"Monty Python's Flying Circus"
A Book at Bedtime (1973)

Director:

Ian MacNaughton

Writers:

Graham Chapman (creator) &
John Cleese (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969)

Original Air Date:

11 January 1973 (Season 3, Episode 12)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

'A Book at Bedtime'; 'Red Gauntlet'; Kamikaze Highlanders; No time to lose; Penguins; BBC pro-gramme planners; Unexploded Scotsmen; 'Spot the Looney'; Rival documentaries; 'Dad's Doctors'; Dad's Pooves'. |

Plot Keywords:

Penguin | Doctor | Suicide Bomber | Surrealism | Eccentric

Cast

Graham Chapman	...	Technician / Sapper MacDonald / Professor Ken Roswell / Sir Walter Scott / Angus Tinker
John Cleese	...	Second Reader / Captain / 'Penguins' Presenter / Second Major / First Producer
Eric Idle	...	Book at Bedtime' Voice Over / Third Reader / Second Soldier / 'No Time to Lose Advice Centre' Consultant / Dr. Lewis Hoad / Swedish Person / First Major / 'Spot the Loony Presenter
Terry Jones	...	RSM Urdoch / Professor / Gurt Svensson / Charles Dickens / A Forestry Expert
Michael Palin	...	Jeremy Toogood / 'McKamikaze Highlanders' Voice Over / Scots Soldier / Bowler Hatted Man / Dr. Peaches Bartkowicz / Dame Elsie Occluded / Second Producer
Terry Gilliam	...	No-Time Toulouse Narrator / Second Technician / Miles Yellowbird

Trivia:

There was originally going to be a sketch entitled "Party Political Broadcast" (choreographed). However, it was cut from this episode, and also the trailers ("Dad's Doctors" and "Dad's Pooves") at the end were accidentally cut from the U.S. DVD release. The two trailers are present in European VHS and DVD releases.

Movie Connections:

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Philistines

It ought to have opened as per the script with Tory and Labour speeches delivered by cabinet ministers and MPs all in dancing togs and choreographed like a Thirties musical. As it is, we have Prime Minister Heath tacitly avouched "a loony" in a television game show which could be the national pastime, as political dance routines are the national art. Spot The Loony is only an entertainment and a relaxation from the wearisome task of putting up with drop-dead philistines, the Queen's Own McKamikaze Highlanders. "Now here's the method. RSM Murdoch will lull the enemy into a false sense of security by giving them large quantities of money, a good home, and a steady job. Then, when they're upstairs with the wife, Sapper MacDonald will hurl himself at the secret documents, destroying them and himself."

It is necessary to create a penguin sixty-six feet tall for the creature to have the brain capacity of a man. Professors Rosewall, Passarell and Bartkowicz of the Laver Institute, where tennis is de rigueur, are working on it.

The difficulty of reading a text is heightened by illiteracy in the literal sense, as well as the cultural illiteracy which is dumbfounded by idiomatic phrases. All of this makes for what you may call exhaustive comedy.

There is a way out. Deconstruction and critical theory wrest the microphone from a BBC producer on Sir Walter Scott to talk about forestation, not without a fight.