CONFESSIONS OF A Circus PIN-UP
There was the flirty one, the shirty one and the one who drank too much... in her new autobiography, ‘seventh Python’ Carol Cleveland reveals what her co- stars were really like when the cameras were turned off
Standing around a coffee table in a BBC rehearsal room in 1969 were six men who would change my life. They were established on TV as comedy writers and performers, and I was a fan of their shows, but I’d never met them. I hadn’t even done much comedy. So, I was nervous. Plus, I had to read the script several times to make sense of it. The sketches ended strangely or not at all. I hoped all would become clear at this first read-through for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
The boys welcomed me with open arms and immediately put my fears to rest. John Cleese was flirty, Michael Palin shy, Terry Jones very jolly, Eric Idle a bit aloof, Graham Chapman very polite, Terry Gilliam loud and manic.
I was only contracted for the first four episodes, but they insisted I become their main actress; I was known as the unofficial ‘Seventh Python’. I appeared in all four TV series, the films and most of the live shows, and will perform with them again at this summer’s reunion.
At first, it was John I got on best with and who made me laugh the most. He was the most logical, a bit moody and certainly complex. He would change the most during the course of Python. I can also say he’s a ‘breast’ man, judging by the way I’d catch him standing behind me looking down my cleavage.
Graham was lovely, but his drinking could be worrying. Sometimes when we were recording we’d have to do a scene several times. I was surprised he got away with it, but such was the power of Python at the BBC.
I think the BBC rued the day they gave the Pythons so much freedom, as there were complaints from religious and homophobic groups. One woman wrote in that one of the Pythons was homosexual – Graham Chapman – and quoted the Bible that ‘a man who lies with another man should be put to death’. So, Eric wrote back to her: ‘We’ve found out who it is and we’ve taken him out and killed him.’
Being with the boys on the TV series was great fun, but for me the best times were when we all went on the road for live shows. After the third series in 1973, we flew to Canada for a tour and, by the time we landed, we’d all had our fair share of alcohol and
were getting rather silly. As we waited for our luggage, Terry Gilliam leapt on the carousel and lay down. Eric and I joined him – three seemingly dead bodies going around between the suitcases. We got a lot of laughs – John was not amused. Graham was the most outrageous. Late one night we returned to our hotel and decided to take a quick dip in the pool. The girls put on bathing suits while the boys stripped to their undies, except for Graham, who stripped completely. After our swim, we wrapped towels around ourselves, except for Graham… who streaked. We followed him as he dashed dripping naked along the corridors. Just as he reached the lobby, an elderly couple came through the revolving doors and stopped dead in their tracks. Graham zoomed past and disappeared, leaving us trying to convince the couple that this wasn’t one of those hotels.
At the Hollywood Bowl, we were stars. Later, at a party for us at Steve Martin’s Beverly Hills mansion, I found Michael sitting with his feet in the pool, happily humming. Around him half a dozen nubile would-be starlets desperately tried to gain his attention by leaping in and then coming up minus their bikini tops. Oh, poor Michael!
At that first Monty Python read-through 45 years ago, I arrived confused and was none the wiser when I left the rehearsal room. That evening I called my mother to say: ‘You know, I’m not sure this will last more than five episodes.’
How wrong I was. © Carol Cleveland, 2014; PomPoms Up! by Carol Cleveland (Dynasty Press, €15.20).