Pythons were paid peanuts

NUDGE, nudge, wink, wink – guess how much John Cleese earned as a young Python.

The comic, pictured, picked up £2million in a reunion tour in 2014 – but was rather less well paid in 1969.

Documents reveal the BBC offered him 12 guineas a minute – the equivalent of £5,700 per show.

Michael Palin and Terry Jones got the same amount in the deal for Monty Python’s first run of 13 30-minute shows. Graham Chapman and Eric idle were offered slightly less and there was no mention of Terry Gilliam.

The figures are revealed in papers from Palin’s personal archive, including 50 notebooks of sketches and ideas, that he has donated to the British library.