Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [221]
1 A deadpan lecture about slapstick, with demonstrations, originally written by Terry J, myself and Robert Hewison for an Oxford Revue in 1963.
1 Encouraged by Terry Gilliam and Julian Doyle, I was about to become part-owner of a property at 14/15 Neal’s Yard, in Covent Garden, which we hoped would become a production base for Python and individual work. André Jacquemin’s sound studio, in which I already had a financial interest, would be an important part of the mix.
1 The artist Chris Orr was introduced to me by Robert, who was a big fan of both Chris Orr and John Ruskin.
1 A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick was the title of the Amnesty extravaganza.
1 Signford was an off-the-shelf company and my first, and last, publishing enterprise.
2 Artists who called themselves ‘living sculptures’. They were just beginning to make a wider name for themselves.
1 Ipi Tombi, a South African musical about a boy looking for work in the mines of Johannesburg. It was said to be the first musical performed by nude actors in London.
2 Jonathan Lynn, film director. Creator and co-author of Yes Minister. Cambridge contemporary of Eric Idle, whom he later directed in Nuns on the Run.
1 shared the house with Terry J – and, later, our families.
2 Garson Kanin (1912–99), New York-based actor, writer, director and author of very readable Hollywood novel Moviola.
1 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
1 Yvonne Innes, Neils wife. Their boys, Miles and Luke, and ours had become firm friends.
1 Charles Knode, tall, droll, costume designer friend of Hazel’s. After the flying saucer sequence in Life of Brian he utters the immortal words’You jammy bastard!’
2 Mollie Kirkland, stage manager.
1 Terry’s daughter. She was three at the time, and is still an artist!
1 Despite Piero’s death and the disappearance from Oxford Street of the Academy Cinema, the Pavilion, now run by his friend Vasco and his son, remains our family’s favourite. It has moved to Poland Street.
1 Our one-act plays. Underwood’s Finest Hour is set in a labour room with a mother straining to give birth and a doctor straining to listen to a particularly exciting Test Match. Buchanan’s Finest Hour is about a marketing idea gone awry. The cast, including the Pope, are trapped inside a packing crate throughout.
2 Norman Yardley, Yorkshire and England Captain. Cricketer of the Year 1948.
3 During my ‘gap’ year in 1962, I joined a local amateur dramatic society – the Brightside and Carbrook Co-Operative Players. Won Best Perf. (Gentleman) at Co-Op (N.E. Section) Drama Festival in Leeds in 1962.
1 Ian collaborated on material for Barry Humphries’ stage show.
1 Richard Guedalla, a neighbour.
1 Joint Industry Committee for Television Advertising Research.
2 She got the job.
1 Robin Denselow, Guardian music journalist, BBC documentary maker and reporter. Lived a few doors down from us with his first wife Bambi.
1 A Cambridge contemporary of John and Graham, Jo was in the cast of Cambridge Circus with them and later in At Last the 1948 Show.
1 Clive, later Lord Hollick, and Simon Albury were friends from Nottingham University.
2 About Python in New York.
1 The set had been built in the mid-sixties for the hugely successful musical, Oliver by Lionel Bart. Directed by Carol Reed (The Third Man).
1 Woodward and Bernstein’s book on Nixon. Famous for Deep Throat’s disclosures about the Watergate break-in.
1 TV presenter and journalist. Originally asked to front Film ’73 for a few weeks, he made it his own private domain until Film ’98.
1 Elaine Carew, worked closely with Maggie Weston on make-up for Python and Gilliam films.
1 Focus puller. Worked as lighting cameraman with Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys) and has since shot two of the Harry Potter films.
1 Robin, younger brother of my childhood friend Graham Stuart-Harris. A doctor. Married Barbara, a New Zealander.
1 Fred Zinnemann’s film about Lillian Hellman, starring Vanessa Redgrave.
2 Denholm caused consternation