Cliff Fluet

In a couple of weeks I’ll be interviewing none other than John Lloyd for my podcast, The Laughter Effect. Few people alive have shaped British comedy more profoundly or more positively. As co-creator and producer of Not the Nine O’Clock News, the driving force behind Blackadder and Spitting Image, co-writer on the original radio Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the long-time mastermind of QI, John has an almost unmatched gift for spotting talent, sharpening ideas, and turning sharp observation into lasting laughter. Better still, he’s a genuinely lovely man. To mark the occasion, here’s one of the sharpest sketches he helped bring to the screen: “The General Synod’s Life of Christ” (often called the “Monty Python Worshippers” or “Life of Python” sketch) from Series 1, Episode 6 of Not the Nine O’Clock News, broadcast on 20 November 1979. It is a near-perfect inversion of the real-life televised debate that had taken place just eleven days earlier. On 9 November 1979, Friday Night, Saturday Morning (hosted by Tim Rice) pitted John Cleese and Michael Palin against Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood, over the supposed blasphemy of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Muggeridge, in particular, was at his most withering and self-righteous; the Bishop was scarcely more measured. The exchange has gone down as a classic of cultural clash - and, to many, a public-relations disaster for the Church’s representatives. The sketch, which John co-wrote, is one of the cleverest and best-timed parodies ever committed to British television. Good day.