The movie John Cleese called a “miserable experience”
British comedy is celebrated across the world for its dry wit and creative ingenuity that has created such iconic characters as Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean and Ricky Gervais’ David Brent. Yet, arguably, no group has done more for the UK comedy culture than Monty Python, the iconic troupe that consisted of such icons as Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and John Cleese.
While each member was successful inside and outside of this troupe, it was Cleese who would find the most joy in the field of comedy outside of Python pursuits. While becoming iconic in his own right for being in the influential troupe, Cleese went on to bolster his profile by starring as the hilarious Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers while taking key roles in major movies such as the Oscar-winning film A Fish Called Wanda, which he co-directed.
Despite his further success in the world of cinema, many understandably still recognise Cleese as a key member of Monty Python first and foremost. Rising to success with the troupe back in 1969 with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Cleese went on to thrive with the team up until the 1980s, releasing four feature films in that time, including 1979’s Life of Brian, which is often considered to be one of the greatest comedies of all time.
Despite how much they were thoroughly beloved throughout the world, however, they often struggled to get their feature film projects off the ground, with 1975’s The Holy Grail requiring investment from their friends in the music business, including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Elton John.
They managed to get the film, a goofy re-telling of the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, over the line and were congratulated in the form of a decent box office return and a scattering of awards.
Even still, the eventual success of the movie doesn’t do much to repair Cleese’s negative experience of the production. At a 40th anniversary screening of the film in 2015, the actor recalled: “It was a miserable experience…You got up in the morning, you got up on the hillside, it started to rain immediately because it was April and it was Scotland. And the rain came down, we had so little money there were four umbrellas on the whole set, and this nasty chain-mail which was knitted string would start getting damp, by nine o’clock you were cold and wet”.
Continuing, he moaned: “Then at six o’clock when the first assistant said, ‘Wrap,’ there was this rush for the cars, because there was only enough hot water for 40% of the people at the hotel, so there was this scramble to get back. It was a miserable, miserable time”.
Take a look at Cleese as the iconic ‘Insulting Frenchman’ in a clip from the movie below.
