Holy Flying Circus

This pythonesque drama about the subsequent controversy of the Monty Python film, Life Of Brian breaks out of the usual docudrama route and instead goes for the surreal, re-imagined route.

It even gets downright silly. The opening scene features Stephen Fry as God. Only the Spanish Inquisition is missing.

The cinema release of Life of Brian aroused a lot of controversy. The film depicts the threats the actors received and the subsequent showdown that had on a television debate with the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Of course tensions surrounding the event are heightened and parodied. The Python team are exaggerated persona's of themselves, with Palin being too nice, Idle the money grabber, Cleese being Basil Fawlty even doing the funny walk at one point, Terry Jones appears in drag as Palin's wife.

It does show the effect the controversy had on the actors especially Palin who is shown as the reasonable everyman, frightened with the protesters outside his door.

It very much captures the absurd spirit of Python and the actors playing Palin and Cleese come out of it best.

Very, very funny film. The first one that's had me in fits of laughter for years. The film mixes fact with homages to the jokes in the original film and also brings in various references from other characters that the original cast have played. The characters look very much like their real life counterparts too, so when I first started watching it I thought I was seeing a documentary. The film never takes itself too seriously, as it slips in references to the present day, despite being set in the past, and the humour is something that would sit very happily at the top of the Monty Python league. Very clever film.

They really did get the Flying Circus feel. Even to the point of occasionally overdoing it and getting monotonous. How they managed to find actors who so well resembled the Pythons in their youth, and even managed to generally sound like them, is beyond me. About the only one I didn't think they quite got right was Gilliam; he seemed a tad over the top with the dopey thing. But a small gripe. Darryn Boyd does a great Basil Fawlty Cleese. And Stephen Fry is a hoot as The Lord Almighty. This is a total must see for us Python fans starved for new material (Eric Idle exploiting Python is only good for so long, y'know?).

To quote Mr Gumby. I laughed so much my brain hurt. Brilliant cast, had the Python team off pat. Wonderful script which as well as being very funny gave pause for thought. Loved the religious extremists. Roy Marsden gave a wonderful performance, and made the Bishop look and sound even more ridiculous than he was (which is saying something). It was that good even God made a guest appearance. Actually, the only omission, and something I was really looking forward to was the Spanish Inquisition. But NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition. Apologies my brain is starting to hurt again urgh!!! nghh! uuunnnh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll keep this relatively short.

Probably one of the best written comic scripts I've seen for many years.

The acting was absolutely superb especially Darren Boyd's turn as John Cleese. It perfectly shows the absurdity of the censorship battles comedy had to endure thanks to groups including Mary Whitehouse and shows how far we've come in a short period of time.

Most fans of MP know the outcome of this film and the problems with local council's bans with a recent lift of a ban only recently occurring.

Recommend this to anyone who's a fan of well written comedy.