A forerunner to Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Complete And Utter History Of Britain was a 1969 television comedy sketch show which provided an idiosyncratic view of British history. It was produced for and broadcast by London Weekend Television but was not shown in other ITV regions. Michael Palin and Terry Jones created and wrote the show between the two series, Do Not Adjust Your Set and Frost On Saturday, while also writing sketches for Ma...
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A forerunner to Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Complete And Utter History Of Britain was a 1969 television comedy sketch show which provided an idiosyncratic view of British history. It was produced for and broadcast by London Weekend Television but was not shown in other ITV regions. Michael Palin and Terry Jones created and wrote the show between the two series, Do Not Adjust Your Set and Frost On Saturday, while also writing sketches for Marty Feldman. The show was inspired by an earlier show, Twice a Fortnight. Both shows proffered a humorous look at how history might have been changed by the existence of television. Sketches included on-camera interviews with key characters from the Battle of Hastings, and Julius Caesar's home-movie footage of the invasion of Britain.
The series was long thought to be lost, but was discovered misfiled as a history program. All but one of the original episodes survive.
One can see in Palin and Jones' work on this programme the beginnings...
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