A short life of the author
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer, singer, songwriter, and author who was, as a member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, part of the comedy troupe that permanently changed the landscape of English-language comedy. Of the six Pythons, Idle was the most musical, the most commercially savvy, and the most willing to keep the Python brand alive long after the group ceased performing together. His solo career as an author has produced novels, diaries, and a memoir that are characterised by the same blend of intelligence, irreverence, and linguistic playfulness that defined the Python style.
Monty Python
Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham, and raised in a boarding school orphanage after his father was killed in a road accident while hitchhiking home from the RAF on Christmas Eve 1945. He attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he joined the Footlights comedy club — the traditional pipeline for British television comedy — and appeared in the 1963 Footlights Revue alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie.
In 1969, Idle joined John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin to create Monty Python’s Flying Circus for the BBC. The show ran for four series (1969–1974) and spawned three films — And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), and Life of Brian (1979) — plus the concert film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982) and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Idle’s contributions to Python were distinctive. He tended to write alone rather than in pairs (Cleese wrote with Chapman; Jones wrote with Palin), and his sketches were often built around wordplay, absurd songs, and surreal verbal constructions. He wrote “The Lumberjack Song,” the “Nudge Nudge” sketch, the “Spanish Inquisition” sketch title (though the sketch itself was Jones and Palin’s), and — most famously — “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the crucifixion song from Life of Brian that became a genuine popular anthem, sung at British football matches, funerals, and the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
Spamalot (2005)
Idle’s most significant post-Python achievement is the musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Spamalot, with music and lyrics by Idle, opened on Broadway in 2005, directed by Mike Nichols, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It ran for over 1,500 performances and has since been produced worldwide. The show is a loving parody of both the original film and the conventions of Broadway musicals, and its success demonstrated that the Python humour could translate to an entirely different medium.
Books
Hello Sailor (1975) and The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book (1976) are early comic books. The Road to Mars (1999) is a science fiction comedy novel about two stand-up comedians touring the solar system in the future, accompanied by a robot that is writing a doctoral thesis on the nature of comedy. It is more ambitious than funny, but it shows Idle’s genuine interest in the theory of humour.
The Greedy Bastard Diary (2005) chronicles his one-man tour of North America. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortofbiography (2018) is his memoir — funny, warm, occasionally moving, and full of anecdotes about the Pythons, George Harrison (a close friend), David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and the rest of Idle’s extraordinary social circle.
Critical Assessment
Idle is the lightest of the Pythons — less intellectually ambitious than Cleese, less visually inventive than Gilliam, less emotionally raw than Palin — but his songwriting, his verbal wit, and his talent for sustaining the Python legacy have made him an indispensable figure in British comedy. “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” is one of the most popular songs in the English language and may outlast everything else the Pythons created.
Collecting Idle
Python-related first editions are highly collectible. Monty Python’s Big Red Book (1971) and The Brand New Monty Python Papperbok (1973) in first editions bring $100–$300. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (2018, Crown Archetype) is signed in many copies from book tours.