| David Nicholas Wilkinson
of guerilla films describes how the programmes were 'lost': |
"The second programme has been seen on the BBC a couple of times in the last 25 years. There was a video release in Australia and a Python retrospective at New York’s Museum of Broadcasting in 1989 showed both programmes. A couple of other comedy festivals also screened the programmes and they have been shown on Portuguese TV but nowhere else since.The second film is also important, as it was John Cleese’s last television Python venture."
When shooting the first film the Python team went to visit the remains of one of the concentration camps. Arriving late, officious Germany guides refused to let them enter and an argument erupted to which Graham Chapman yelled to the interpreter "Tell them we’re Jews!" Michael Palin had this to say about the programmes. |
"I was amazed that these two excellent "lost" German
programmes, as they have become known, have had so little exposure. The new locations
for the famous sketches are never less than totally fascinating. Some of the sketches,
especially written for the German audience, did appear on Monty Python Live at the
Hollywood Bowl however there is a great deal of "new" material, which I
think deserves a wider audience. I especially like the final sketch known both as Happy
Valley or The Princess with the Wooden Teeth. The Lumberjack Song,
whilst reworked from the BBC series, has the added twist of being sung by the Austrian
Border Police. The production values of this "mini feature film" are higher than
anything the team did with the BBC and the acting of all the members shows that they are
more than sketch comedians and can sustain acting roles.
"The first
of the two programmes, made entirely on film (unlike the BBC series), was shot in 1971 in
German and has English sub-titles. Despite being screened opposite an England/West Germany
football match the film was well received by both audiences and critics, which lead to the
Python team being invited back in 1972 to record a second film recorded in English.
Graham Chapman said of the programmes: "It was probably
a stage further than any of the BBC TV shows in terms of absurdity and peculiar
starts, and it lacked any sort of thread to keep the audience sane."