Encyclopedia
Eric Idle is an
English comedian,
actor, author,
pianist and
guitarist/songwriter. He wrote and performed as a member of the internationally renowned British comedy troupe,
Monty Python.
Early life
Idle was born in
South Shields,
Tyne and Wear,
England. His father had served in the
Royal Air Force and survived the
Second World War, only to be killed in a
car crash shortly afterwards. His mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so when he was seven, she enrolled him into the
Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder.
The school had begun life as a Victorian
orphanage, and during Idle's time it was a charitable foundation solely dedicated to the welfare of orphans and semi-orphans. Its pupils, who were mainly the children of dead English soldiers, still referred to it as the .
Idle is quoted as saying: 'It was a physically abusive, bullying, harsh environment for a kid to grow up in. I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority. Perfect training for Python.'
Idle stated that the two things that made his life bearable were listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and watching the local football team,
Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite this, he disliked other sports and would sneak out of school every Thursday afternoon to the local cinema. He was eventually caught watching the X-rated
BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 [i] film [i] about a call girl [i], posing as a model, who fears that she is...
and stripped of his prefectship, even though by that time he was head boy. Idle had already refused to be senior boy in the school cadet force, as he was a keen supporter for the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and had participated in the yearly
Aldermaston march.
Idle maintains that there was little to do at school, and boredom drove him to work hard. He consequently won a place at
Cambridge.
Comedy carreer
University life and comedy
Eric Idle attended
Pembroke College at the
University of Cambridge, where he studied English. At Pembroke College he was invited to join the prestigious
Cambridge University Footlights Club by fellow Pembroke College students, the then 1963 President of the Footlights Club,
Tim Brooke-Taylor and Footlights Club member
Bill Oddie.
- "I'd never heard of the Footlights when I got there, but we had a tradition of college smoking-concerts, and I sent in some sketches parodying a play that had just been done. Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie auditioned me for the Footlights smoker, and that led to me discovering about and getting into the Footlights, which was great."
Eric Idle became Footlights President in 1965. Other
Monty Python members of the
Cambridge University Footlights Club were John Cleese and Graham Chapman.
Pre-Python career
Prior to the Monty Python's Flying Circus comedy series, Eric Idle appeared in the television comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set with Terry Jones and Michael Palin . Other members of the cast were David Jason and Denise Coffey.
Monty Python
Unlike the other Pythons, who wrote in pairs , Idle wrote alone. His work was often closely associated with long, complex speeches or catchy one-liners. Amongst the many Python sketches written by Idle is "Nudge nudge", the title of which has become a catchphrase.
In the seventies, he also had the role of editor of the Monty Python 'boks' [sic]. He parlayed his experience forward in January 2003 when he released his contribution [ISBN 0-413-76010-3] as the fifth in the book series A Pocketful of Python, containing some of his favourite sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus and some of his favourite passages from their books. The books in this series include sketches written by all the Pythons - including Idle.
Post-Python career
After Monty Python ceased to be a regularly active ensemble in the mid-1970s, all six members pursued solo projects with varying degrees of critical and commercial success. Idle's earliest solo work was his own BBC Radio One show, entitled Radio Five . This ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 and involved Idle performing sketches and links to records, with himself playing nearly all the multi-tracked parts.
Although the project was not initially a commercial success, Eric Idle enjoyed critical acclaim for his work with Neil Innes in creating the pre-fab-four "group" The Rutles, an affectionate spoof of The Beatles. The Rutles originated on Rutland Weekend Television, a sketch show on BBC2, written by Idle, with music by Innes. RWT centred on 'Britain's smallest television network', situated in England's smallest county, Rutland. In the group, Idle played one of the four members. In 1978 the Rutles' "documentary" film All You Need Is Cash was released, written by Eric Idle, with music by Neil Innes. He appeared in the film in the role of "Dirk McQuickly" , as well as the main commentator. Some of the actors were famous comedic performers in the early Saturday Night Live is a weekly late night 90-minute American [i] comedy [i]-variety show [i] ...
TV show . Also George Harrison appeared as an interviewer and Mick Jagger as himself.
In 1986 he provided the voice of Wreck-Gar in
. In 1987 he took part in the English National Opera production of the
Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera
The Mikado,
or The Town of Titipu, is a comic opera [i] in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan [i] ...
, in which he appeared in the role of the 'Lord High Executioner'. In 1989 he appeared in the US summer replacement comdey television series
Nearly Departed about a ghost who haunts the family inhabiting his former home. Though lasting only six episodes it showed that Idle could adapt to American television and make his own unique humor work there.
Idle received good critical notices appearing in projects written and directed by others - such as
Terry Gilliam's
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 [i] film [i] directed by Terry Gilliam [i]...
, alongside
Robbie Coltrane in
Nuns on the Run is a popular British comedy [i] film of 1990 [i], starring Robbie Coltrane [i] and Eric Idle [i] ...
and in
Casper . He also played a remarkable Ratty in Terry Jones' version of the
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature [i] written in 1908 by Kenneth Grahame [i] ...
. However, his own creative projects - such as the movie
Splitting Heirs , a comedy he wrote, starred in and executive-produced - were mostly unsuccessful with critics and audiences.
In 1994, he appeared as Dr. Nigel Channing, chairman of the Imagination Institute and host of an 'Inventor of the Year' awards show in the
three-dimensional film
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which has been an attraction at
Walt Disney World's
Epcot since 1995 and at
Disneyland since 1998. The film also stars
Rick Moranis and most of the other members of the original cast of the 1989 feature film
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. In 1999, he reprised the role in the second version of the Journey Into Imagination ride at Epcot, replacing Figment and Dreamfinder as the host. Due to massive outcry from numerous Disney fans, Figment was reinstated into the ride where his mischief and ideas of a free imagination interfere with Channing's idea of imagination being controlled and confined, until eventually Channing learns that imagination does work best when it's set free. Idle is also writer and star of the
three-dimensional film
Pirates - 4D for Busch Entertainment Corporation.
In 1995 and 1996, he played the voice of
Rincewind in the first two computer adventure games based on
Terry Pratchett's
Discworld is a series [i] of thirty-four fantasy novels, a number of short stories, and ...
novels, along with voices of a couple of minor characters. He was also the lead vocalist in the song "That's Death" in the opening of
Discworld II is the second graphic adventure game [i] based on Terry Pratchett [i] ...
.
In 1997, Idle took the lead role in the film
Burn Hollywood Burn which was almost universally savaged by critics and was nominated as 'Worst Picture of the Decade' in the
Golden Raspberry Awards - and was eventually awarded five Razzies including 'Worst Picture of the Year'.
In recent years, Idle has worked with people who regard him as a huge inspiration, such as
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone in
, in which he voiced Dr. Vosknocker. He has also made two appearances on
The Simpsons is an Emmy [i] and Peabody [i]-winning American [i] animated [i] ...
as famous documentarian Declan Desmond, so far the only appearance on the show by a
Python. From 1999 to 2000, he played
Ian Maxtone-Graham, owner of
The Gate, on the NBC sitcom
Suddenly Susan was a US-American sitcom [i] broadcast on NBC [i] from 1996 [i] to 2000 [i]. ...
.
Idle has recently provided his voice acting for the
Shrek the Third is a film planned for release on May 18 [i], 2007 [i]. ...
, the second sequel to
Shrek is a computer-animated [i] film adaptation [i] of William Steig [i]'s 1990 ...
. The film reunites Idle with Python alumnus
John Cleese. Idle has also acted as Narrator to the AudioNovel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl.
Other credits
Writing
Idle has written several books, both fictional and non-fictional. His novels are
Hello Sailor and
The Road to Mars. In 1976, he produced a spin-off book to
Rutland Weekend Television, entitled
The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book. In 1982, he wrote a west end farce
Pass The Butler, starring Willie Rushton. During his Greedy Bastard Tour of 2003, he wrote the diaries that would be made into "The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America", published in February 2005.
He also wrote the book and co-wrote the music and lyrics for the musical,
Monty Python's Spamalot is a comedic musical [i] "lovingly ripped off from" the film ...
, . It premiered on January 9, 2005 in
Chicago, Illinois, before moving to
Broadway, where it received the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004-05 season. The musical had mixed reactions from the other members of Monty Python, with both Michael Palin and Terry Jones publicly voicing their dislike of the show, which they felt did not do justice to the Python heritage and tradition.
In a 2005 poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian" , he was voted 21 in the top 50 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
An example of Idle's idiosyncratic writing is "Ants In Their Pants" - a poem about the sex life of
ants. It starts as follows:
- 'Where does an ant get its rocks off?
- How does the ant get it on?
- Do ants have it away, say three times a day,
- Is it once a week sex, or p'raps none?'
List of Books
- Hello, Sailor, novel, 1975 ISBN 0-297-76929-4
- The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book, 1976 ISBN 0-413-36570-0
- Pass the Butler, play script, 1982 ISBN 0-413-49990-1
- The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, children's book, 1996 ISBN 0-7871-1042-6
- The Road to Mars, novel, 1998 ISBN 075222414X , ISBN 0-375-70312-8
- Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python Souvenir Program, Green street Press , 2000
- The Greedy Bastard Tour Souvenir Program, Green street Press , 2003
- The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America, journal, 2005 ISBN 0-06-075864-3
Songwriting
Idle is an accomplished songwriter, having composed and performed many of the Pythons' most famous comic pieces, including "Eric The Half-A-Bee", "The Philosophers' Song", "Galaxy Song" and, probably his most recognised hit, "
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", which was written for the closing scene of the film
Monty Python's Life of Brian, and sung from the crosses during the mass crucifixion, as something of an antidote to death. The song has since been covered by
Bruce Cockburn and
Art Garfunkel. Idle, his fellow Pythons, and assorted family and friends performed the song at the funeral of Graham Chapman.
In 1990, Idle sang and co-wrote the theme tune to the popular British sitcom
One Foot In The Grave was a popular BBC [i] television [i] situation comedy [i] series written by David Renwick [i] ...
. The song was later released, but did poorly in the charts. However, when "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" was adopted as a
football chant in the late 1980s, Idle's then neighbour Gary Lineker suggested Idle re-record and release the popular track. This led to a surprise hit, some 12 years after the song's original appearance in
Monty Python's Life Of Brian, reaching number 3 in the UK charts and landing Idle a set on
Top of the Pops was a long-running British [i] music chart [i] television programme [i]...
in October 1991.
In 2004, Idle recorded a protest song of sorts, the "FCC Song" in which he lambasts the US
Federal Communications Commission for fining him $5000 for using the word 'fuck' on national radio. Fittingly, the short song contains 14 uses of the said expletive. The song is . In 2005, he received multiple Tony award nominations for his songwriting work on the Broadway musical
Spamalot is a comedic musical [i] "lovingly ripped off from" the film ...
.
Trivia
"I'm particularly sorry Dhani [Harrison's son] isn't here tonight, because I wanted to introduce him by saying, "Here Comes The Son" - but sadly that opportunity for a truly bad joke has gone."
References
External links
- - BBC Guide to Comedy
- - Comedy Zone
- - the 1965 Cambridge Footlights Club revue during the time when Eric Idle was President of the Footlights, as well as being a member of the revue cast)
See also
