The Monty Python Diaries

From left: Neil Innes, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, and Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail(1974).

In an interview, Eric Idle looks back on the heyday of the British comedy group, from working with Lorne Michaels to partying with Ringo Starr and Keith Moon

By Harper Simon

Eric Idle is a founding member of Monty Python, a seminal comedy group that broke ground in almost every way imaginable and paved the way for so much counterculture comedy. Literary, absurdist, psychedelic, and surreal, their original BBC series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (which from 1969 to 1974) is now considered classic television. With Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Michael Palin, they’ve also created films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life, as well as countless albums and legendary concerts. He is also a founding member of the Rutles, the creator of the successful musical comedy Spamalot directed by Mike Nichols, and the author of several fiction and nonfiction books. READ ON