The Pythons

Ten years ago, more or less, give or take a day or two, six young men—Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin—sat down, or perhaps stood, or maybe some of them just lounged, and wrote the first episode of a new series called *Owl Stretching Time*. The group and the series later became known as *Monty Python's Flying Circus*. Today, they are the best known British comedy group in the world, famous from Cathay to Kathmandu, from Sydney to Sidcup (except in Japan, where the programme is called *The Gay Boys' Dragon Show*... say no more). To commemorate their tenth anniversary, a BBC team tracked them down in the deserts of Tunisia, where they were filming *Life of Brian*, and almost persuaded them to examine the genesis, the genius, and the gender of Monty Python.