Monty Python in Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth, Wales, 1979.

From a distant land, came a story of faith and religion

that would shock and divide a nation.

A story so shocking,

it would change the destiny of this small town for nearly three decades.

Until one would rise to power, follow their destiny,

and change the course of history.

All in the name of the one, true Messiah.

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy.

Ooh, right. Sorry, what was the name again?

Brian! Yes, Brian, of course, sorry.

So this is the story of how Monty Python's comedy classic,

The Life Of Brian, the number one comedy film of all time,

came to be banned in Aberystwyth for over 30 years.

And how that ban was finally lifted in the most unusual circumstances.

Erm, cue titles.

Our story begins in Britain in the early 1970s,

which, looking back, was a very different place.

There were strikes, economic hardship, a Cold War,

and let's not mention the haircuts, the clothes and the side-burns.

In fact, there wasn't much to smile about,

except a very unusual comedy show.

Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Its brilliant, irreverent, surreal silliness

left no part of the establishment un-satirised,

and completely revolutionised TV comedy.

The series, Monty Python's Flying Circus, had begun in 1968,

and ran for just over five years,

but made household names of the Pythons.

Our chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear.

Fear and surprise. Our two weapons are fear and surprise.

John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle,

Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.

They're unique comedy developed a huge cult following,

which remains to this day.

It's a comedy that doesn't see anything as out of bounds.

I know it was something that my parents didn't like, but I did,

which kind of made it more rebellious.

It sort of just destroyed all the sappy comedy,

the kind of more lightweight comedy,

the more jump in the air and have fun comedy.

And it just put a machine gun to all of that.

They're first original film was Monty Python And The Holy Grail,

which was based upon the Arthurian legend.

# Arthur, King Arthur

# That legendary king #

Then, in 1977, the team reunited to make their next project.

Originally titled, Jesus Christ, Lust For Glory,

it was clear The Life Of Brian

was going to be their most controversial project to date.

When we started thinking about it, I can remember thinking,

"I bet you we're going to get some religious nutcases

"taking pot shots at us."

But then, as we went on, and it became clear what it was about,

I kind of relaxed a bit, because I thought,

it obviously wasn't about questioning belief,

it's about the priesthood really.

Flames lit.

The Life Of Brian, the story of an ordinary man mistaken as a Messiah,

was intended to lampoon the religious fervour

of New Testament era Judea.

Shooting took place in Tunisia in the summer of 1978,

and during production, the stars seemed unconcerned

about the controversial subject matter of the film.

We had no idea what it was going to be like. No idea at all.

We seem to be involved in making history,

and what we intend to do is put a sort of modern consciousness on it.

You get sort of suburban attitudes in AD 33,

and it's about how they're complaining,

and grumpy and unpleasant.

Cut. That's fine. Enough. Cut.

As philosophers, we're pretty nth rate.

I mean, we're not very high powered as philosophers or social critics.

So our only claim to people's attention

is that we can sometimes make them laugh.

But within that context, we have attitudes, I suppose.

It's our revolution. We can all do it together!

Among the cast, alongside the Pythons,

was an unknown young Welsh actress, Sue Jones-Davies,

who was cast in the film, much to her surprise.

I think somebody had dropped out,

because they felt it wasn't feminist enough,

because she takes her clothes off.

Let me explain. Your son is a born leader.

Those people out there are following him.

I was just a jobbing actress,

and because I had the same agent as Cleese, I was put forward.

It was chance. Life is just chance.

If I'd been with another agent, I wouldn't have heard about it.

But I heard about it and I was sent, and I went on the bus.

I remember going, I can't remember the bus number,

but I remember reading the script and I was in fits of laughter.

The conductor said, "What are you doing?"

And I said, "I'm on my way to this audition and it's so funny."

And he said, "Good luck." I got off and went for the audition

and eventually found out I'd got the part.

More of Sue later.

1979, and as Margaret Thatcher comes to office in the UK,

The Life Of Brian opens first in America,

and immediately provokes complaints and outrage

from a range of religious groups

for its supposedly blasphemous portrayal

of the life of Jesus Christ.

Actually, the first people to protest against the film

was the New York Association of Rabbis.

That was a surprise because, you know,

rabbis complaining about this film?

I wasn't aware it was going to be quite that controversial

because you don't see the whole picture.

You do a scene and you're not seeing the overall finished product,

so the bits you were doing, we just thought they were fun.

I suppose I was a bit naive to think it wasn't going to be controversial.

The Python team were suddenly embroiled in a controversy

that would make the film infamous the world over.

Religious leaders across the globe condemned the film,

urging it to be banned, and cinemas showing the film to be picketed.

The Monty Python team have taken horrible advantage of the Bible

in practically every way you can think of,

culminating in the crucifixion scene,

which they transform into a song and dance act.

You can see why people are angry.

# Always look on the bright side of life #

I think they thought, here's a comedy film,

Monty Python and Jesus is bound to be an incendiary combination.

It must be blasphemous.

They're mocking everything we know about.

This was from people who hadn't really seen the film.

I think we'd been a bit smarter thanthey thought.

At the height of the controversy, two of the Pythons appeared

on a late night BBC 1 chat show to defend the film.

With us tonight, another one third of Monty Python,

John Cleese and Michael Palin.

They provided one of the most memorable TV debates of all time.

That was when I went on with John

and talked to Bishop Mervyn Stockwood and Malcolm Muggeridge.

We actually explored the idea of doing a comedy film about Jesus,

with all the jokes about someone trying to book a table for 12

at the Last Supper.

"Saturday night, I'll do you three fours."

"Come in tomorrow "No, it has to be tonight." And all those jokes.

But the more that we read about Jesus

and the background to his life,

it was quite obvious there was very little to ridicule in Jesus's life.

And therefore, we were on to a loser.

They treated us like idiots, you know.

I wasn't vicar of the university church for nothing.

I'm familiar with undergraduate humour.

And I'm also governor of a mentally deficient school.

There's nothing in this little squalid number

that could possibly affect anybody

because it's too 10th-rate for that.

I know you're going to say Brian isn't Jesus, but that's rubbish.

That's unfair. A lot of people looking in

will think we have ridiculed Christ, physically.

Christ is played by an actor, Ken Colley.

He speaks the words from the Sermon on the Mount.

He's treated respectfully.

The camera then pans to the back of the crowd

to someone who shouts, "Speak up" because they cannot hear him.

It that undermines one's faith in Christ...

Of course it doesn't undermine it.

I started off by saying that this is such a 10th-rate film

that I don't believe it'd disturb... You started with an open mind.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS AND APPLAUDS

You have succeeded in reducing something

which has inspired the greatest art

into something which is presented in terms of the lowest art.

That's where they got it completely wrong.

We had been thoughtful about it because we'd read up

and taken it quite seriously.

The film was based on things that we'd read about the period.

There was Messiah fever in Judea at the time,

so lots of people were being mistaken for Messiahs.

I'm not the Messiah.

I say you are, Lord, and I should know - I've followed a few.

All you've done is to make a lot of people on a cross

singing a music hall song.

I mean, it's so disgusting, when you think of it.

You keep making the assumption that we are ridiculing Christ

and Christ's teaching. And I say that we are not.

The message is... What are the words?

"Work it out for yourself."

Don't let anyone tell you what to do.

I thought, yes, this is what I would've said about religion

or people's beliefs that are a bit, to me, misguided or...

Again, there's the spirit of what religion's about

or belief's about, and there's these awful things

that are put on top of it that have nothing to do with love, compassion

and treating each other well.

So I felt, yes, right on!

I kind of went with the whole of it.

But many people did not share Sue's view of the film.

Today, it seems odd a movie could be so contentious.

But why did The Life Of Brian and its subject matter

rankle so many people?

It's very difficult for a non-Christian to understand

how a Christian would respond to a film like that.

It clearly was going to be offensive to Christians.

A Christian has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ

and it's a bit like if you had your husband and your wife