When Michael Palin compared George Harrison to the Pope
George Harrison was great friends with Monty Python and helped to forge a working relationship between members of the most influential British band of the 20th Century and arguably the most significant British comedy act of the same era. Harrison’s friendship, particularly with Eric Idle, was an instance of two cultural worlds colliding in a glorious union.
In fact, it was Harrison who was responsible for helping the Pythons to make Life of Brian. The film had been about to go into production in 1978, but when the chairman of EMI read the script, he was outraged by its blasphemous themes. Suddenly, the production was in jeopardy, and the Pythons needed to raise £2 million on the fly.
Eric Idle called George Harrison to ask for help. Amazingly, Harrison mortgaged his home, set up HandMade films, and stumped up the cash to help his good friends to make their film. Later, Harrison would call his actions “the most expensive cinema ticket ever issued.”
Michael Palin was once asked how he met the youngest Beatle. He replied: “I can’t remember when I first met George. It’s odd; it’s like not remembering the first time you met the Pope or something like that. I think it must have been around the time we were setting up Life of Brian. I don’t think I’d met him before that. We were just huge, huge fans of anything The Beatles did. George was a very good contact to have.”
Indeed, Harrison was a very important contact to have. If it were not for him, perhaps we would never have got to see one of the best Monty Python offerings. Palin went on to recall one of his favourite Harrison moments. He said, “I remember one evening, I’d had some success in the film industry, and I thought I’d ring George and share it with him. Quite uncharacteristically, George was a bit abrupt. He was always quite the opposite. So I said, ‘Are you alright?’ and he said, ‘Yeah I am… I’m watching Dallas.’ I wanted to be in Dallas at the time!”
Yet the real amazing thing concerning Harrison and the Pythons was the fact that he was so willing to re-mortgage his own home in order to help out his friends. As Palin noted, “Because we had been bankrolled by EMI, as you know, then EMI read the script, and they didn’t like it. But we’d already begun production; we had people out in Africa, building sets and everything.”
He added, “It was an extraordinary thing to find out that George was prepared to put in £5 million or whatever it was to make the film.” Only someone with the kindness, heart and intelligence of Harrison was likely to have given so much of himself just in the act of altruism.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.