Monty Python and The Holy Grail was filmed in 1975 during the cold and foggy month of April. The location was Doune castle in the Scottish ighlands and it was the story of King Arthur, leading his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail. In the search for the Grail they had to deal with all sorts of annoying obstacles such as ‘a persistent Black Knight, a three-headed giant, a cadre of shrubbery-challenged knights, the perilous Castle Anthrax, a killer rabbit, a house of virgins, and a handful of rude Frenchmen’.
Much of the outdoor filming had to wait for the right weather conditions which could change faster than a hat could drop. Make up and costume were applied early and Neil and John Cleese could often be seen doing The Times cryptic crosswords, sitting away from the filming in costume, getting cold and damp waiting to be called on to do their bit. Many of the wives, partners and children were at the filming – the children enjoying themselves playing with the props in the huge breaks between setting up shots. I have a photo of Luke almost covered by one of the knight’s helmets with chain mail down to his toes. Neil wrote many of the songs including ’Knights of the Round Table’, ‘Brave Sir Robin,’ and Run Away, and appeared in the film as a head bashing monk, a servant crushed by a giant wooden rabbit and the leader of Sir Robin’s Minstrels.
Low budget it might have been but The Holy Grail managed to get the highest box-office of any British film in the US when it was released
Born in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth (Graham Chapman) spends his life being mistaken for a messiah. The film nearly didn’t get made as days before the production was to begin EMI withdrew their funding, having at last read the script, and it was left to George Harrison with his business partner Dennis O’Brien to finance the film through the formation of their film company Handmade Films. Made in Tunisia the film was the highest grossing film in both the Uk and the US in 1979
Neil had a small part in this as a weedy looking Samaritan being sent to fight a huge muscle- bound gladiator. who he eventually wins by running all over the place and tiring the gladiator out.
After the disastrous American tours the Bonzos were asked to be the cabaret in the Beatles ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. Mike McGear, Paul McCartney’s brother, was responsible for that. He was part of Scaffold with John Gorman and Roger McGough and they would pass the Bonzos on motorways or find themselves on the same programme at gigs. Mike had mentioned to Paul that they might be a good act for the cabaret. Paul was already aware of the Bonzos, so it was a done deal. The Bonzos performed Death Cab for Cutie, one of the very few songs Neil and Viv wrote together – Viv demonstrating the perfect striptease. . It was filmed in Raymonds Revue Bar and Immediately after the shoot the Bonzos had to disappear quickly to another gig up north.
Neil had a tiny part in Mike Palin’s The Missionary.as a singer in the Gin Palace. Unusually he sang an old vaudeville song ‘Put on your tata little girlie’ rather than one of his own. It really is a blink and you’ll miss me’ kind of part but Neil enjoyed it especially the costume.
In 1976 we were invited to Friar Park to join a sea of beautiful people performing or wining and dining as the film Crackerbox Palace was being shot. George had been introduced to Crackerbox Palace by a friend who said it was the Los Angeles home of an american comedian who George admired called Lord Buckley. When he heard the name Crackerbox Palace George said ‘Ah, that sounds like a song and I wrote it down on a cigarette pack. I came home and wrote the song.” He also made a short film of the same name directed by Eric Idle and shot at Georges home in Friar Park. Neil played several parts. An old fashioned and very severe looking nanny in a rather fetching nanny outfit wheeling George in a pram. Another role as a religious security guard and he was also the wearer of the eponymus duck hat. Luke Innes was a baby Rutle with Eric Idle’s son Carey, and Miles Innes was a red and green elf. The film painted Crackerbox Palace as ‘a benign place welcoming everyone one seeking answers into the fold with love.’
Jabberwocky is a 1977 British fantasy comedy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam. “Inspiration came from a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named “the Jabberwock”. Terry Gilliam’s film starred Michael Palin as Dennis, a cooper’s apprentice, who is forced through clumsy, often slapstick misfortunes to hunt a terrible dragon after the death of his father. Neil plays the second herald brilliantly. He was really happy to be a part of this mad convoluted film together with so many of his admired fellow performers such as Max Wall, Warren Mitchell, Harry Corbett, John Le mesurier. The cast list is amazing.
Filmed in 1988 in several locations – Shepperton Studios in the UK, some scenes in Norway and others in Malta. It is about Erik, a young Viking, who discovers that he has no taste for rape and pillage. Neil did all the music and I remember this period very well as Terry would come and stay with us while they worked. After a day in Neil’s studio, they would take a couple of bottles of a rich red wine and get into a tiny rowing boat moored by a wooden pier in our horse pond and drift through the night talking and laughing, hysterically sometimes, about questions of mortality, about the filming, about what they were doing in the middle of the pond in the pitch black Suffolk night. .It was a happy time especially travelling to Shepperton Studios to pick up several of Neils props. Standing half covered by a groundsheet we saw the magnificent Horn Resounding. We checked that no one had laid claim to it-it was huge and took up a lot of space but we had room for it so we immediately hired a low loader and transported the horn back to Suffolk where it remained – a glorious momento of a fabulous few weeks. The film did not get the acclaim it should have had – I think all the Pythons suffered from their independent work being judged against the Python films -Holy Grail or Life of Brian and criticised for not being as funny or as colourful instead of being judged on their own merit
The Seventh Python is a 2008 musical documentary film about the career, music and philosophy of Neil Innes who has been known as the “seventh” member of the six-man Monty Python comedy troupe. The film, however, shows how Neil’s influence and experience goes far beyond that chapter, to include his work with the Bonzo Dog Band, The Rutles and other work. The Frozen Pictures film had its premiere at the American Cinematheque‘s Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood in June 2008.[2][3] The film was directed by Burt Kearns, and written and produced by Kearns and Brett Hudson two avid fans of Neils. It is warm, full of admiration catching exactly the quality that the people who had already discovered Neil liked. He related so well to the musicians, the camera and the audience seeing himself as no different to anyone just enjoying the crack, sharing his songs, so that even if you had never heard of him – you would, by the end of the film have a good understanding, almost a rapport with this gentle troubadour. It was so good seeing Neil and Eric playing
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