Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [2]
Michael Henshaw. MP’s first accountant, from 1966 to 1974.
Anne Henshaw. Michael’s wife, who took over Python affairs as de facto manager in 1974.
Barry Took. Marty Feldman’s co-writer and the man who helped push Python to the BBC.
Carol Cleveland. Started as glamour girl casting but her talent for well-played, well-timed comedy made her Python’s favourite real woman. She appeared in the films and stage shows as well as the TV series.
Neil Innes. Musician. First worked with MP, TJ and Eric I. on Do Not Adjust Your Set. Indispensable to the Python stage shows. Neil also appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian as well as helping Idle create the Rutles.
Hazel Pethig. Costume designer from episode one of the Monty Python TV series through to Monty Python and the Meaning of Life, thirteen years later.
Julian Doyle. Editor, cameraman, who could turn his hand to any part of the film-making process. Indispensable part of both Python and Gilliam films.
Geoffrey Strachan. Hugely supportive editor at Methuen who encouraged Python to go into print. Also published the Ripping Yarn books.
Tony Stratton-Smith. What Geoffrey Strachan was to Python books, Tony Stratton-Smith was to Python records. Endlessly encouraging founder/proprietor of Charisma Records, who enthusiastically indulged most of Python’s whims and even named a racehorse of his ‘Monty Python’.
Jill Foster. MP and TJ’s agent at Fraser & Dunlop.
John Gledhill. Agent at the Roger Hancock office who looked after Python affairs until 1974.
Mark Forstater. Producer of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
John Goldstone. Producer of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
AT THE BBC
John Howard Davies. Child actor who played Oliver Twist at the age of nine, director of three earliest episodes of Monty Python, then Head of Comedy during the later Ripping Yarns.
James (Jimmy) Gilbert. Producer/director of The Frost Report - MP and TJ’s first TV writing break. Head of Comedy in the latter days of Python, then Head of Light Entertainment Department at the time of Ripping Yarns.
Duncan Wood. Head of Comedy during first three Python series.
Bill Cotton Jnr. Head of Light Entertainment.
Terry Hughes. Director of the hugely popular Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett series. Producer/director of first three Ripping Yarns, until elevated to Head of Variety.
Jim Franklin. Special effects expert on The Frost Report who took over the production and direction of the next four Ripping Yarns after Terry Hughes was promoted.
Alan J.W. Bell. Produced and directed last two Ripping Yarns – ‘Golden Gordon’ and ‘Whinfrey’s Last Case’.
Mark Shivas and Richard Broke. Drama producers who backed TJ and MP and encouraged them to write Secrets (1973).
IN AMERICA
Nancy Lewis. Publicist for Buddah Records who almost single-handedly fought to get Python accepted in America, and became their US manager.
Ina Lee Meibach. Lawyer in New York who organised Python’s battle against ABC TV in 1975.
Al Levinson. Writer, teacher and dramaturg for American Public Theatre who became MP’s good friend and regular correspondent in the late 1970s. Lived in New York and Sag Harbour, with his wife Eve.
Lome Michaels. Producer of Saturday Night Live.
Acknowledgements
I must thank my editor Ion Trewin for reducing mountains to molehills, and Michael Dover at Weidenfeld & Nicolson for his unfailing encouragement. Steve Abbott, my agent, has been a model of sympathy and naked commercial brutality and my wife and family, lured on by curiosity perhaps, have been trusting, realistic and supportive.
The Monty Python team fills these pages and reading through the material made me realise how intricately our lives intertwined. Our differences are not glossed over here but neither is the very close bond of friendship that links, or in Graham Chapman’s case, linked us all together. Last, but certainly not least, I owe enormous thanks to Kath Du Prez who typed up over a million words and not only lived to tell