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1 Comedy actor and writer. Linked closely with Marty Feldman.

1 Sean Kenny, one of the cool young stage designers of the 1960s, died in 1973, aged 41.

2 Hang Down Your Head and Die, an Oxford University theatre show about capital punishment. Terry J, Robert and I were in the cast. It came to the Comedy Theatre, London, in 1964, produced by Michael Codron.

3 He later wrote The Henry Root Letters, amongst other things.

4 The Love Show was a theatrical documentary about attitudes to sex through the ages. Brainchild of Willie D, who brought in Terry J to write it. Never produced.

1 Comedy writer (‘Doctor’ series), actor, terrific fan of modern jazz and bullfighting.

1 Al Alvarez (b. 1929) is a poet, critic and poker player. He was a keen squash player too, and most of our conversations took place half-naked in the changing rooms.

1 Mark Forstater, an American film producer living in London, originally introduced to us by Terry Gilliam.

1 Christine, a neighbour and the wife of Richard Guedalla, my occasional squash partner.

2 Adrian is a poet, playwright and novelist. His wife Celia started the Ripping Yarns secondhand bookshop, a treasure trove on the Archway Road, north London.

1 Hazel Pethig, Python costume designer; Andrew was her partner at the time.

2 Successful West End producer for, among others, Michael Frayn, Harold Pinter, Simon Gray and Alan Ayckbourn. Gave me my first and last West End break in the Oxford Experimental Theatre production of Hang Down Your Head and Die, in 1964 when I was 21.

1 John Goldstone was a film producer brought in by Michael White. I’d first met him at Barry Took’s in the days before Python.

1 National Film Finance Corporation, government-sponsored agency with money to invest in British films.

1 British character actress and author of two bestselling novels, The Sioux and The Gold-Tipped Pfizer. I’d grown up with her wonderfully distinctive voice on the radio.

2 He’d just been promoted to Head of Comedy.

1 Managing Director, Television.

1 The result of petrol shortages after the Arab-Israeli war.

1 Prompted by my reading out a sketch about a knight using coconuts instead of a horse, we agreed around this time to investigate the King Arthur story as a basis for the new film.

1 Journalist and co-writer of Now!, the TV pop show produced by TWW in Bristol, on which I spent six months as a presenter in 1965—6.

1974

Friday, January 4th

The industrial trouble with the mines and railwaymen has now eclipsed the oil crisis. The government decided on an all-out confrontation with the miners and the railwaymen. Mr Heath’s bluff with the three-day week has been called. Now both sides are sweating it out, while the country gets darker and colder.

Met with Graham and John Gledhill at lunchtime. Graham is going to assemble a trial script for Jimmy Gilbert at the BBC to satisfy their need to see what Python may be like without John. A humiliating experience to start the year with. John Gledhill has at last some money from the Canadian tour – £350 each, but JG has managed to get us assurances of £1,500 each for a week at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in February.

Left JG’s in a hurry to get back home to collect Thomas and take him to the Mermaid to see Treasure Island. I wanted to have a pee, but decided to wait till I got home. I must have underestimated the urgency of the situation, because no sooner in the car than I wanted to go desperately. Every traffic light was agony. I drove my Mini like a stunt driver, passing whole traffic jams, overtaking on the inside, outside and middle in my agony to get back. But I made it, rushed in and hung over the lavatory in a cold sweat, eventually being forced to lie on the bathroom floor, still in my long black coat. Thomas was sympathetic. I told him I had a stomach ache and he patted my doubled-up shoulders with kindly consideration and said that he gets stomach aches as well.

We set off at 2.00 and arrived about five minutes late at the Mermaid. An