Episode 221 - Late Python (ft. Will Sloan)

Jack and Geraint are joined by Toronto's preeminent man of letters Will Sloan, co-host of the Michael & Us - @michael-and-us - and Important Cinema Club - @the-important-cinema-club - podcasts*, who tweets @WillSloanEsq. The topic of the day is the late period work of six of comedy's grandest old lions in winter - well, five really, as Graham Chapman died in 1989 at the age of only 48; yes, the old men whose turn it is to cop that trademark RP smoke today are the Monty Python team, and the work they've made both together and apart since their final feature film as a team, 1983's The Meaning of Life. We look at their varying approaches to coasting on past glories and - inspired by John Cleese and Terry Gilliam's sad decline into "you can't say anything these days" reactionary grumbling - the politics of Python. Their various reunions and semi-reunions are addressed, in addition to Eric Idle's appointment of himself as unofficial custodian of the group's legacy, steering them in an extremely lucrative kind of "Elvis in Vegas", Python-in-a-sparkly-suit, light entertainment type direction. We also relive the time Will bullied Idle off Twitter in argument over Jeremy Corbyn. *those @s are for our fellow soundcloud users.