A celebration of the classic comedy series comprising two documentaries, the group's debut film and Terry Gilliam's dystopian vision of the future, Brazil. Ends 2.10am.
It's ... the Monty Python Story
The surviving Pythons - John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam - discuss the roots of the series' bizarre humour. Devotees Robin Williams, Kevin Kline and Frank Skinner are among those paying tribute. Hosted by Eddie Izzard.
Producer Elaine Shepherd
10.05 Pythonland
Michael Palin revisits some of the locations featured in Monty Python's most popular sketches.
Producer Ralph Lee; Executive producer Alan Brown
BBC Radio Collection: the Spoken Word series of Monty Python's Flying Circus -audio cassette and CD available from retailers
10.25 Monty Python and the Holy Grail
**** Comedy. AD 932: King Arthur and his page are seeking knights to join the Round Table. But a more demanding task awaits them when God tells them of their quest to seek the Holy Grail. Widescreen. Review page 55.
Director Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones (1975, 15)
The reel story behind ... : page 59
11.50 Brazil
Sci-fi fantasy set somewhere in the 20th century. Sam's flights of fantasy take him away from his drab job at the Ministry of Information. Then a mistake in the system drops Sam into a world of renegade plumbers, terrorists and torturers. Widescreen. Review page 55.
Director Terry Gilliam (1985, 15)
Videoplus number for 9.15pm-2.10am (not PDC)
Barry Norman on Jonathan Pryce: page 56
BBC2 does the full Monty with an evening of fun and films celebrating comedy's groundbreaking Pythons.
I Love Monty Python
9.15pm BBC2
This particular night should perhaps be entitled I Love Repeated Monty Python Documentaries, as die-hard fans might recall that both It's... the Monty Python Story and Pythonland were first broadcast in 1999 to celebrate 30 years since the transmission of the first Monty Python's Flying Circus episode on BBC2.
But never mind, as these are very enjoyable repeats on a night that, it has to be said, is fairly unadventurous across all five main channels. The evening's highlight is Pythonland, Michael Palin's funny travelogue in which he returns to locations in suburban west London where the team filmed some of its most memorable sketches.
In those days the BBC was loath to pay for the boys to go anywhere too far-flung, so they had to make do with the backstreets of Shepherd's Bush and Ealing - a bus ride from the BBC TV Centre studios.
Thus Palin returns to those unremarkable suburbs where the team filmed the likes of the Gas Cooker sketch. Best of all, he revisits Teddington Lock, the site of one of the greatest-ever Python moments, the Fish Slapping Dance, when Palin was sent hurtling 20ft into the water after being hit by a large sea bass wielded by John Cleese. Aaah, you can't buy memories like that.
In the Eddie Izzard-hosted It's... the Monty Python Story, celebrity fans including Robin Williams, Kevin Kline and Steve Martin declare their love. The evening is rounded off by the funniest of the Python films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, followed by Terry Gilliam's comedy fantasy Brazil.
