'We wouldn't have been able to do most of what we did...' Eric Idle says political correctness would stop Monty Python movies

Eric Idle says political correctness means there won’t be another Monty Python.

The 82-year-old comic was part of the comedy troupe along with John Cleese, Sir Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and the late Terry Jones and late Graham Chapman, who mocked religion and society in films like The Life of Brian, which the Church of England wanted to be banned for blasphemy when it was released in 1979.

Eric feels lucky to have been able to make comedy at a time when the Pythons were allowed to do what they wanted, whereas now there would be a lot of nervousness around those jokes which would mean they would never even be written.

Appearing on The Adam Buxton podcast, he said: “The only censorship thing anyone had was the BBC and they really didn't bother us. So it wasn't like everybody said, 'Oh you can't say that, you can't say that.' We didn't live in those times. We wouldn't have been able to do most of what we did.

“I mean you still can't sing a lot of my songs."

Monty Python's other films included Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life, which explored the theme of the meaning of existence.

Away from the Pythons, Idle created the sketch series Rutland Weekend Television with musician Neil Innes which included The Rutles, a spoof of The Beatles.

Eric says the show’s lampooning of John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono as Add Hitler’s daughter would never make it off the page now because of political correctness, even Yoko loved the send up of her.

Eric - who was close friends with Beatles member George Harrison, who personally funded The Life of Brian - said: “She loved it. They loved the fact that she was Hitler's daughter. Because she was treated that way by the press. She was treated as this horrible monster. So to be portrayed as Hitler's daughter made them both roar with laughter. They thought it was really funny.

“Yes of course she must have a sense of humour. You can't live with The Beatles or Liverpool people without having a sense of humour.

“They called her awful names and she was Japanese and they were quite vile to her. So to be Hitler's daughter is kind of like ... you've got to take it further on to be funny.”

Following his funding of The Life of Brian, Harrison created the film production and distribution company HandMade Films which was responsible for movies such as The Long Good Friday (1980), Tattoo (1981), Time Bandits (1981), Mona lisa (1986) and Withnail and I (1987).