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Monty Python at 50 - Official Press Release

Started by Bad Ambassador, June 26, 2019, 12:45:14 PM

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Bad Ambassador

http://www.montypython.com/news_mp50announce/494

In summary:

A season at the BFI of the entire series, all the movies, episodes of At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Fawlty Towers, Out of the Trees and Ripping Yarns and Jabberwocky, A Fish Called Wanda, Time Bandits, The Wind in the Willows, plus an exhibition.

Five new documentaries for Radio 4, produced by Palin, with "never-before-released material from the Monty Python sound archives".

A BBC Two season, to be defined.

A re-release of Monty Python Sings, now on vinyl with the Stephen Hawking version of the Galaxy Song and new art by Gilliam.

The series released on Blu-ray by Network, containing "unseen and excised footage, sketches and much more". This will be a limited edition set, with the individual series released later.

Reprints of the Big Red Book and Brand New Papperbok, as well as the other Methuen books.

A new book, Monty Python's Flying Circus: 50 Years Of Hidden Treasures, reprinting archive documents.

An updated edition of Monty Python Speaks, with a foreword by John Oliver.

Also a load of bumph about new merchandise, a beer and a World Record attempt at Most Gumbies in one place.

Tony Tony Tony

Much as it saddens me, as the Pythons were a part of my growing up, this does have a whiff of trying to wring out the last drops of blood from a long dead corpse... How much more alimony does Cleese have to pay?

Bad Ambassador

Given the amount of effort in some projects and the uncommercial nature of doing stuff at the BFI - which I can't imagine is amazingly lucrative for Cleese et al, this struck me as a labour of love.

I sort-of know the guy whose been doing the HD restoration, and he started work on it literally years ago. So long ago in fact that I'd assumed it had been long since cancelled. This is going to be definitive.


Glebe

Crikey! Lots to look forward too!

Surprised they're doing a Blu-ray of the Circus... wouldn't a proper upgrade only be possible with the filmed bits?

Bad Ambassador

I think they're referring to new remastered copies of the taped material, which will be significantly better quality than in the past. It'll take to upscaling much better.

Glebe

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 26, 2019, 01:29:18 PM
I think they're referring to new remastered copies of the taped material, which will be significantly better quality than in the past. It'll take to upscaling much better.

Ah right... wasn't Fawlty Towers considered for a HD release but they couldnae do it or summit?

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: Glebe on June 26, 2019, 01:32:36 PM
Ah right... wasn't Fawlty Towers considered for a HD release but they couldnae do it or summit?

They could, but that's BBC Worldwide for you. They will barely release new HD shows on Blu-ray, let alone catalogue shows. Never forget the OFAH DVD shithouse.

Alberon

The Doctor Who Restoration Team managed miracles with sometimes very ropey source material that had been kicked round the planet for a few decades, so if there's a similar effort here it'd look fantastic.

I'd assume the original film inserts from the series have long since been lost so a true HD upgrade for them would not be possible.

Blumf

"Gentlemen! I have bad news. This room is surrounded by 1080p Blu-ray"

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Alberon on June 26, 2019, 03:41:44 PMI'd assume the original film inserts from the series have long since been lost so a true HD upgrade for them would not be possible.

Clearly you've never been in the Penderel's Oak's toilets pre-refurb. 

(I wish I could find the relevant photo, this post would be far more amusing and informative if I could.)


More prosaically:
http://sotcaa.org/history/sotcaa2000/sotcaa2000_frame.html?/history/sotcaa2000/editnews/python_tv.html

Autopsy Turvey

Tremendously exciting, but alarming to notice that 2019 is the 25th Anniversary of the 25th Anniversary Python season at the BFI, when I dragged various friends and family all the way to London to watch Fliegender Zirkus and 'Pre-Python Mixture' and got Terry Jones' autograph. I have a funny feeling Douglas Adams was there too.

Glebe

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on June 26, 2019, 01:39:02 PMThey could, but that's BBC Worldwide for you. They will barely release new HD shows on Blu-ray, let alone catalogue shows. Never forget the OFAH DVD shithouse.

Oh yeah, that's another thing, copyright cuts and the like. Remastered episodes of OFAH were first broadcast in 2011 (most probably to celebrate the 30th anniversary).

Quote from: Alberon on June 26, 2019, 03:41:44 PM
The Doctor Who Restoration Team managed miracles with sometimes very ropey source material that had been kicked round the planet for a few decades, so if there's a similar effort here it'd look fantastic.

I'd assume the original film inserts from the series have long since been lost so a true HD upgrade for them would not be possible.

Actually, I'd forgotten I'd spotted a review of classic Who on BD... think this was it.

Replies From View

Quote from: Glebe on June 27, 2019, 01:39:27 AM
Actually, I'd forgotten I'd spotted a review of classic Who on BD... think this was it.

Season 7 is Jon Pertwee's first season so that's quite a colossal cock up to make on the front cover.

Quote from: Tony Tony Tony on June 26, 2019, 12:53:46 PM
Much as it saddens me, as the Pythons were a part of my growing up, this does have a whiff of trying to wring out the last drops of blood from a long dead corpse

Plucking the last feathers off a dead parrot.

Spiny Norman

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on June 27, 2019, 07:37:04 PM
Plucking the last feathers off a dead parrot.
Looking for the last morsel of cheese in an empty shop?


However...! There are REALLY QUITE A LOT of rarely seen specials. 2 German specials, a Dutch very short special, Away from it all, 3-5 corporate films, bloopers, Montreux Compilation, and other stuff. Several of these are really really good - German specials for example. There will now FINALLY be an attempt to include this material.

There has never been a proper DVD release.

For ages, there was just a US DVD set (the 16 ton megaset, 14 discs or 16 if combined with an additional box). This was missing some stuff, and was also censored. (There was a Spanish R2 DVD but this was mega rare.)

The new R2 sets from a few years back have stuff reinstated but they were cropped, both in picture and in time. And few extras. The "party political choreographer" bonus was a fucking youtube download!

This is actually the first proper attempt!!! (AND it's still for the money at the same time, too.)

The only thing that I am worried about is the sketch with Steve Martin, recorded for the 1989 "Life of Python" documentary. I am worried that it may be lost because neither the BBC nor the production company kept a copy.
Even though it was cut because it wasn't very funny, it was the last time they were all six of them together...

Pinball

Not quite rinse and repeat e.g. new books and the main event of the bluray TV series, of course.

I shall throw some coin at this.

Shaky

I will not be sated until the Pythons release their shed-loads of abandoned Meaning of Life material.

Spiny Norman

Quote from: Shaky on July 03, 2019, 10:08:06 AM
I will not be sated until the Pythons release their shed-loads of abandoned Meaning of Life material.
Haven't they? You can watch it with deleted scenes reinstated or read them?

More than we can say for Life of Brian, the Otto scene has suffered strange edits that are completely inexplicable.

McChesney Duntz

Quote from: Spiny Norman on July 06, 2019, 04:40:40 PM
Haven't they? You can watch it with deleted scenes reinstated or read them?

I'm guessing he means the tons of drafts and false starts (Monty Python's World War III, etc.) that were all jettisoned long before they went to film. Which, yes, I'm all for having available as well. All of it, all of it. And the sooner the better, by god.

Pranet

There is a thread about the blu ray started by Paul Vanezis on the Missing Episodes forum.

Quote
It's finally happened, the full restoration of Monty Python's Flying Circus from Network. There will be more detail about the release in the Out of the Archive section of this forum, but I'll focus on recovery of the lost bits here.

The entire series will be released on Bluray later this year, uncut. When I first started looking at the archive holdings back in 2006, that appeared to be impossible. Six episodes had material cut. Some were minor, some caused by tape damage, but the longest, three and a half minutes was the trickiest to recover. The restoration is ongoing but we're on track to complete this in time for the anniversary.

http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/12943/monty-pythons-flying-circus-lost?page=1

Shaky

Quote from: McChesney Duntz on July 06, 2019, 05:15:21 PM
I'm guessing he means the tons of drafts and false starts (Monty Python's World War III, etc.) that were all jettisoned long before they went to film. Which, yes, I'm all for having available as well. All of it, all of it. And the sooner the better, by god.

Definitely. From memory there's a hell of a lot of unused stuff, which would be fascinating to read.

Revelator

The BFI has released its full Python schedule:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-bfi-announces-programme-for-its-monty-python-at-50-bfi-southbank-1-september-1-october-2019-07-10.pdf

Most interesting items:

* PYTHON INFLUENCES
The season will offer audiences  a  chance  to  discover  the  people  and shows that inspired the comedy sextet, beginning with a special event on Tuesday  17  September dedicated  to Ernie  Kovacs. Kovacs was a mercurial American comedy  talent whose brilliant,  sometimes  surreal, visual gags proved to be a strong influence on the young Terry Gilliam. For this timely tribute, in his centenary year, Terry Gilliam will introduce a bespoke compilation featuring highlights from Kovacs' career, one that was cut tragically short due to his death in a road accident in 1962. On Wednesday 4 September there will be a screening of Michael Palin & John Cleese's Pick of Python Influences, including Q5 (BBC, 1969) a  surreal  television comedy sketch show written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand, The Goon Show: Tales of Men's Shirts (Thames Television,1968) who both Palin and Cleese cite as an influence, and Not Only...  But  Also (BBC ,1965), the famous Peter Cook  and  Dudley Moore series, chosen by Cleese as a particular influence.

* Further Pre-Python Picks will be screened in a bespoke compilation event on Friday 13  September; vintage clips from shows such as The Complete and Utter History of Britain, The Frost Report, How to Irritate People and others will feature various Pythons in action (as performers and writers) before they came together for Flying Circus.

* ODDITIES AND RARITIES, INCLUDING MICHAEL PALIN'S HOME MOVIES
The  season  will  include  two  programmes  of Oddities  and  Rarities,  with  everything  from  corporate  videos  to guest spots, plus a unique chance to see some of Michael Palin's Super 8mm Film on the big screen.The first film will feature footage shot by Palin in Jersey in autumn 1971 of which he said: "I had a morning off and took  film of the preparation for a sequence in which John Cleese as [Dennis] Moore holds up a passing stagecoach. Looking back now, I realise that the unique aspect  of  filming I captured that day was its boredom. In that way it is, at least, an honest bit of footage and remains almost the only movie material of Python at work in those early days of the TV series." The second film will feature material Palin shot in Barbados in 1978, of which he said: "The Pythons assembled to pull together the script of Life of Brian in the idyllic surroundings of Heron Bay, a house loaned to us by a friend of Eric's. Believe it or not,despite the glimpses of bronzed Pythons larking about and eating and drinking, we achieved an awful lot during our time there."

* A screening of Out of the Trees (Sept. 25)


neveragain

Some terrific stuff there.

Quote from: Shaky on July 07, 2019, 01:15:26 AM
Definitely. From memory there's a hell of a lot of unused stuff, which would be fascinating to read.

I don't think this is the infamous early Fish Film draft but this is still a shooting script with lots of deleted scenes in it: https://web.archive.org/web/20030331220639/http://www.pythonet.org:80/videos/meaningoflifeshootingdraft.htm

shh

No mention of wally simpson. Has he ever been noted by them as a direct influence, or only indirectly via Milligan and cook?

There's a small bit in pinter's slight ache which always has me thinking of sketches like cheese shop, the deadpan enumeration of increasingly absurd drinks.
21.40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJeEIKZmSa8

Shaky

Quote from: neveragain on July 20, 2019, 04:56:04 PM
Some terrific stuff there.

I don't think this is the infamous early Fish Film draft but this is still a shooting script with lots of deleted scenes in it: https://web.archive.org/web/20030331220639/http://www.pythonet.org:80/videos/meaningoflifeshootingdraft.htm

Yeah, some of that stuff is very funny. But they wrote reems of other sketches (the WW3 stuff, another early idea where the Pythons would've played themselves and got killed off etc) which has never seen the light of day and probably never will since it was discarded early on.

Revelator



dr_christian_troy

The blu-ray is due to be available for pre-order today.

dr_christian_troy

#29
Did anyone else receive an email and link? Twitter posts confirm that it was made available briefly last night - with even one person providing a screenshot of order placed (£100) - and is now not available on the site.

https://networkonair.com/all-products/3076-monty-python-s-flying-circus-norwegian-blu-ray-edition

I received the original email saying I would be notified a few weeks back but didn't get a link to pre-order the set at all. Pretty disappointing all in all.