Monty Python’s Flying Circus- Just the Words Volume 1&2 by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

ContentsVolume I contains the scripts of episodes 1-23.Volume II contains the scripts of episodes 24-45.Each volume also contains a selection of black-and-white photographs, taken from the videotapes.

The Making of

Because the shooting scripts were often changed during filming and editing of the shows, the book was built on transcripts of the dialogue taken for subtitling purposes, cross-checked against the syndicated tapes of the shows.

Character names, if not spoken, were taken from the original camera scripts, with the performer cited (if identifiable).

In explaining the difficulties of proofreading the 22.5 hours of material, Wilmut noted that the stenographers sometimes did not have the ear for Python humour: “Example, in Chapman’s courtroom monologue, ‘and their youngest, their youngest, as thin as a filing cabinet’ came out as ‘he’s still in a filing cabinet’ – there was a lot of this sort of thing, the transcriber going for what you might call a linear understanding of what they heard rather than a Pythonesque one.”

Wilmut also wrote up stage directions when none existed. Most of Gilliam’s indescribable animations are left undescribed.

Since the book only covers the Python shows produced by the BBC, the two “Fliegender Zirkus” episodes are not included.

By David Morgan, 2014