SAY NO MORE, SQUIRE!

Candid Photography (aka Nudge Nudge) A pub. Eric Idle asks Terry Jones (left and inset) if he has ever ‘slept with a lady’. Double

entendres ensue… Perhaps Idle’s most famous contribution to the Flying Circus. The sketch was preceded by a short link in which Cleese interviews schoolboys Palin, Jones and Idle in the playground. The interview ends with the boys saying they want to see Nudge Nudge, a sketch young Idle has written. In fact, he had written the sketch for Ronnie Barker. It had been rejected, with Idle admitting that on paper the sketch did seem to lack jokes, but when he subsequently read it out at a script meeting, the reaction was totally different and the Pythons fell about laughing. The sketch would become a favourite in the live shows. Idle has revealed that Elvis Presley was a huge Python fan and this was his favourite sketch. Elvis’s then girlfriend, Linda Thompson, said that he would recite the sketch and would even address people as ‘Squire’ in its honour.