Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [92]
Monday, November 19th
William is three today. The day when he was born now seems so remote. Those were the days when everyone seemed to be having kids. Now everyone seems to have mellowed and settled. After all the excitement we’ve all calmed down a little. There are not so many babies, there are more little people now.
I took Tom to school, then down to Terry’s for another meeting on the film. Some good stuff from Eric – and some of the pieces I’d written at S’wold went down well, which was encouraging. At lunchtime Terry had a shouting match with John which blew up from nowhere, and the intensity of T’s outburst took even John by surprise. It was all about T feeling oppressed by John’s rather dismissive handling of any suggestion of Terry’s. In fact John is trying to be fairly accommodating, but he does tend to dominate the group more than he used to.
In the afternoon he suddenly had to leave and Terry Gilliam had to leave in order to drive John and Graham in to the Centre. Eric went off to see a film, and Terry and I were left with the fag-end of the afternoon and the dirty coffee cups.
Saturday, November 24th
Drove up to Abbotsley at 50 mph as the government had requested. Most people appeared to be observing the unofficial limit.1 It was rather like being in a slow-motion film.
Tuesday, November 27th
Worked at Terry’s in the morning. A very poor session. We both wrote 75% tripe, and seemed unable to summon up excitement or concentration about the film. The most I could manage was a sketch about Galahad having smelly breath.1 This was the level. But after a lunch of cold spring greens and beans, we decided to call it a day, and went through our mutual morale-boosting act about bad days and good days and the amount we’d done last week, etc, etc. Terry didn’t cheer up much until I dragged him into London.
We parked in Leicester Square, then took in one hour of Pasolini’s Canterbury Tales which Terry G had recommended. Superb recreation of mediaeval England – the kind of style and quality of shooting that we must get in our film, to stop it being just another Carry On King Arthur.
Wednesday, November 28th
Met at TG’s later. He has been reading various fine-looking books on mediaeval warfare, and found that much of the absurd stuff that has already been written for the Holy Grail film has healthy precedents (e.g. taunting one’s opponents and, as a last resort, firing dead animals at them during a siege – both quoted as mediaeval tactics by Montgomery). Then over to John’s for a script meeting.
Mark F was there. The film deal is still not finalised. Apparently our Fairy Godmother, Michael White, is being quite businesslike with us – his cohort, John Goldstone, wants 12½% and a fee for a job whose function we cannot quite pin down, and Michael White wants his name prominently on the credits, plus various controls and final word on appointment of crew, production staff, editing, etc. So Mark has not signed yet. At the same time, Tony Stratton-Smith has come up with an offer of £45,000 from Pink Floyd, so there are alternative sources giving us a stronger hand against White.
Thursday, November 29th, Bradford
Woken by alarm at 7.00. Collected Graham from Belsize Park, and we got down to King’s Cross by 7.30. Joined the rest of the Methuen party for a trip to a literary lunch in Bradford – where we were expected to give some sort of speech, along with Denis Norden, Gyles Brandreth and Leslie Thomas. Breakfast on the train. Jilly Cooper, of the low breasts and alluring smile, was also there.
At Leeds we were met by a coach which took us on to Bradford – a puzzling piece of planning this, as the train went on to Bradford anyway. We drove past a tripe works and into the grey centre of the city, spattered with a light covering of snow. Even since we were last in Bradford for Python filming three years ago, the demolishers have started to attack and replace