This BBC documentary tells the history of the Python group, allowing a few glimpses at the works of its predecessors (At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust Your Sets etc.) and various interviews with the group's members and other associated artists.
Acting
Archive footage shows Python at peak chaotic energy.
Production
Rare glimpses of pre-Python telly experiments.
Director
Mark Chapman
John Cleese
Himself / Various Roles (also archive footage)
Graham Chapman
Various Roles (archive footage) (uncredited)
Eric Idle
Self / Various Roles
Michael Palin
Self / Various Roles
Terry Jones
Self / Various Roles
Terry Gilliam
Self / Various Roles
Dan Aykroyd
Self
Dudley Moore
Self
Steve Martin
Self
Chevy Chase
Self
Carol Cleveland
Self / Various Roles
Jane Curtin
Self
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The documentary reveals how At Last the 1948 Show and Do Not Adjust Your Sets served as unofficial auditions — Cleese and Idle from the former, Palin and Jones from the latter, with Gilliam's animations bridging both worlds.
Graham Chapman had died in 1989, making this one of the first posthumous Python retrospectives — the surviving members' tribute to him is uncharacteristically sincere, which somehow feels more moving than any eulogy.
GB
