered a freakbeat classic.

In 1974, David studied English, French, German, Music and Psychology at Ealing College of Higher Education (now Thames Valley University) and made a sideways move into computing in the early days of the IT revolution, developing software for Comtec in the ‘80s. Later TV credits included appearing in the BBC’s 1981 historical drama ‘The Borgias’ and alongside Michael Gambon in ‘De Profundis’, part of the BBC’s 1985 trilogy of Oscar Wilde plays.  David then travelled around the world and for the last eleven years has been the morning voice of classical music radio station WPCE-FM Radio, hosting ‘Rise and Shine’.

"When Monty Python's Flying Circus first started I had just finished making a little-known series for Thames TV called The Tingaree Affair, in which I played the leading role.  The Pythons kind of adopted me and sheltered me from the storms of life, temporarily.

"I worked with Katya Wyeth well before either of us appeared in Monty Python’s Flying Circus and I was a personal friend of Ian MacNaughton and his wife, Rita Davies, who also appeared in several episodes. I also did the 'studio warm-up', armed only with a guitar and a few songs.

"I was on reasonably friendly terms with Eric Idle and Michael Palin by the time I had worked with them on a couple of programmes. Eric was a music fan and Michael was the most gregarious of the team.  I suspect Michael Palin might have known me from several things – he introduced a pop music show early in his career and he was also working on Do Not Adjust Your Set at Thames TV while I was there making The Tingaree Affair.  Sadly, the Tingaree Affair seems to have vanished into the mists of time.

"I appeared with Flanagan in one episode.  That was the 'mad psychiatrist' episode with Carol Cleveland, Flanagan and others. I rehearsed it at a church hall in Hammersmith, top of Fulham Palace Road. I remember it well because it was the start of a new year (1970) and I didn't dare ask for the time off to attend my brother's wedding, which was taking place about a mile up the road at Kensington Registry Office.  Several bits of this episode were later cut – one of the scenes I remember clearly was a whole preamble about the police using magic to detect crime. (A very Cleesian notion, if I may say so). I was sitting at a desk in a police uniform with my ridiculously long hair staring into a crystal ball. My line was something along the lines of: "I see a cyclist proceeding along the Balls Pond Road without a rear light", which was more Terry Jones-ish. Parts of this sketch survive in the episode available on DVD, but I can assure you that all the original material was included in the first showing.

"I appeared several times in the ‘Timmy Williams’ episode – two roles in the same sketch, obviously quite a quick-change artiste!  Curiously enough, my name does not appear on the credits like it did for other Monty Python appearances. No repeat fees, either.  My gripe about repeat fees was with the BBC, not with the Pythons themselves. They, unashamedly, 'did a Dave Clark' and bought the world rights, for which they paid me a small blanket fee. I certainly never imagined it would take off anywhere other than England. The BBC, however, made numerous edits to the original episodes and refused to pay me and others legitimate UK repeat fees.

"I was one of the gasmen, part of the episode known to the BBC accounts department as Silly Walks. This episode was originally aired "as was" but was heavily edited before it was aired again.  I was in the 'original' Gasmen sketch, it was remade for the Montreux special.  By the time the Montreux special came around I was in the musical Canterbury Tales at the Phoenix Theatre. The Python office called my agent and asked for me to take part in the 'new, improved' version. Obeying professional etiquette, I asked the company manager if it would be OK to fulfil their request. Permission was denied, not for any good reason I could work out. It would have been a very simple shoot and I'm sure I would have got to the theatre in time for the evening performance. Shafted again!"

Monty Python vision mixer Bill Morton remembers...

My first meeting with the Pythons took place in the main lift at Television Centre.  I was waiting on the fourth floor when the doors opened onto a lift full of people, so I stepped back to wait for the next one.  Then I recognised John Howard Davies, the producer for whom I’d been working and who had booked me for Python, and he said “Come in, I want you to meet the people you’ll be working with.”  Presumably they were on their way down from a sixth floor meeting.  So I squeezed in and was introduced to the Python cast, which was a bit awkward in the compressed confines of a crowded lift, particularly with other people in there who were nothing to do with it.  Some of the team I recognised from their work on ITV, especially John Cleese, but others I didn’t know.  By the time JHD had got round all the names, the doors opened and we all spilled out on the ground floor.  They all set off in one direction and me in another and I didn’t see them again until the first day in the studio.

Vision Mixers don’t attend outside rehearsals, or filming, so the first I knew of the show was walking into the studio and picking up the camera script.  John Howard Davies had warned me that it was quite complicated and a bit off-the-wall, but I was fairly new to vision mixing, having only been doing the job for just over a year, and I found it a bit scary.  However, I liked the show from the start, it chimed with my sense of humour and I enjoyed the challenge.  I don’t remember a great deal about individual studio days as the nature of the job is to forget everything as soon as the day is over, as the next day you could be doing Grandstand, Blue Peter, Z-Cars or whatever.  I do remember always looking forward to the Python studios, they were fun shows to work on, with wonderfully inventive sketches and situations and all carefully scripted and rehearsed – nothing was ad-libbed.  There was not much VT editing in those days so there was strong incentive to get things right first time – especially as it was recorded in front of a live audience.  We always recorded in sequence, playing in the Gilliam cartoon links and film inserts in the right place.  Sometimes we had to have two telecine machines for the film, as Terry Gilliam was always up against the clock and sometimes his inserts were not ready soon enough to be spliced into the main film.  There had to be a number of recording breaks, for with a small cast playing all the parts, costume and set changes were necessary.  We started with cameras at 10.30am and the aim was to have staggered through by lunchtime, then in the afternoon have a run-through at pace, then a dress-run with costumes.  Sometimes there would be a pre-record sequence to do in the morning, for if you have, say, someone in full Viking regalia who only says one word, like “Stop!” or “What?” then to save costume change time in the evening in front of the audience we would record it in the morning and play it in.  Pre-records would inevitably eat into camera rehearsal time and there were some days when we didn’t even have time for a dress-run, which would be an added strain when it came to the evening recording.  There were often technical difficulties to overcome; I remember the problem we had in getting the roller caption with the end credits (in those days a black paper roll with white letteraset) to run at the right speed.  It was a notoriously fickle machine and the credits had to fit exactly the film over which it was superimposed, because that was the joke – but it did finally work on the night.  It was for the end of the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ sketch, which finished with the Cardinals on top of a London bus, trying to reach their destination before the credits got to the end.  Of course they run out and I cut to black, or to a caption saying ‘The End’, I can’t remember which, and you hear Michael Palin’s voice saying “Oh, bugger!”, which was very daring in those days.  Python was known for pushing the comedy envelope and it is to the credit of the BBC that they allowed it.  Where else would they have been able to make a comedy show like this?  I think the Pythons were the first show to hijack the BBC Network symbol, at that time a revolving globe, to put comedy voice-overs on, much to the confusion of the continuity announcers.  We had to finish camera rehearsals by 6.30pm and the recording would be from 8.00 till 10.00pm. It was always a very full day.

John Howard Davies was the first Producer/Director on the series, which is why I came to be doing it.  I had been working with John on a comedy series called ‘All Gas and Gaiters’ and he had asked for me to do Monty Python when it came to the studio.  I didn’t realise at the time, but John was only filling in for a Producer called Ian MacNaughton, who I think was the Pythons’ choice, and John only did the first four or five shows.  Ian’s arrival was rather a surprise, because John was a calm and thoughtful director and Ian was the opposite, loud, flamboyant and restlessly energetic – so it was quite a culture shock.  Fortunately, I got on well with Ian and remained with him for the rest of the various series.  Both he and John brought a great deal of expertise and control to the show, and made a major contribution to it’s success, a fact that does not seem to me to be fully recognised in what I’ve read in the Python autobiography.  John is briefly referred to there as rather too gentlemanly and old-fashioned, while Ian is painted as a wild alcoholic who was quite often missing during filming.  This drinking was never apparent to me during the studio days, Ian was always in control and had done his homework – there was always a camera script ready for each studio.  The drinking didn’t become evident to me until the later series, then not so much Ian but Graham Chapman.

I never really got to know the Pythons themselves very well, the nature of a VM’s job is that you are up in the gallery all the time, never getting to the studio floor except perhaps for camera notes after a run, so didn’t often get to mingle with the cast.  After the show there was always a coterie of friends and admirers around them in the Club, so I seldom chatted to them.  Michael Palin was the most approachable, the others I found a bit distant.  John Cleese I got to know much better at a later date when I was doing ‘Fawlty Towers’.  Once, he was talking to me about Vision Mixing and asked me if VMs got credits at the end of the show.  At that time we did not, so he said he would give me a verbal credit and there it is, in the ‘Hotel Inspectors’ episode – but that’s another story. 

One sketch from the fourth series stays in my mind because it was so fast.  I think Ian was testing me as he had a good laugh about my discomfort afterwards.  It was called ‘Finishing the Sentences’ with Terry Jones and Eric Idle in a conversation that involved each of them finishing each other’s sentences.  The cutting got faster and faster, until they were down to two words, then one word, then half a word.  The line “No, round the bend” had 5 shots in it alone:  “No, R.. / ound the b.. / en.. / d.. / Yes.”  It was a sketch which ran just under two minutes, but had 33 shots in it, something like a change of shot every 3 seconds.  I actually have the camera script of that show to remind me of that day!

When the series started, I don’t think I realised what a hugely popular programme it was going to become.  I had been a keen ‘Goon Show’ listener and had enjoyed Spike Milligan’s Q-5 series, so the Python humour was right up my street and I found it a great show to work on.  So I am quite proud of being in on the ground floor and contributing in a small way to what was to become the Monty Python phenomenon. 

Dr. Paul Baker on Monty Python and homosexual characters

 I canvassed the opinion on  how Python used gay stereotypes in their sketches. to an old friend of mine, Dr. Paul Baker of Lancaster University, whose specialist areas include linguistics and gender. Oftentimes it was simply nothing more beyond laughing at campness and effeminacy, just occasionally there was a more liberal agenda - such as in 'The Mouse Problem', a sketch which was an asburd parody of a genuine documentary ('Man Alive: Consenting Adults', from 1967) - and sometimes they had baiting the attitudes of the older generation by  'queering' establishment or traditionally masculine preoccupations, but by the same token there's no escaping that, whereas their sending-up other social types derived from exaggerating certain attributes (greed, pretentiousness, obsessive behaviours, pedantry, etc.), the 'joke' in using stereotypical gay characters is that effeminacy is funny - something common to humour of the 60s and 70s in particular, when PC stood for Police Constable.   Python's use of homosexual stereotypes is something you could contextualise and analyse all day, and there is certainly an argument for both sides but it is quite contentious all the same.

A few years ago, Paul published 'Fantabulosa!', a Polari dictionary, and his knowledge and understanding on Polari and the gay subculture in the early to middle part of the last century have appeared in everything from The One Show to The Guardian.  I passed YouTube links of various Flying Circus sketches that featured gay or camp characters and invited him to share his reflections on the material, as part of my research.

I think it makes for interesting reading, and would be very interested if anyone wants to post their own responses.  Over to you, Paul...

When it comes to interpreting these clips, it’s worth bearing in mind that there are multiple interpretations – and it’s difficult to privilege any single interpretation as being the ‘right’ one. The writers obviously wanted to be funny, and clearly audiences did (and do) find the sketches funny, but they may be seen as funny for different reasons, or not funny at all. The sketches were written decades ago, when views of homosexuality were different to how they are now – what counted as humorous in those days is likely to have changed for some people.

So from an early 21st century ‘gay rights’ perspective, many of the sketches look old-fashioned, and key in to stereotypes about gay men as effeminate/camp. There stereotypes were popular at the time (also found in the Julian and Sandy sketches on Round the Horne, or Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served), and they are still around today (although tend to be less based on ‘characters’ but more embodied by real comedians like Alan Carr and Paul O’Grady. Society (both then and now) finds camp men funny – although now I think it’s more to do with camp men having a witty and outré sense of humour. Back then, I think camp men were seen as funny more because of their camp mannerisms, rather than their humour.

Some of these stereotypes rely on the idea that a man with a camp-sounding voice or feminine mannerisms is funny. In a notable number of cases, camp mannerisms, feminine tastes, gossipy conversations, cross-dressing etc. are attributed to men who are normally seen as butch (e.g. boxers, knights, mountaineers, judges, soldiers or lumberjacks), and the humour is further derived from the discrepancy between the outer appearance and the unexpected behaviour. This could be interpreted as shocking and even subversive . However, the sketches still equate homosexuality with camp behaviour – so there are less subversive elements to them, depending on your point of view.

Camp mannerisms are not the only aspect of these gay characters though – sexual desire for other men (which is perhaps the only generalisable trait associated with being gay), is also shown. The camp newsreader character is seen reading Physique magazine, while the boxers in the Magic Christian kiss rather than fight (although this scene was based on the book by Terry Southern). The man who successfully picks up a policeman after reporting his wallet is stolen, is meant to be funny because the sexual turn of the sketch is unexpected – yet this requires the two men not to be ‘obvious’ (e.g. camp) so also has the potential to be subversive, even homoerotic. Such sketches are perhaps the most subversive types and could even be educational to some members of the audience – a teenage boy who was starting to experience attraction to other males, might have found the existence of Physique magazine to be extremely interesting, for example. However, there is still the ‘problem’ that anything gay is seen as automatically funny.

However, the writers show that they are aware of prejudice, and in some sketches they make fun of it – the gameshow, Prejudice, makes fun of bigoted people who are against “stinking homosexuals” and has a section called “shoot the puff”, while another sketch parodies a serious documentary about homosexuals, instead focussing on men who want to be mice. While some audience members will have interpreted these sketches as progressive, others may focussed more on the use of a phrase like ‘stinking homosexuals’ as reaffirming their own views. 

Any comments gratefully received.

Focus pulling - memories of filming Python

More lovely new quotes on Python, this time from a member of the film crew on the first series...

I worked with Jimmy Balfour who was the film cameraman on a lot of Python in ‘69 & ‘70. I do remember lots of the individual sketches we did on film. We did a lot near Batley and Ilkley Moor.  Ian MacNaughton as director was a hoot, he was probably responsible for letting them do what they wanted and thus a lot of the success.  Ian was a dream to work for, laidback and relatively undemanding.

The filmed sketches were generally set up quickly and looking back were very staid, in that Jimmy et al lit it with huge "brutes" and shadows reigned, especially as the afternoon went on and the light dimmed. Shot very much to a formula, tableau-like with all the action happening within a generally static frame.

If I remember correctly we started the shooting the series in 35mm, which probably accounts for the static nature of a lot of the shooting. The crews were small then and 35mm made it bloody hard work, especially lugging the stuff up and down lIkley Moor. The four undertakers sketch involved a lot of shifting… like turning 90 degrees for a shot and a further 90 degrees for the next, etc.

I don’t remember the boys getting involved in the look of the film. I think Jimmy, being old school, would've thrown a fit anyway.  What we did were usually standalone sketches that would be inserted throughout the series.  One of my best of all time was the one (shot in Skipton I think) where Michael played a slightly camp victim of a robbery, with John as the gruff cop Michael approached for help.  It was so funny.  On take one, Mike broke down into a fit of giggles at the punchline.  Take two and John corpsed, then Ian on three, and someone else on four.  For take five I was stood with a hankie rammed into my mouth by this time, ribs aching and managing to hold it in until I thought Ian said "cut" and I let it all out - but he hadn't and we went into take six.

The boys themselves were very responsive to suggestions on visuals, and I do remember them being very open to suggestions that might make a gag better.  I've known lots of comedians that were bloody impossible if anyone tried to get involved or indeed cracked a joke on set.  Not the boys.

I have very fond memories of Terry, Eric, and Michael.  Terry was especially generous in spirit as was Eric. Mike as we all know was a gent.

Off-camera, John was intense, and sometime aloof – and sometimes hilarious. One day way up on the moors in a dead moment he saw two old dears driving slowly along the road below. He borrowed a magaphone from the PA and in his best "official" voice broadcast "If you see the lion…".  I swear the car nearly left the road.

Graham was very distant.  At one point we were shooting in London and I'd gone to the location in my pride & joy – my red MGB.  I foolishly allowed it to be used in a sketch and Graham plonked an old-fashioned gramophone on the bonnet and scratched it.  Never forgave him for that.