Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete And Annotated...All The Bits

Chapman, Graham

Graham Chapman studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was invited to join the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Society, where he met John Cleese. He qualified as a doctor at St.Bartholomew's Hospital in London, then put his medical career on hold and joined Cleese on tour with the stage revue Cambridge Circus, which ran on Broadway in Oct. 1964 and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Back in England, Graham wrote for many TV series, radio programs and films, including the Doctor In the House series, The Frost Report, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also had the lead role in the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Yellowbeard was his only novel.




Graham died (at age 48) of cancer on 4, Oct 1989, just one day before the 20th anniversary of Monty Python. Fellow Python Terry Jones called it 'The worst case of party-pooping I've ever seen.'

Graham Chapman studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and was invited to join the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Society, where he met John Cleese. He qualified as a doctor at St.Bartholomew's Hospital in London, then put his medical career on hold and joined Cleese on tour with the stage revue Cambridge Circus, which ran on Broadway in Oct. 1964 and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Back in England, Graham wrote for many TV series, radio programs and films, including the Doctor In the House series, The Frost Report, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also had the lead role in the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Yellowbeard was his only novel.





Graham died (at age 48) of cancer on 4, Oct 1989, just one day before the 20th anniversary of Monty Python. Fellow Python Terry Jones called it 'The worst case of party-pooping I've ever seen.'

Characterized by a level of detail that firmly plants Dempsey ( A Supremely Bad Idea ), the deputy editor of Bookish.com, in the obsessive fan-boy camp, this annotated transcription of all 45 Monty Python episodes occupies a ludicrously colorful and silly space between scrapbook and bible of the absurd. Including stills of more than 2,000 key scenes, as well as a litany of trivia for each sketch, this is a perfect supplement to the British troupe's subversive comedic oeuvre. Dempsey keeps his comments and criticism to the margins of the page, allowing classic sketches like "Dead Parrot," "The Ministry of Silly Walks," and "The Lumberjack Song" to speak for themselves. But it's in those margins that readers will likely find the most gold, as Dempsey's running commentary covers everything from expected Python minutiae, gaffes, and in-jokes, to British history and culture, effectively situating the show's crisp writing and sly references in their proper context. Clocking in at nearly 900 pages, folks won't be toting this book far from the coffee table, but the engaging combination of asides, fun facts, illustrations, and screen shots (not to mention the episode transcriptions themselves) make for an immersive and addictive read; Python fans needn't look any further?it's all here, literally.