Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life (1983)

Originally, Crimson Permanent Assurance was going to be an animated short. I'd actually done the storyboard, drawn this out, the idea of a moving building that sailed away. And when it came time to do Mending of Life, I discovered that I was bored doing animation. I really didn't want to have to do it anymore. Now I had done Time Bandits and was really feeling that I wanted to do films and not animation. So I suggested to the rest of the group that I try doing this as a short film that would be part of the main feature. And they foolishly agreed and said, what a decent idea. So it allowed me to have my own sound stage with my own film crew and basically make my own movie. The animation bits that I did in the film were very secondary to playing around with this. And it always intrigued me, the idea of taking what really should be an animation idea and turn it into full-blooded, real filmmaking.

the idea of using very old actors who obviously hadn't had jobs in years. Some of them were old song and dance men. They never had a chance to be heroic, be active, be piratical. And having dredged these people up out of the, well, almost the grave, one or two feet were already in by the time we got some of them on board, we went to work. Come on, boys. Let's get out of here. We built everything. There was the set, the interior, which was on the stage. We spent a lot of time just picking up gags with old Victorian accounting gear. How can you transform that into swords and weapons of, well, not mass destruction, but certainly ugly, nasty little things? And so we had rubber stamps. We had the blades of old fans. He took all this stuff and turned it into weapons of war. Roger Pratt lit this. Roger had done Brazil with Maine, so this was a second chance to work together. And John Beard, who had been the art director on Brazil, came on as the production designer of this.

desks, gathering the old gear. And then ticker tape, of course, became a really handy way of dealing with these people. And then we had no shame about doing cheap jokes of heads bonking into windows and blah, blah, blah. The music which John Dupre did is based on Eric Korngold's work. Korngold did the Seahawk and many of the great epics with Errol Flynn in them. And it's good, old, romantic, sweeping music. And basically that's what this is, is effectively a silent movie dominated by this incredible score. Myrtle Devenish is the only woman in it. Myrtle had been kind of my good luck charm. She had been in Brazil. She was the secretary of typing for Mike Palin's Torturer. She'd been in Time Bandits. She was just... a wonderful lady who was happy to be taken advantage of by men. And team making was a great skill, should never be thought lowly of. We built this set so it was both an interior and an exterior set so the guys could operate. At times it was very frightening because these guys, being as old and frail as they were, had to do some incredibly dangerous action, climbing ladders, slipping, falling uh patty who just pushed the man off the edge was a stuntman i think he was a retired stuntman he's probably the oldest stuntman in the business and he ended up doing so much work on this thing because it was his last chance i think i think that was partly what we were doing giving people a last chance to do something interesting the entire film was basically shot on this one a rather small stage. We built the top, the side, and when it came to the wider shots, we had to go down to the City of London. And the building you see here is, in fact, Lloyd's of London's maritime insurance office building. We were only allowed to shoot there on the weekend, and we didn't properly have permission. We had to sneak in there, I think it was a Sunday morning, and get out of there before lunch, which meant building the pavement hooking, rigging this huge chain that was supported by a crane out of shot, getting the basic shots done and getting out of there before we got nicked. In fact, somebody, I think, had paid Sergeant Dunn at the local police station some money to stay away. Once it started moving, we were in the studio pulling the thing along, pushing bricks and pieces out. And these shots of the building are a model. We had two different models. One was about four foot high and one was about 16 inches high. And in fact, the one you see here is the 16 inches one heading away. The buildings all around aren't buildings. There were photographs I took of buildings in London and literally we just blew them up, mounted them on boards and cut them out. In fact, very little depth in it. It's all just 2D. Shooting the building moving was always difficult, and even as it is now, I'm not really happy with it. It's very hard to have sails that are that small fluttering at the right scale, but we did as best we could. Come on, boy. Watch it. Roof to roof. Working with models, we'd done some of that on Brazil, and I was gonna be doing a lot more on Munchausen later, and so it was a chance to try out lots of ideas. The extraordinary thing about building this great glass city was, again, we were on a very small stage, and we had to shoot with wide-angle lenses. to get it far enough away. The problem with that is that wide angle lenses distort things and you don't get true verticals. So every one of those buildings is carefully placed at a slightly different angle to end up with proper verticals. That was a dangerous moment. Sliding down the pole was our first and only injury on the thing. The landing wasn't good and I think he broke his ankle or certainly strained it. That's an 18- or 16-inch model that's chugging away from us there. On the set, of course, we had to keep blowing wind nonstop. We had smoke always. We had pigeons being thrown around. And it went on and on, the shoot on this thing, much longer than I expected. I was looking at it again here. I think there are probably as many shots in this short as there are in the entire rest of the film. And each one is complicated, folks.

Occasionally I'd be pulled away during the shoot of this to go and put on a dress or do something silly in the main unit, but I really felt quite isolated from the rest of the film for the majority of the shoot. And there were a lot of complaints going on that I was spending more money than the rest of the film was costing. I have no idea what this cost, but nobody told me to stop. I'm really happy to take orders, but nobody gave me any. Our model city, they're about four or five feet high, each of those buildings. And again, it's very tricky when you're working with all these mirrored surfaces and with a camera moving through, because you're constantly discovering that you don't have enough buildings to block all the possible reflective areas. We had to keep the camera moving most of the time to give the sense that this building was actually in motion. Of course, it was just standing still and it was us constantly on the move, shifting lights, making the reflections pour in. It was good to get proper actor in like Mike Palin. as the really starring role really of most of all being a window washer. Rigging these things as cannons was always tricky, but it worked. The strange thing is blowing up windows. They're harder to do than you can imagine. I forgot, we had another set here. We had this bit here, the modern building. Now that I'm looking at this thing, I realize why it costs so much. It just keeps expanding. It goes on and on, endless shots. The good thing on this DVD is the soundtrack is much better than it was in the original film. André Jacquemin has been putting on really good sound effects, great deep bass rumble that we could never do then. The technology wasn't there, but it eventually caught up with the scale of this kind of filmmaking. Originally, this film was supposed to be in the main film, and what happened was we started cutting it, leaving it in the position of where it now attacks the main film, which is like, I can't even remember what scene that's after. And it wasn't working. It's a very different rhythm than Python material. And the others in the group just kept saying, you've got to cut it shorter, you've got to cut it shorter, it's not working. And I kept cutting it shorter and shorter and shorter. And the shorter it got, the less good it got. And that was a major problem because it was sort of the point when it's going to come out of the film, we're going to throw this whole thing away. And then, I don't know, I had to, a breakthrough. Let's just pull it out of the film and make it the short that precedes the film. The minute we did that, suddenly it worked. It worked as it was supposed to. And it gave us the opportunity to reintroduce it later when it attacks the main film. I love the idea of the short film coming and doing damage to the main film later on. The young guys here, the sleek young executives, a lot of them went on to become There's Ross Davidson behind the chair. He went on to be a star in East Ender and big news on the English tabloids with whatever romance he was involved in. Matt Freuer is in there, too, who ended up playing Max Headroom. I love the idea that the sign painter is doing his job no matter what. It made me laugh then, and it just made me laugh again. Doing this battle scene, it was really the first time I'd done this kind of action. And looking at it, I realized I still had a long way to go to learn about doing action well. But we kept it going as much as we could. It's shot after shot. I mean, I'm going to have to sit down now and count the number of shots in this film just to realize. How we had managed to fool ourselves into thinking we were just doing an easy little short that could be knocked off in a week or two. And now tragedy enters. Up till then it was good fun, it was all just larking about, but now tragedy. And there it is, Matt Foyer, soon to become Max Headroom. Soon to then go out to L.A. and be in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. And very soon to fall out the window committing suicide. Corporate suicide is what we're talking about here. It's a terribly romantic piece of work here, this film. Fighting for all the good things, the old things, the true things. Not the sleek modern world that has betrayed us and is sending us to war. This is the right kind of war. Weapons of accounting mass destruction. It was interesting, this model of the end of the financial district. It actually was quite small, and when we were shooting it, it said, this doesn't look big enough. And what we in fact did was put mirrored surfaces behind big sort of mirrors, that reflected the buildings we'd built. So we, in fact, sort of doubled or tripled the number of models we had to do this. Here was a chance for a wonderful song by Eric, which really didn't have a home yet, and he'd written the... accountancy shanty before we even shot this or with no intention of even having it involved in this and it just was perfect. It ended up being the great finale to this piece and it's Eric at his wittiest. It's fun to charter an accountant and sail the wide accountancy to find, explore the farms offshore and skirt the shoals of bankruptcy

Leslie Cerrone, 80 years old, a song and dance man, his last twitch. The great thing for me about this short was It led to beating Harry Nilsson. He wanted to know who the guy was that made this thing. Harry eventually made his way to London. He was a friend of Graham's, and then he became a friend of mine, and he wrote some of the great songs and sang them. And then, like most of us, went out and died. He just beat us to the punch. It was interesting when we showed the film in Cannes, And we sat in this audience, and it was the first time I'd really seen this up on a big, big screen. And Crimson Permanent looked fantastic. It looked like an epic. The scale of it was massive. And then the main film came on, and I thought, what? This is television. It doesn't need a big screen. It was a real shock. I find what's interesting now when I watch the film, especially on DVD or video, that in fact, the rest of the film is the right scale at home. And Crimson Permanent Assurance doesn't work as well on the little screen. So ultimately, the main film wins out over my desperate attempts to create epics. Ah, that's good. Now we've got rid of Gilliam's dreadfully expensive Crimson Permanent Assurance film. We can get on with the main film. Ah, this is what people have come to see. I love this moment, you know, when the Universal logo are coming up. It's so exciting. This working title of the film was a fish film for a long time. It took quite a bit making these fish. We had to wear these headpieces that had been created to fit behind us. And then we were all dressed in blue and walked up and down and around on this blue... two dairs at different heights, and then it all had to be cut out like that. But, of course, this would be much easier to do nowadays, and you wouldn't get all this break-up. That's Terry Gilliam and me coming in there. Not much. Morning! Frank was just asking what's new. Hey, look. How it's being eaten. You see? Makes you sick, doesn't it? I mean, what's it all about? fast and furious it takes a lot of viewings to take it all in sometimes even simple little jokes of erections and all you don't take in the first time but maybe that's again a good thing about the film it'll last forever because you'll have to keep watching it again and again you can slow it down on your dvd and watch in detail what might have been better at half the speed that i shot it what's the point of all these hoax I love Terry's balloon man walking through the wilderness of tits. Some absolutely classic Gilliam cartoon. Just wonderful. These houses landing. Used to be the houses outside of my flat in North London. This is probably the best bit of the animation in the whole film, and I did concentrate quite a bit on this. And I let the other, let it fade away. Some way, I think it was shot sort of prefigures Brazil. Anyway, what does it mean? It's got some meaning to it, doesn't it? Oh, there's Venus. Oh, there's the wind blowing her. And then out of this, rises some sort of Eastern Buddhist nonsense going on. We're mixing religions, we're mixing philosophies. We've got television watchers, the true religion of our day. That's totally inspired. Why is he melting? What goes on here? The difficult thing with this animation is we actually were using not just cut-out animation, but we were using full-frame animation. Yeah, look at television. I'm watching television here. I feel good at home now. I don't feel I should be out in the cinema watching this. It's just perfect for my little teeny screen at home. Now, this scene, the hospital scene, of course, this used to be the start of the film. One of the sad things about putting the Crimson Permanent Assurance film first is that the reactions to this scene were never quite as good as they were when we started off with this scene. This scene always seems, coming after the Crimson Permanent Assurance, because there's been so much noise and everything, it's... This scene always seems a little bit down... ...because it was always designed as the start of the film. But funny? Much funnier than Crimson Permanent Assurance. This is good stuff. John and Graham playing their silly game. It's a bit bare in here, isn't it? Yes. More apparatus, please, nurse. The EEG, the BP monitor, and the AVV. Yes, certainly, Doctor. And get the machine that goes, bing! And get the most expensive machines in case the administrator comes. Of course, Graham, being the qualified doctor on the team, was our consultant for all this, and he made sure that we ordered all the right equipment for the operating room. Jolly good. That's better. That's much, much better. Yeah. More like it. Uh... So he knew all the names of all the different bits of equipment and everything. In fact, just about seven years before this, I suppose, my wife Alison had our daughter Sally. And she'd undergone an experience very, very close to this. She'd been put on a drip to induce Sally because the hospital decided the baby had to be born on a certain date, whether it was ready or not. And so Alison found herself being induced and they virtually did pull the baby out of her just as the... I was there. It just felt exactly like this. Mother was the last person they really thought of. Emphasis seemed to be on the technology of the machines. And I was amazed when John and Graham wrote this sketch. I thought they must have been at Sally's birth as well. It was mirrored so accurately what I remembered. And that's the most expensive machine in the whole hospital. I just love the whole idea of the patient as being the I see you have the machine that goes bing! Now, the ping here, we spend ages, Andre and I spend ages trying to find the right ping. I don't know, I quite felt we got quite the right one. Thank you, thank you. We tried to do our best. Well, do carry on. I think this says so much about what's happened to medicine, what's happened to broadcasting. The accountancy has taken over and the management has taken over. Here it comes. And frighten it. Here. And the rough toes. Show it to the mother. That's enough. Right, sedate her. Number the child. Measure it, blood type it, and isolate it. Okay, show's over. A boy or a girl? Now, I think it's a little early to start imposing roles on it, don't you? Now, a word of advice. You may find that you suffer for some time a totally irrational feeling of depression. PMD, as we doctors call it. So, it's lots of happy pills for you, and you can find out all about the birth when you get home. It's available on Betamax, VHS, and Super 8. Betamax? That sort of dates the film, doesn't it, gosh? The Miracle of Birth, Part 2. The Third World.

Oh, bloody hell. Oh, get that, would you, Deidre? All right, Mum. Now, we had a terrible job trying to find a place that looked like this. In fact, we didn't find a place that looked like this in the end. We had to, as you can see, we painted in the backdrop. And we found some street that was almost right. But it was terribly difficult to find, you know, the Yorkshire back streets. Linda, Michael, Evadne, Alice, Dominic and Sasha, it's your bedtime. Now, don't argue. Now, these kids were wonderful. We had to... We got about 60 of them there, I think. We had to design the set so you had the staircase going up there and then going across at an angle so that you could see them everywhere. We could have... And I wanted the high shelf for the mantelpiece, so we could have children sitting up there. I just wanted the whole screen full of children. I think it was the girl on the left is the girl that does all the singing. Although she doesn't sing on screen, she was the actual... She was the voice. When we had the children in, there were 60 of them, and they all had to have permission from their parents and everything. And when he got to some of the rude stuff, like when Mike says, if the Roman Catholic Church only let me wear one of those little rubber things on the end of my cock, he actually said, if they'd let me wear one of those little rubber things on the end of my sock, and then we dubbed it in later as cock. But we were quite surprised. The parents, everybody was very happy for the children seeing every sperm is sacred. They all loved the idea. I do think this opening stuff is absolutely brilliant. I think the performances are spectacular. And the ideas are sublime. It's a great character of Michael's, I think. The song itself goes through about three stages. It starts off as sort of musical recitative. Then it goes into... and then it goes into Oliver. I don't know if you've ever done anything as long a sequence as this. It just goes on and on, building and getting better. I think this is one of my favorite bits of Eisen, I think. Those poor little kids in the bathtub, they start getting really cold by the end of the filming. Because every sperm is sacred The little girl in the middle is so lovely. I tried to persuade my daughter Sally to do it, but she wouldn't. The girl behind Mike looks so pre-Raphaelite. They've all got such great faces.

Amazing little girl. But this little girl who sings now in the solo, she was so perfect. I mean, she was miming to one of the other children's voices, but she never gets it wrong. It's just great stuff.

It's a lump to your throat, isn't it? And the kids were so great. They're all just putting everything they've got into it. I had a terrible job trying to sing this. I had to do it, I think it was four different takes with a different line from each take. Again, in Cannes, it was wonderful with this audience of people all in their dinner jackets. Crimson Permanent comes through and that's all jolly and nice and easy to take... ...because it's visually easily understandable. And then the film started and they didn't know what to make of it. They were very confused. All went a bit restless. And then, by the end of Every Sperm is Sacred... ...I think they were applauding at that point and we'd actually won them. I think this was filmed in Rochdale. This is looking up the street the other way now. It was very, very hard. It was almost the last 19th-century Chalk 2 Downs working-glass street that we could find. And mine.

wanted to have suspenders on and lift them all up now, which they do in fact, but they don't, I thought that was a bit too obvious. I do like the papal discount house. Somebody, one of the poor girls fell through one of these roofs that she was dancing on.

We had Fire Eaters, and Paper Dragon, and Fireworks, and Flags All Nations. This was only the third take. And we couldn't believe it. It would take all morning to get everybody made up and costumed. And then we did three takes, and we said, well, that's it. I looked at him, and I said, yes, that's it. It's perfect. So you see my problem, little ones? I can't keep you all here any longer. Speak up! I can't speak up before the girl looks around. The kids look so great in this picture. I can't get over how genuine they look. Their faces look like they fit the period as well. God knows all. He'd see through such a cheap trick. What we do to ourselves, we do to him. You could have had them pulled off in an accident. Children, I know you're trying to help, but believe me, My mind's made up. I've given this long and careful thought. And it has to be medical experiments for the lot of you. It's coming up to my favourite bit of the film. I think it's this scene with Graham and Eric as the Protestant couple. Of course, the children came out just to keep them going through the scene. We just had them going round and down the road into the next house and round and out of the back of the other. What are we, dear? Protestant and fiercely proud of it. Graham was just so right in this part. Eric is just a great character. But it's the same with us, Harry. What do you mean? Well, I mean, we've got two children and we've had sexual intercourse twice. That's not the point. We could have it any time we wanted. Really? Really. Oh, yes, and what's more, because we don't believe in all that papist claptrap... It's quite a tough scene to do because it's all just one shot, basically. I think we do a close-up, but we were trying to do it all in one take. And quite a lot, especially for Graham to remember. He was really good at it. He was really on top form. What do you mean? I could, if I wanted, have sexual intercourse with you... Oh, yes, Harry. ..and by wearing a rubber sheath... I just really like the difference between the interior of the Protestant's house and the aridness of it and what he's eating. The life that was going on in the Roman Catholic house. And Eric's suppressed sexuality. It's just really one of the funniest things he's done. Of course, this scene was meant to run into the Martin Luther sequence, which we shot, and then finally cut out of the film at the last moment. But as proud owners of this DVD, you can see the Martin Luther scene. Not only to protect, but also to enhance the stimulation of sexual congress. Have you got one? Have I got one? Well, no. But I can go down the road any time I want and walk into Harry's and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice... Harry, I want you to sell me a condom. In fact, today I think I'll have a French tickler, for I am a Protestant. This is Graham at his best when he's like this. Just spectacular. He and Eric, what a couple, isn't it? That's the great Protestant couple of all time. But despite the attempts of Protestants to promote the idea of sex for pleasure, children continued to... So that is where the Martin Luther scene would have come. The Meaning of Life, Part Two. Growth and Learning. This was all shot up in Mill Hill. We had a big decision to make because we had to give them a school uniform, and their school uniform was dark black blazer. But we found when we came to dress us up as schoolboys, we looked older in dark colors. We needed a light color, which meant we had to have light colored blazers made for the entire school. And this cost the production a lot of money. But we had to have it. I'm not sure what to say about anything here. I mean, it's all... I've changed my mind now that I watch more of the film. I think it is the best thing Python's ever done. Let us praise God. O Lord. O Lord. O you are so big. O you are so big. So absolutely... I think this speaks to me of countless... school assemblies and ceremonies. Gosh, we're all really impressed down here, I can tell you. Gosh, we're all really impressed down here, I can tell you. Forgive us, O Lord, for this, our dreadful toadying. But you're so strong and, well, just so super. Fantastic. Now, two boys have been found rubbing linseed oil into the school cormorant. Now, some of you may feel that the cormorant does not play an important part in the life of the school, but I would remind you that it was presented to us by the corporation of the town of Sudbury to commemorate Empire Day when we try to remember the names of all those from the Sudbury area who so gallantly gave their lives to keep China British. So from now on, the cormorant is strictly out of bounds. Rowan Jenkins, apparently your mother died this morning. Chaplin? I just love that throwaway. That little boy just looking up and biting his lip. No other reaction. Michael playing his very officious little chaplin. school chaplain.

This is the scene where we weren't really sure it was going to work because we were all meant to be playing, you know, sort of 16-year-olds. And there's Eric, me, Mike, Graham, well into our 30s at this time, trying to look like we were schoolboys still. And this is where it was so crucial for us to have these light-coloured blazers, you know, to sort of get away with it. He chose this place at Mill Hill. It's quite difficult to find a place that met up with one's concept of a classic classroom. But I like this one because it had the windows on all three sides. It's the kind of piece that John loves doing when there's a whole lot of nonsense to remember. He actually loves being able to get a lot of difficult stuff under his belt. ...and make sure he moves your clothes down onto the lower peg for you. Now... Sir? Yes, Wymer? My younger brother's going out with Dibble this weekend, sir, but I'm not having my hair cut today, sir, so do I move my clothes out? You should listen, Wymer. It's perfectly... While we were filming this at one stage, it got very overcast, and it got so dark, it just looked like absolutely night outside. We had to stop filming. It was the middle of the day. Those things you just don't expect to happen. Close on to the lower peg, greet the visitors, and report to Mr. Viney that you've had your chit-sides. Now, sex. I remember when John Graham read this script out, this scene out, I just thought it was the funniest thing. Well, had I got as far as the penis entering the vagina? No, sir. Well, had I done foreplay?

Ah, well, as we all know all about foreplay, no doubt you can tell me what the purpose of... I love the idea of you can put anything into a classroom context and it'll become immediately boring to children. Just the way it's taught. Carter? Oh, er... Was it taking your clothes off, sir? Well, and after that? Oh, putting them on a lower peg, sir. The purpose of foreplay is to cause the vagina to lubricate so that the penis can penetrate more easily. Can we have a window open, please, sir? Why is it that line makes me laugh? I have no idea. Can we have a window open, please, sir? What are those lines? It doesn't seem to have any reason for making me laugh. It just does. Did I do vaginal juices last week? Oh, do pay attention, Wadsworth. I know it's Friday after. Oh, watching the football, are you, boy? Right, move over there. I'm warning you. I may decide to set an exam this term. Oh, sir. So just listen. Now, did I or did I not do vaginal juices? Yes, sir. Name two ways of getting them flowing, Watson. Rubbing the clitoris, sir. What's wrong with a kiss, boy? Why not start off with a nice kiss? You don't have to know anything straight from the beginning. Give her a kiss, boy. Suck the nipple, sir. Good. Good. Well done. Line up. Striking the thigh, sir. Yes, yes, I suppose so. Yes, good. Nibbling the earlobe, kneading the buttocks and so on and so forth. So we have all these possibilities before we stampede towards the clitoris, Watson. Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Now, all these four... This is one of the most inspired bits of set design from our production designer, Harry Lang. I think originally we just thought we'd have a We'd pull a bed in or something, and then he said, well, why don't we have the blackboard unfolding into a four-poster bed? I just thought it was an outrageous piece of design. It just seems to work terribly well. It kind of visually does what they... Ah, no, this is Pat Quinn, who is just terrific. She's a wonderful actress. And she was so game doing this part. My wife enters the room, Carter. Oh, sorry, sir, sorry. Humphrey, I hope you don't mind, but I told the Garfields we would dine with them tonight. Yes, yes, well, I suppose we must. Well, I said we'd be there by eight. Well, at least it'll give me a reason to wind up and start reading. Well, I know you don't like them, but I couldn't make another exception. Well, it's just that I felt... Why not? This is for your benefit. Would you kindly wake up? Well, I don't know. Have you any intention of going through this all again? there was some contention about whether they should take their pants off and I said well I think you should really it is a sex lesson after all we'll take the foreplay as read if you don't mind so the man starts by entering or mounting his good lady wife in the standard way the penis is now as you will observe there we are that's better Now, Carter. Michael doing the Ocarina. It's so convincing. Exactly what goes on. Classrooms all the world over, I'm sure. Up and down inside the vagina. So put it there, boy. Put it there on the table. While the wife maximizes her clitoral stimulation by the shaft of the penis by pushing forward. Thank you, dear. Now, as the sexual excitement mounts... What's funny, Biggs? Oh, nothing, sir. Oh, do please share your little joke with the rest of us. I mean, obviously, something frightfully funny is going on. No, honestly, sir. Well, as it's so funny, I think you'd better be selected to play for the boys' team in the rugby match against the Masters this afternoon. Oh, no, sir.

We had a dummy in there for the Masters to beat up. Oh, nice. Oh, come here. Oh, dear. What little kids. Come on.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a muddy day, so we had to create this mud patch. A sort of ballet of rugger. Then we sort of carefully had to do the transition into the First World War scene. He carefully lined this up so the goalpost behind echoed in the war with the two trees. I don't know whether anyone ever notices. This was shot on the back lot at Boreham Wood at Elstream. And it was just a little hill behind the studios up there. We dug it all up and created this First World War battlefield. It was a joke that we missed out of this, which I always wish we'd put in. When we come over the top, first of all, I was supposed to say to, I said, Jenkins, you go and get the buggers on the left flank, and I'll get the heterosexuals on the other flank. When we did the dialogue scene here, we had explosions going off. We had, I think, because we were trying to do it in one take, we had something like 60 explosions going off in one shot, which is a phenomenal number of explosions. Poor George, the special effects designer, was saying, you really need this number of explosions. It was quite a superhuman effort. The thing I remember most about this was that in between takes, the special effects guys had to go out there and reset all of the explosions. And one guy went out there, and the one thing you don't do is carry your explosions in a plastic bag. and he walked out there and it was still hot in certain areas and suddenly this explosion and it went up and the guy got blown up we should have shot it differently at a certain point once we got into it we should have maybe got into the trench down so we didn't have to do the explosions anymore we could just concentrate on on the scene but uh that's not the way it was shot it was just shot with everybody up which is uh Easier to shoot, but probably more time-consuming because you had to constantly reset the explosions. The special effects guy who got blown up was all right in the end. I can't remember how long he was in the hospital. And by God, I wish I could remember his name because that kind of sacrifice deserves a memory, our memory. Night Down, he was just... A guy walking. And you sit there. And it's like you're watching a battlefield because you've got all these craters out there. And you see this guy walking out. Other people were out doing their stuff. And he steps over the crowd and disappears down the crater. And it's like, whoa, a huge explosion. Oh, my God, no. Anyway, that's the price you pay when you make movies. You've hurt his feelings now. Don't mind me, Spudge. Toast is all the same. One minute's all please and thank you. The next, I'll... Eric starts corpsing in this scene. This is the bit where Eric starts corpsing. He tries to come it up. When does he go? But Blacky be out there slicing the lemons, mixing the sugar and the almonds. I mean, you try to get butter to melt at 15 degrees below zero. He's laughing there. He just can't stop laughing. And he managed to put himself together by the time he comes back in. Bastard. All right. We will eat the cake. They're right. It's too good a cake not to eat. Get the plates and knives, Walters. Yes, sir. How many plates? Six. Better make it five. Tablecloth, sir? Yes, get the tablecloth. No, no, no. I'll get the tablecloth. And better get the table hot. And the little mat, sir. Yes, Walter. Oh, and while you're at it, better get a doily. I'll bring two, sir, in case you don't like scruple. OK.

Well, of course, warfare isn't all fun. Right, stop that. It's all very well to laugh at the military, but when one considers the meaning of life, it is a struggle between alternative viewpoints of life itself. And without the ability to defend one's own viewpoint against other, perhaps more aggressive ideologies, then reasonableness and moderation could quite simply disappear. That is why we'll always need an army. And may God strike me down were it to be otherwise. The constant attempt in the film to drag the whole thing back to the meaning of life. I remember when we first started writing Meaning of Life, the earlier ideas I always thought were going to be brilliant. I mean, we were doing Monty Python's World War III, which I thought had great potential. Everybody was wearing advertisements on their uniforms. Everything had a sponsor, like Formula One racing and maybe... The world is moving towards that. Well, we didn't go that direction. We had another idea, which I really loved, which was the fact that the film was on trial. And we were on trial because the prosecutors had said, it's not a film. It's a tax dodge. And we were going to be doing things which had scenes. Say one would be doing Hamlet, but you'd be doing it in Barbados or some tax exile that was completely inappropriate for Hamlet. And little by little, through the course of the film, the case went on. And we were at one point even going to be doing advertisements in the film. We were actually going to go and get people to take out advertising space, and we would then do their ads, and they would give us lots of money, which would finance the film. And ultimately, we were going to be found guilty. And then we had to choose our method of execution. So by the end of it, each of us would have died a horrible and interesting death. That was another idea that didn't go any further. Writing it was interesting because we were down in Jamaica. And as a group, we weren't working quite in the same way as we had when we were doing the television shows. In the end, there was so much material that didn't go into the film. Some of it was quite wondrous. But what's in there? In retrospect, I really do find it incredible. I actually think the first parts of the film, the beginning, the Catholic family, the Protestant couple, sperm song, are some of the finest things Python has ever, ever done. I think performances in the film are as good, if not better, than anything Python has done. I can't remember. Was Graham alive when we did this? Now, this was shot in Glasgow, on the Campsie Fells. And we got up there to shoot it, and it was, uh, there was a rebellion. All the, uh, the guys we got to come and, uh, be our Zulu warriors, uh, rebelled, because it was a miserable, terrible day. It was cold and misty wept, and honestly, the Camps of Hells didn't look like South Africa. It looked like the Camps of Hells. And then about sort of 10 o'clock, we got word up that there'd been a revolt, and they refused to put on the costumes. They said they were too flimsy. So we had to abandon the shoot that day and reschedule it for the next day. And we couldn't get any black actors. We had to get white actors. had to ship down to London for tons of blacking, black makeup and black wigs. The very few ethnic actors we had, we had to put in the front, and then everybody in the background was just blacked out. Terrible. But the great thing was, it was a beautiful and sunny day the next day, and suddenly it looked a little bit more like Africa. Bit the shreds, though. Must be a hole in the bloody mosquito net. Yeah, savage little blighters, aren't they? Excuse me, sir. Yes, Cedric? I'm afraid Perkins got rather badly bitten during the night. Well, so did we. Yes, but I do think Doctor ought to see him. Well, go and fetch him, then. I crease myself watching everybody in there because everybody's doing great characters. Everybody had become very confident by the time we were making the film as performers. Now, this is the scene that we shot on the previous day when we had the revolt of the extras. And, of course, it didn't matter that we were shooting this tent, and it didn't matter that it was grey and horrible. John, please, was extremely ill during this day. He kept on going outside and being sick. He'd stayed in a hotel and he'd eaten some prawns and I had came in to say something to him when he was eating them and I could smell it slightly off. I was just about to say, John, I wouldn't eat those if I were you and then I realised he'd just finished eating them so I thought I was too bored in saying anything. But I wasn't surprised when I heard he'd got food poisoning that day. And he manages to pull it off. It doesn't give any indication of suffering from food poisoning when he's actually acting. I think Eric and Graham are brilliant at this scene. And one of the reasons why they're so good is because of the costumes. They're so meticulously researched and done by Jim Acheson, who's won three Oscars for costumes. But just look at Eric's shirt there. It's so correctly tailored for the period. And Graham's costume and makeup, it makes him into a period character. It's meticulous costuming, brilliant stuff. Any other problems I can reassure you about? No, I'm fine. Jolly good. Well, pass me off. So it'll just go back again then, will it? I remember watching this scene. I've always felt it was a great joy because I think the acting is brilliant. I just think as the group there, everybody's brilliant. It's much subtler acting than Python used to do. And again, what's interesting, this is all done in one shot. It's not full of cuts and things. It's just about really good performing. It's great to be able to watch this as an outsider. I think, you know, that's what they were doing while I was banging around in that other studio. They were making really good work. I like when we're working. We get so G'd up, or certainly I do, and I think Terry does, you know. And it's really hard to deal with criticism. It's, you know, one's being very defensive, protective, critical of everything. And to be able to then step back years later and look at it and just see how good the work is here, it just knocks me out. I think it's really nicely done. Again, the costumes with the helmet all hacked to pieces. It's sort of a lot of thought. Jim pays such attention to detail, and he's full of ideas. It just makes a little difference, you know. The man coming in from outside who's all half been beaten up. I just see you guys see the sellotape on my beard coming off on the left there. Just see the mark, the toupee tape. Never noticed that before. The M.O. says we can stitch it back on if we can find it immediately. Right, sir. I'll organise a party right away, sir. Well, it's hardly the time for that, is it, Sergeant? A search party. Oh, much better idea. We were just so lucky that the sky was blue today. Sorry about the mess, sir. We'll try and get it cleared up by the time you get back. We'll show them, don't we, sir? Yeah. Yeah, we've got a search party. Leave that alone. This is fun, sir, isn't it? All this killing, bloodshed. Bloody good fun, sir, isn't it? Yeah, it's very good. Morning, sir. Plastic wounded out there, Potter. Thank you very much, sir. Come on, Private. Making up a search party. Better than staying at home, isn't it, sir, eh? I mean, at home, if you kill someone, they arrest you, eh? They give you a gun and show you what to do, sir. I mean, I killed 15 of those buggers, sir. Now, at home, they'd hang me. Here, they'll give me a fucking medal, sir. I love these jungles that we're able to create in England. On the back lot, we shipped in a huge quantity of greenery and stuff. We were just shooting it A bit of dingle at the back of the lot. I mean, on a bystream, and we just dressed in all the tropical plants we could get hold of.

What was Mike holding in his hand there? Was it a little hairbrush, a mirror, or what? These are the secrets of arcane kind of filmmaking, and I don't know what it means. Don't shoot, don't shoot. We're not a tiger. He's got a sword now in his hand. We were just... Why are you dressed as a tiger? He's got it again, that thing in his hand. What is it? This is a strange sketch. It almost seemed to be us one of the funniest scenes when it was read out. It's got no real justification for it. It doesn't go anywhere. In fact, where it comes in the film, it seems to be a low point in the film somewhere. Nothing more to it. What is this scene about? I never quite understood. There's japery going on. It's like, uh-oh, we've sort of reverted back to old Python. It's just silly. It's rather clunky looking. We've left some really fine work behind. It's one of those strange exchanges where there's no justification for it whatsoever, really. It's funny, but it's sort of vaguely unsatisfactory, I suppose, because there is no explanation for why they're lying. Completely mad. We're inmates of a Bengali psychiatric institution and we escaped by making this skin out of old used cereal packets. It doesn't matter. What? It doesn't matter why they're dressed as a tiger. Have they got my leg? Good thinking. Well, have you? Actually, yes. It's because we were thinking of training as taxidermists and we wanted to get the feel of it from the animal's point of view. Be quiet! This scene is just another ridiculous idea. I think while the rest of them are busy doing this scene, I'm being outfitted backstage in the most uncomfortable rubber suit imaginable, having to be inside a negro. It's hard work. And probably politically incorrect. Found the tiger skin in a bicycle shop in Cairo. The owner wanted it taken down to Dar es Salaam. Shut up! Now look, have you or have you not got his leg? Yes. No. No. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. This scene probably seemed, you know, a really good idea when it was first written. I'm not talking to you. Um... Um... Hmm. Right, search the thicket. Oh, come on. I mean, do we look like the sort of chaps who'd creep into a camp at night, steal into someone's tent, anesthetize them, tissue-type them, amputate a leg and run away with it? Search the thicket. What does Mike have in his hand? You're looking for a leg. Actually, I think there is one in there somewhere. Ah, no, Terry Gilliam did starring role. The unzipping. What are we doing here? I can't remember how this came up. The zipper never worked as well as we'd hoped. If you notice, it opens at the bottom. Ah, the most unexplained bit of the film, the middle of the film. Originally, we were going to have lots of stars here saying, welcome to the middle of the film, but we couldn't afford to get them in the end. We'd hoped to have Sean Connery and Julie Andrews and people, but... And it's just Mike Palin as this strange lady. I don't know who she is. If you think you know, don't keep it to yourselves. Yell out so that all the cinema can hear you. So here we are with Find the Faith. Now, the next scene was shot inside Battersea Power Station, believe it or not. We built this little set. It's an absolutely remarkable 1920s industrial interior with this parquet flooring. And it's actually all gone now. This is one of the few records of what Battersea Power Station looked like in its heyday. One of the great moments of Python. Now, this troll that comes forward here was actually a costume we had built for Time Bandits. And it's used in the scene where the giant crushes a house. And we never saw it in close-up, so we dragged it out of storage and included it in this. But I do think this is Python at its surreal best. Look at that ceiling. It's just extraordinary. Back to the... Back to the fish. It was kind of a feeling that in order for the film not to be just a sketch film, which it is, of course, there should be... I kept wanting to pull out more about the meaning of life, as if there was some point to it, as if we were actually going somewhere. That explains some of the cuts that we made.

What do you think the next bit will be then? Caption, I expect. What, about the next stage of life, you mean? Oh, yeah. Here we go. Middle age. Oh, could have guessed it. Here we've cut a sequence. We see Mike and Eric arriving at the hotel and they go into their room and they love everything. It's just terribly... ordinary room and the view out of the back is just on a roller that so you can change the view to what a townscape or a landscape or whatever but we cut that and we also cut the first scene in the restaurant which is when carol comes on as a waitress it's a pity because it's a very funny sequence but i think on the dvd you'll be able to see it in an authentic medieval english dungeon atmosphere

This also doubles up as a Hawaiian restaurant. I've always had a secret suspicion that the Hendy's were my mother and father. They had turned up on several Python shoots. And Eric's checking through his bag, because that was part of the earlier scene. Now, we left this scene in because it wasn't, in fact, it wasn't quite as funny as the scene with Carol in the Beefeatress costume. But I kept it in because it was about the meaning of life. And in a way, that's why I think the other stuff went as well. That's football. You can talk about the Steelers-Bears game Saturday, or you could reminisce about really great World Series. Oh, no, no. What is this one here? Uh, that's philosophy. Is that a sport? No, it's more of an attempt to construct a viable... It's the right thing to do in the end. You know, you always regret that you've cut things. There you can see behind Mike, you can see one of the waitresses in that beefy dress costume, beautifully designed again by Jim Acheson. Philosophy for two? Right. Room 259. 259. How do we... Oh, you folks want me to start you off? Oh, really? We'd appreciate that. Okay, well, uh... Look, have you ever wondered... We're sure where John gets his waiter character from. Well, we went to Miami last year and California the year before that. No, I mean, uh, why we're here. On this planet. I just love Mike's character here. Right. Uh, you ever wanted to know what it's all about? Nope. Righty-ho. Uh, well, uh... Whatever happened to all these Python performers? They were so good. They're really brilliant. They've gone on to what? I guess fame and fortune, but they've never been as good as they are here. I mean, the scene between John, Eric, and Mike, I think they're brilliant, each one of them. I've never seen him get to do that sort of thing ever more. Mike has got to go around the world being nice. Eric has got to live in L.A. being clever. And John has got to be in films that pay him lots of money for doing very little work. I mean, John's really good in this. There's an S in Nietzsche. Oh, wow, yes, there is. Do all philosophers have an S in them? Uh, yeah, I think most of them do. Oh. Does that mean Selina Jones is a philosopher? Yeah, right, she could be. She sings about the meaning of life. Yeah, that's right. But I don't think she writes her own material. No. Oh, maybe Schopenhauer writes her material. No. Baccarat writes it. There's no S in Burt Baccarat. Or in Hal David. Who's Hal David? He writes the lyrics. Burt just writes the tunes. Only now, he's married to Carol Bea Seger. A waiter. This conversation isn't very good. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. We do have one today that's not on the menu. It's sort of a specialty of the house, you know? Live organ transplants. Live organ transplants? What's that? The meaning of life... Why we saw the picture of Heidi Slassie, I have no idea. But there we are. Don't play it there! I'll get it! It's Terry Gilliam as Rastafarian Jew, which is rather strange. I don't know why it happens, but they gave me this small part which I decided had to be a Jewish Rastafarian. John and Graham as a couple of desperados. Terry really is a great performer. Oh, I forgot. A Jewish Rastafarian with a Hitler mustache. He's totally convincing. He does these wonderful twitches. It's just so horrible. This scene was actually great fun to do. It was so awful. And the gore is what's so great. I mean... I love Graham's working way. And John, John completely distracted, waiting for something to come into his life, it seems to me. And she does. It's typical of him. He goes down to the public library, sees a few signs up, comes home all full of good intentions. Terry has just given the most wonderful performance of his life here. His hand and wriggling is... See Graham there just reaching over to get the liver out of something else. And I think this is one of the great romances that Python has ever created, the one between John and Terry. It gives a bit of hope to everybody in the world that they'll find that right person sometime, somewhere. It just helps to have no taste. John's strange performance here. Sort of abstracted. He's got sort of cotton wool in his mouth as well, sort of a la Marlon Brando. It was an absurd situation where somebody had to keep handing Graham bits of offal and organs and things, and they never seem to come out of the right place. It's like he reaches up to my shoulder and moves an organ into place. I think when Python moves into Grand Guignol, nobody comes close to us. He has to be, well, dead by the turns of the clock. This scene makes me crazy because I just sitting there watching awful Terry with his curlers and John. I wish he had come back to us. What are you doing after that? I mean, will you stay on your own or is there, well, someone else sort of... It's almost a kind of love scene that you want to avert your eyes because you don't really want to have to watch what goes on between these two. Now, one of my favourite bits of the film coming up, Eric's Galaxy song, which I just think is one of the best things he's done. It's such a lovely song. It's a great selection of really intelligent, wise and funny songs. I'll tell you what. Now, listen to this. Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard or tough, and people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft, and you feel that you've had quite enough. The wall collapses, but you hardly notice, really. this was the only verse that was meant to be shot like this it was then meant to go on to some animation but in fact when we were shooting it i said well let's just do the next verse as well, so that's this verse. But Eric hadn't rehearsed this one, so this verse was just, you see him look at camera occasionally, because he hadn't actually rehearsed this, and we're just walking along sideways to the stars, which is totally not what you're meant to do. This bit was just meant to be a temporary filling. In fact, in the end, Terry never sort of did the rest of the animation. So we had to use this bit. Do I do some animation here? Oh, good. He starts the animation from here, but it was meant to start before the previous verse. But this is called proper animation. I basically drew it out, sorted it, and then gave it to some excellent people who could actually make the thing work. It's a great piece of animation there. I think worth holding it back. Something like that. The cosmic sperm. It's a brilliant piece of animation. I was very keen to do the Big Bang Theory. So this is a time-space continuum about to curve like Einstein had predicted. It's a delightful song. It's got wonderful lyrics. That's the fastest speed there is, so remember when you're feeling very small and insecure. It's very funny to hear all this scene. I keep watching John. He's very doing nothing, but he's doing everything in the background. Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space because there's bugger all down here on Earth. You have to bring the sound of the fridge closing before the fridge actually closes so that it fits it in with the rhythm of the song. Yeah. Yeah. Can we have your liver, then? Yeah, all right. You talked me into it. Eric! And the shooting style changes, folks. Now, this is where Terry Gilliam's original Pirates scene was meant to go originally. It was meant to be just a five-minute animation. That's how it started off. And then Terry gradually took over the studio next door and was shooting more elaborate stuff than we were shooting for the main film. He went on and on. I was a bit too busy to notice, but Terry's piece expanded and expanded until finally it was the 15, 17 minute piece that it is now. And when we played it originally in this position, it just didn't work. It just was too long and just didn't fit in. And people were looking at the film and saying, oh yeah, it's a quite funny film, but that pirate sequence doesn't work. And then Terry said, well, he'd always thought it would work at the beginning. And he got this idea for how it would come back into the film. So that's what we did. We shot this bit and we had the return of the short film. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia. What was that about hats again? Oh, people aren't wearing enough. this true certainly the hat cells have increased but not peripersu as our research enough enough for what purpose can i just ask with reference to your second point when you say souls don't develop because people become distracted has anyone noticed that building there before no this scene was going to be part of the whole permanent insurance sequence as the building comes into the big glass city, we were then gonna cut inside to this scene, and this scene would then go on, and then we would cut outside and they would start firing, and in through the window would come the ancient pirates. And because the film wasn't sitting happily at this position, when we pulled it out, we were able to put that scene in there on its own. And it worked really nicely. I'm trying to remember. I think I shot the crushing of the building after we decided to pull it out on the Crimson Permanent out of the main film. And it just became another way of ending that little sequence. When we came to shoot this scene, we originally, Harry, our production designer, wanted to use the same restaurant location that we had for the philosophical conversation. And I kept on saying, no, I think it's got to be bigger. I couldn't think why. I looked at my little drawings and I thought it had got sort of a very big restaurant on two levels as well. Eventually I went all the way around London with Harry looking for likely looking restaurants. Eventually we got to the RAC club and said, yeah, it's more like this. Huge restaurant. Harry said, oh, I know where we can do it. So we did it at Portland Street Bands. What was interesting about Creosote was originally when it was written, Terry was trying to convince me to play Creosote. Thank God I didn't because Terry's absolutely brilliant at it. I think they felt confident that I could do projectile vomiting and general grotesqueness, but Terry's performance was wonderful. Now, Mr. Creosote here, I think I should have listened to Jim Atchison. Jim had designed this costume. I had a body cast for it, and the sculptor designed the shape and everything. Then I pushed Jim to go a little bit bigger, and I think Jim's original thoughts were right. We also had a sequence of Mr. Creosote outside the restaurant, walking along with his stomach on a pram, on a wheelbarrow. which for some reason we didn't use. But again, you can see that clip on the DVD. This scene just started. I wrote on a piece of paper, a scene in the worst possible taste. I didn't know where it was going to go. And then it sort of went to a better, how are you feeling better, better get a bucket. And then it went on from there. And in fact, when Mike read the scene out to the script reading, nobody laughed. Nobody thought it was funny. And it got put on the rejects pile. No, we weren't going to do it. And then about a month later, John rang up and said, I'll take a little plum or something. It'll bring a smile to your face. I've just been reading that. Mr. Crear said, sketched, I think it could work rather well. What John had realized was that the waiter was the funny character. John then came up with the wafer-thin mint. A new bucket for Monsieur. Now, you can see the vomit there. That one there was from the first day shooting when instead of having it, oh, now watch here. I didn't open my mouth in time. And the vomit is coming from the other side of my face. It's not actually coming from my mouth. We found that it didn't really work because you've got a shadow on the vomit once it started streaming. So our special effects guy got a standby thing where I had something going into my mouth, so it was actually coming out of my mouth, which was better. The vomit was made of, well, it was Russian salad, vegetable soup. I think we had about 90 gallons of it in a big bath on the set. And as it took four days to shoot this sequence, It was fine at the beginning, but by the end of the fourth day, under the lights and everything, the Russian salad and vegetable soup was beginning to smell exactly like it looked like. It was revolting. And yet, even though it was so disgusting, all the extras, we asked the volunteers to have the stuff thrown at them because we had a catapult linked up. which can shove about 15 gallons at once. And that's with the new system that's actually coming from my mouth, a little tube. And Carol is just wonderful in this scene. It's my favorite thing that she does. Perhaps you're not happy with the service? No, no, no complaints. It's just that we have to go. I'm having rather a heavy period. And we have a train to catch. Ah. Oh, yes, yes, of course, we have a train to catch. And I don't want to start... Everyone's reactions. Madam, perhaps we should be going? Farewell, monsieur. I just can't imagine anyone but Carol doing that somehow. She's so, she carries off that kind of thing with such verve. It was always just sort of great to get people not to react to these things, not to do terrible reactions. And again, it's scenes like Creosote that really makes you feel good to be a python. To have somehow been in some small way part of, Adding this to the culture of the 20th century. Originally, I had a fish coming out of my mouth, but we'd had to do this about 20 times because John kept corpsing for some reason. Eventually, I couldn't put the fish in anymore, so I had to use a bit of pineapple. Oh, sir, it's only a tiny little thin one. Now, fuck off, I'm full. Oh, sir. It's only a waffer thin. Yep. I couldn't eat another thing. I'd absolutely... This was John's inspiration, the wafer-thin mint. Just one. Just one. Just the one. John kept on laughing at this point. I think it was take 20 or something. Bon appétit. Mmm. So this is when he explodes. We had an inflatable body for the first bit of the explosion. In fact, you never see him explode. I never thought it was going to work. You just see him blowing up, and then Julian, who's editing, just put in a couple of flash frames, and you read it as an explosion. There it is, two flash frames, and then you go to all this gunge being hurled across. This isn't... Oh, the special effects man put that wonderful pumping heart in it, which is a plus, and the dangling watch chain. Now, Julian always had the idea to have this bit at the end of the film.

The Meaning of Life, Part 6B. The Meaning of Life. You know, Maria, Now, this is all one take from the beginning here. It's as long as a piece of film is. I think it's about three and a half minutes. It's just one take right through all the cleaning lady's little poem and then going to Eric and then following Eric and then going out into the street with Eric and following him up the road. It's all one take. It's quite a tour de force. But it didn't teach me nothing, I recall. And the Library of Congress, you'd have thought, would hold some key. Of course, the whole place stank by this time. And they had a wedding the next day, so I hope they got their place clean. I had to find some clue. I worked there from nine to six, read every volume through, but it didn't teach me nothing about life's mystery. I just kept getting older, and it got more difficult to see. Till eventually me eyes went and me arthritis got bad. So now I'm cleaning up in here. But I can't be really sad. Because you see, I feel that life's a game. You sometimes win or lose. And though I may be down right now, at least I don't work for Jews. I don't know. That's funny. It's like just racism coming out of the blue. Winning your audience over. They're just totally extraneous racism just suddenly. I love this drift across to Eric. As for me, if you want to know what I think, I'll show you something. Come with me. It's still one take from the start of the cleaning lady giving her life story. Come on, don't be shy. The grand entrance. Mind the stairs, all right? An age of civic architecture that doesn't exist anymore, really. I think this will help explain. go out into the street. Come along, come along. Over here. The editor put on this nice car squeal. more interesting. I think this is where the film ran out so we had to do a little mix. So you can imagine this is at the end of the film. I think it would be really good. Eric did this so well. It's just this magical place. cottage just set in a park and there was no road to it and no nothing pigeons sitting on the roof you can't actually see them on this dvd one day my mother she put me on her knee and she said to me gaston my son the world is a beautiful place you must go into it and love everyone Try to make everyone happy and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter. Well, it's not much of a philosophy, I know. Well, there are the pigeons. You can see them there. The doves. I can live my own life in my own way if I want to. Fuck off. Don't come following me. The Meaning of Life, Part 7. Death.

burying somebody off the beach. This man is about to die. In a few moments now, he will be killed. For Arthur Jarrett is a convicted criminal who has been allowed to choose the manner of his own execution. I mean, the sequence of Graham running and being pursued by bare-chested babes was one of the the deaths that we had been talking about doing in the version of the film that involved the um court case and these various executions and this was one of them charles herbert runcy mccadam janet you have been convicted by 12 good persons and true of the crime of first-degree making of gratuitous... It's interesting watching the film because part of the running-around sequence takes place in Chad Thames, which was then a derelict area, which became a... Oh, God. Sorry, I can't speak anymore. I just need to concentrate on the images. Oh, these lovely girls. They were so beautiful. All of them, they were just so lovely. He comes in love with all of them. Where are these girls now, we ask ourselves. They're just so gay, aren't they? We never got into the Freudian interpretation of Graham, a professed homosexual, being pursued by bare-chested women to his death. The way the girls just brush their hands. This is me, isn't it? Oh, animation. In some ways, I wish I had done the artwork a little bit better on this. I don't want to end it all. Goodbye! Goodbye! I've always liked the idea, but I still think it works. The mass suicide of Autumn. Oh, no! I think if I were to do it again, I might change the artwork and do a better job. But I was too busy making a live-action short film. Mommy! bring in some friends to do the artwork. It's a lot of leaves to make. It's the timing, of course. Wonderful. It was interesting, and I really had to bring in more help than normal on the animation. So even when you see the figure of the Grim Reaper rising up out of the grave, that's proper animation. And so I had to bring in truly talented and experienced people for a change. Now, for this next sequence, for some reason, I insisted on John being death here, and it was so cold, the rain was horizontal, and John was, and I thought, well, it has to be John, because he's such a distinguished shape. Of course, it could be anybody, actually. But John was standing there, and instead of being furious, he was actually laughing, because he thought it was so awful. It's so cold. Yes? Is it about the hedge? Look, I'm awfully sorry. I am the Grim Reaper. Who? The Grim Reaper. Yes, I see. I am Death. Yes, well, the thing is, we've got some people from America for dinner tonight. Who is it, darling? It's a Mr. Death or something. He's come about the reaping. I don't think we need any at the moment. Hello. Well, don't leave him hanging around outside, darling. Ask him in. Darling, I don't think it's quite the moment. Do come in. Come along in. Come and have a drink, do. Come on. It's one of the little men from the village. Come in, please. This is Howard Katzenberg from Philadelphia. And his wife, Debbie. Hello there. And these are the Portland Smithes, Jeremy and Fiona. Good evening. This is Mr. Death. Well, do get Mr. Death a drink, darling. Yes. Mr. Death is a reaper. The Grim Reaper. Hardly surprising in this weather. So he's still a reaper on here, do you, Mr. Death? I always find it very strange playing the American, having to try to do an American accent. It's harder than you think, especially when I've got one. We were just talking about some of the awful problems facing the third... And Michael is very attractive, isn't he? Eric, though, of course, is the babe. I'm afraid we don't have any beer. Terry's always just such an old tart. I am not of this world. In order for him to be able to walk into the middle of the table, it was very simple. He just had the table cut away so he could walk into the middle of it. I'm not sure that Mike's character is just such a wonderful baby. Well, isn't that extraordinary? We were just talking about death only five minutes ago. It's the only time I got to play a sort of, like a halfway... Sexy woman. I mean, not particularly about the blousey, but it's very hard directing when I was dressed in the silk dress and made up. Ah, no. Obviously not. Let me just tell you something, Mr. Death. You don't. Just one moment. I'd like to express on behalf of everybody here what a really unique experience this is. Yes, we're so delighted that you dropped in, Mr. Death. Can I just finish, please? Mr. Death, is there an afterlife? Mike's expression there, the one who's asked the right question, he does. I'm in satisfaction. Can I just say this at this time, please? Silence! i have come for you you mean to take you away that is my purpose the extraordinary thing about john who is inside there it's not just john cleese's voice he is death he seemed to be the most comfortable, the most happy I've ever seen him inside this sack of stuff. Because he had to manipulate this hand, which he had some sort of controls. But he just found himself on another temporal plane when he was in there. And maybe, I don't know what John gets up to at home. Maybe he does this sort of thing at night, puts on shrouds and pretends to be death. Dead! All of us? I thought it was the most thankless task of being inside there, because anybody could have done it, but John was wanting to do it. He wanted to do it. He insisted. And once he was in there, he didn't want to come out. Quiet, Englishman. You're all so fucking pompous. None of you have got any balls. Can I ask you a question? What? How can we all have died at the same time? She's asked the right question again. Clever one, you see. One of the great moments when he points to the salmon mousse. The salmon mousse. Darling, you didn't use canned salmon, did you? John was rather pleased with the articulated finger that he could... He had it on that little handle. If you squeezed the handle, he articulated the finger. That's what John loved doing, that finger. Look at that. I think the great thing about John doing it is his timing is exquisite. And probably if one had got a performer in there, they wouldn't have moved or their timing wouldn't have been as good. I mean, it's like when we did Holy Grail and John was the Black Knight. Once again, inside of a black space that nobody could see it was him. And he loved it. Mike's great improvised line here. Hey, I didn't even eat the moose. which wasn't in the script it's one of the few bits of improvisation a strange looking house i'm not sure what it was meant to be it's on the yorkshire moors idea of the death party getting into their cars They're far too bourgeois, so then you have the ghost cars. Oh. Great tunnel towards the light. That's just done with about three or four layers that I just kept turning on themselves and mixing it together. It worked. Cheap, but effective. Behold, paradise. Paradise is a holiday inn. Well, would you believe it? Hello. Welcome to heaven. Excuse me. Could you just sign here, please, sir? Thank you. There's a table for you through there in the restaurant. For the ladies. Off to life and bids. Thank you. Happy Christmas. Oh, is it Christmas today? Of course, madam. It's Christmas every day in heaven. Oh, how about that? And the idea here was kind of like a walk-down. We see people from various different parts in the film. All the kids there for every spare mistake of the Zulu Wars, people, the girls, first World War characters.

to be a show i just love the idea of it being this sort of 1930s kitsch the orchestra coming up on a praise and there's this huge stairway good evening ladies and gentlemen it's truly a real honorable experience to be here this evening a very wonderful and warm and emotional moment for all of us And I'd like to sing a song for all of you. It's Christmas in heaven. All the children sing. The angels, of course. They've all got false breasts, of course. They're a bit in a quasi-mood. Oh, the angels there. The girls would want to show their own breasts, but they didn't mind. This was one of those expensive shops that we had to make a swimming pool. I love these female Santa Clauses with exposed bosoms. This was a very complex shop with the TV here. Again, it'd be easy to do that, but it's very complex. We go into this other TV as well, so we've got several things. It was just sort of a nightmare with the girls treading on the lights because if they trodden the light we'd have to start the whole thing again. And then there's a writhe, the girls being flowed, and where on earth can the sequence go from here? They get switched off. Well, that's the end of the film. Now here's the meaning of life. Thank you, Brigitte. Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. And finally, here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises. This sequence seems a bit old-fashioned now, because pictures of penises and things don't mean anything now, but this was made in 1982, 83. It seems kind of relevant then, but... Things changed in the 80s and 90s. ...being stabbed with knitting needles by gay presidential candidates, vigilante groups strangling chickens, armed bands of theater critics exterminating mutant goats. Where's the fun in pictures? Oh, well, there we are. Here's the theme music. Good night. There's the ends of the television set. and Eric's wonderful song. And there it is, the meaning of life. Simon Jones, Patricia Quinn, Carol Cleveland, Judy Lowe, Annie McLaughlin, Mark Holmes, Valerie Whittington. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see are moving at a million miles a day. In an outer spiral... We come at 40,000 miles an hour of the galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our galaxy itself contains 100 billion stars. It's 100,000 light years side to side. It bulges in the middle 16,000 light years thick, but out by us it's just 3,000 light years wide. We're 30,000 light years from galactic central point. We go round every 200 million years. And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.

on expanding and expanding in all of the directions it can whiz as fast as it can go the speed of light you know 12 million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is so remember when you're feeling very small and insecure how amazingly unlikely is your birth and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space cause there's bugger all down here on earth