freinth1 What if you wanted to recreate a small slice of cinematic history by depicting the real-life members of a troupe of performers — for example, Monty Python's John Cleese — as the most famous of their fictional selves (in his case, Basil Fawlty)? Or wanted to depict another member of that same troupe — say, Michael Palin — as the all-round nice guy, decent chap and jolly good bloke that the public has in decades since gotten to know through his travel programmes and chat show appearances? Or wanted to depict secondary real-life characters — say Michael Palin's wife — who are largely unknown to the general public, as common comic characters from Monty Python's Flying Circus (in her case, as Terry Jones's working class housewife)? Or if you wanted to make commentary on modern-day Britain by getting the characters in 1979 to (funnily enough) spectacularly accurately speculate about what a modern-day Britain some 32 years hence might look like? And then throw in for good measure what God Himself might have to say about "Life of Brian"?Well, what you'd get is the wonderfully funny and delightful "Holy Flying Circus" — a film in the style of a Monty Python film about a particular chapter in the history of the Monty Python comedy group. Most of the actors are immediately recognisable as their Monty Python member and Darren Boyd should have won something for his portrayal/impression of John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. It was quite a phenomenal performance.After I watched it, the whole show made me wonder if in fact 1979 wasn't the very height of civilisation and that since then we've been drawn back into the mud of barbarism. I'm still thinking about that...

ctailby I have just seen this television play, which I recorded some time ago. I haven't laughed so much in ages. The subject is the events in 1979 when the Monty Python team launched "The Life of Brian", and came under attack from Christians on both sides of the Atlantic. The whole thing is done in the spirit of MP, with fantasy sequences and lots of silliness. The actors, particularly those portraying John Cleese and Michael Palin, are so realistic, that I had trouble remembering that I was not watching the originals. Steve Punt also makes a very convincing Eric Idle. The highlight of the play is the well-known confrontation on the chat show, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning between Cleese and Palin on the one side, and Malcolm Muggeridge, former Communist and then born-again Christian journalist, and Mervyn Stockwood, the closetly homosexual Church of England bishop, on the other. A straightforward representation of the facts would not have been worthwhile, but the hilarious way in which events and characters are represented is like watching MP in their prime. Utterly recommended!

geordiejohn12 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.

eric-194-327834 I really enjoyed this film, more than I thought I would. I expected something worthy and literal, instead I got an episode of latter day Monty Python, one which I found funnier than many of the originals. I think my one disappointment was the opening scene where Jesus is seen behaving in an unexpected way with "Eric Idle". This will without doubt have caused many adventurous Christians, who might have decided to give it a go, to turn off, which is a shame as I think they would have benefited from and even enjoyed the remainder of the film. Any opportunity to make those of faith actually think about what they have faith in should not be missed. A little patchy in places, and a little flat at the end, but overall I really enjoyed it. Especially the performances of Michael Palin and John "Basil Fawlty" Cleese.