Monty Python's Flying Circus

Njorl's Saga - S3-E1

Audio problem: In the 'PC Pan-Am Gives Evidence' sequence (part of Series 3, Show 1), there is a loud, off-camera crash at 16'15", followed by hysterical audience laughter and a Palin visibly trying to stifle a laugh. This is because the heavily-bandaged 'Njorl', who had been replaced at that point by a dummy (enabling his head to be removed in the next scene), fell backwards off the podium, and had to be re-positioned by the crew. Filming presumably stopped, as a cutaway of Njorl appears in the middle of Pan-Am's address. The edit is also very audible, as Palin's speech suddenly plummets in volume.

Njorl's Saga - S3-E1

Deliberate mistake: Eric Idle's 'Stock Exchange Report' (in Series 3, Show 1) has a very obvious edit in the middle. This is a monologue delivered without cutaways, so the jump in the video tape is very easy to spot. Whether this edit indicates material removed or a simple joining together of two takes is unclear. However, since Idle gets drenched with water at the close of the routine (and given that, under BBC constraints, there was no time for drying out), we can assume that he must have made his fluff quite early on in the piece.

Salad Days - S3-E7

Continuity mistake: In the 'Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days' sketch in Series 3, Show 7, the scene suddenly changes from a bright sunny day to a pitch black night - this was apparently due to technical delays, but the effect makes it look like an extension of the 'pretentious director' parody.

The Nude Man - S3-E9

Other mistake: During the "Olympic Hide and Seek Final," Terry Jones, as the Paraguayan, has a little difficulty with his Spanish numbers. Besides mispronouncing many of them, he says "quince," the Spanish number for fifteen, instead of "cinco," the Spanish number for five. He actually has to pause to remember the Spanish number for fourteen, "catorce".

The Ant, an Introduction - S1-E6

Kenny Lust: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the refreshment room here at Bletchley. My name is Kenny Lust and I'm your compère for tonight. You know, once in a while it is my pleasure, and my privilege, to welcome here at the refreshment room, some of the truly great international artists of our time. And tonight we have one such artist. Ladies and gentlemen, someone whom I've always personally admired, perhaps more deeply, more strongly, more abjectly than ever before. A man... Well, more than a man, a god, a great god, whose personality is so totally and utterly wonderful my feeble words of welcome sound wretchedly and pathetically inadequate. Someone whose boots I would gladly lick clean until holes wore through my tongue, a man who is so totally and utterly wonderful, that I would rather be sealed in a pit of my own filth than dare tread on the same stage with him! Ladies and gentlemen... The incomparably superior human being, Harry Fink!
Man: [from offstage.] He can't come!
Kenny Lust: Never mind, he's not all he's cracked up to be.

More quotes from Monty Python's Flying Circus

Trivia: The band "Toad the Wet Sprocket" took their name from a sketch on this show.

Grumpy Scot

More trivia for Monty Python's Flying Circus

Chosen answer: That would be Terry Gilliam, who played a lot of non-speaking roles in the series, and some speaking ones like Cardinal Fang in 'The Spanish Inquisition.' He did all the animation as well, but I'm sure you knew that.

rabid anarchist

More questions & answers from Monty Python's Flying Circus

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