George Perry takes a fresh look at the past achievements of the Monty Python team, tracing their progress from student days, through the heady times of the Flying Circus, right up to the most recent events in their lives. Despite the completion of the fourth and final series in 1974, the Python's have remained at the forefront of the entertainment business, spanning many different media. Their careers may change direction but all are informed by the same irreverence and humour which marked their early work. In addition to the four Monty Python movies the team have been both hugely creative and amazingly prolific: John Cleese wrote and starred in the hugely successful TV series, Fawlty Towers and oscar-winning A Fish Called Wanda; Terry Gilliam directed the critically-acclaimed Brazil and Baron Munchausen; Terry Jones wrote and directed Personal Services and scored a great hit with his children's books, including Eric the Viking; Michael Palin wrote, directed and starred in a multitude of films and TV programmes including The Missionary, The American Friend, Around the World in Eighty Days and From Pole to Pole; and Eric Idle established his acting career appearing in, amongst others, Splitting Heirs and Nuns on the Run. But the eighties were marked by tragedy with the early death of Graham Chapman. With the help of archive material, a profusion of illustrations and firsthand access to the Python team, George Perry takes an informed look at the history of the extraordinary band of humorists who made up Monty Python's Flying Circus.