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Monty Python at 50 - gallery

Our image gallery gives you a rare glimpse of some of the many images taken by the Â鶹ԼÅÄ originally to publicise the series. Some haven’t been seen since 1969.

The images were restored by , and held by Â鶹ԼÅÄ Archives.

Images copyright: Python (Monty) Pictures Limited.

Terry Jones and Graham Chapman sit shirtless in regency wigs eating from wooden bowls. Two women look on disapprovingly
Wigs meet wooden bowls. Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Jones and Michael Palin in their ‘Full Frontal Nudity’ sketch. Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, Sunday 7 December, 1969
John Cleese as a parachutist is confronted in a field by Michael Palin as an Edwardian country gentleman with shotgun
A surreal scene from the country. John Cleese and Michael Palin in a sketch from series one of Monty Python, Sunday 5 October, 1969
Graham Chapman is dressed as an Victorian old lady by a costumier. He is smoking a pipe
Graham Chapman is Mrs Jupp with a pipe! 'Something completely different’ was on offer for the 1972 series which returned to Â鶹ԼÅÄ One in Autumn of that year.
Terry Jones dressed as the Dickensian character Mr Bumble in large 'Nelson' hat. On a building site, he appears to be chewing a brick.
That hurts! Terry Jones as Mr Bumble the Beadle, on a not so Dickensian building site. Another unlikely situation from an edition of Monty Python's Flying Circus, shown on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, Thursday 7 December, 1972.
Graham Chapman dressed as a woman, sat on a floral sofa reading a tabloid newspaper. He is wearing very 1960s horn-rimmed glasses.
Note the Rio-Rita glasses! Graham Chapman as Mrs Trepidacius, shown on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, Thursday 14 December, 1972.
Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Terry Jones on a pebbly beach. All but Cleese are in Tudor minstrel outfits, Cleese is in black tie.
A different take on beach ware. Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Terry Jones in costume for a sketch in series 2, 1970
John Cleese, in full evening dress, sat at a news announcer's desk on a beach. The tide is coming in
John Cleese, behind his news announcer's desk, about to declare 'and now for something completely different'. 15 September, 1970
A Terry Gilliam collage animation of a man's head hinged open, eating a fish. The head is emerging from a bird's nest
Fish, head, and nest - of course! A classic Terry Gilliam animation, from Series 2. Gilliam’s animations were used throughout the Flying Circus programmes, whilst he starred in the series
Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman are fitted with outlandish medieval warrior costumes on location
Preparing for battle. Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman with Monty Python costume assistants preparing for 'The Attila the Hun Show' sketch, series 2 episode 7, 1970
Michael Palin, dressed in suit and bowler hat, watches Carol Cleveland and John Cleese embracing passionately on a desk. A pair of legs in sportswear are dangling from the ceiling.
It’s amazing what goes on in the stockbroker belt. Michael Palin is the stockbroker, and Carol Cleveland and John Cleese, the amorous couple in 'The Dull Life of a city Stockbroker', a sketch broadcast on 23 November 1969
Eric Idle in a full suit looking sheepish between Carol Cleveland and Terry Jones in a bed, with the other two in a state of sultry undress.
Carol Cleveland as Dora, Eric Idle as the newsreader, with Terry Jones as Bevis in the 'Newsreader Arrested - Romantic Film' sketch, chosen as the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s entry to the Golden Rose of Montreux Festival, 1971. Originally broadcast, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One 16 November 1969
Terry Jones in drag with bri-nylon cardigan and hair in curlers sits with legs wide open on the yard wall of a row of terrace houses.
Suitably attired in blue Bri-nylon, Terry Jones rehearses for 'The New Cooker Sketch' originally broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, 16 April 1971. Along with ‘The Ministry of Silly Walks’ sketch and others, this was chosen to be part of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s entry to The Golden Rose of Montreux festival, 1971
Terry Jones as Joseph Montgolfier and Carol Cleveland as his fiancee, Antoinette, who is dangling from a strap on the ceiling. Both are in 18th century French aristocrat costumes.
Health and safety, 1974 style. Terry Jones as Joseph Montgolfier and Carol Cleveland as his fiancee, Antoinette, from the sketch 'The Montgolfier Brothers' from series 4, episode 1, 31 October 1974
Eric Idle as Chris Quinn and Graham Chapman as a shop assistant, who is wearing a large face and tongue extension.
Ever more bizarre. Eric Idle as Chris Quinn and Graham Chapman as the shop assistant, in 'The Department Store - Buying an Ant' sketch. Broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, 7 November, 1974
An over saturated photograph of a face with pencil moustache grimaces at the viewer, with the bared teeth showing gaps where they 'dance'.
Conrad Poohs and His Dancing Teeth - Terry Gilliam provided the wacky artwork used in all of the Flying Circus series from 1969 to 1974
A blobby cartoon man prods a spot on his face as he looks into a hand mirror
'The Prince and the Black Spot' from October 1969, by Terry Gilliam
Carol Cleveland in Edwardian dress, has a tennis racket lodged bloodily into her abdomen. A costume assistant makes adjustments. Michael Palin and Eric Idle in straw boaters and stripy blazers look on.
Eric Idle, Carol Cleveland, and Michael Palin prepare for a gory scene in the 'Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days' sketch. November, 1972
Eric Idle has a prosthetic severed arm attached by a member of the props department
Eric Idle without his arm! Another gory scene in the 'Sam Peckinpah’s Salad Days' sketch. November, 1972

Further reading

  • Monty Python at 50

    ‘Sick’, ‘tripe’ and ‘a delicious sense of the ridiculous’, Monty Python shocked and delighted Â鶹ԼÅÄ audiences in equal measure. To celebrate 50 years of Python in 2019, Â鶹ԼÅÄ History digs deep inside Â鶹ԼÅÄ Archives and lifts the lid on how the series was commissioned, aspiring writers use Monty Python for new comic creations, and our gallery unearths some rarely seen images to mark a very special birthday.

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