Do you ever wonder about Monty Python and Beyond the Fringe? The Python boys, successful in a couple of review-shows, wound up together working on a television show that was insanely influential, made a couple of tremendous movies, and then wandered in the wilderness for what one would imagine to be the prime of their lives. Well, and Michael Palin has had a successful second career as a travel-show presenter. Other than that, really, what have they done that has shown the maturation of their early brilliance? Compare them, then, to the four fellows of Beyond the Fringe. Well, Graham Chapman is most obviously the Peter Cook figure, the one who looked at success and figured, you know, after all, I think I’d rather get drunk. The difference, really, is that Peter Cook does seem to have actively supported a generation of British comedians whilst pickling himself. Dudley Moore, well, that’s a sad case, far worse than Eric Idle, really. After all, Mr. Moore was the one the others picked up because he was already a popular and successful cabaret performer, and I think I’d have to say that his unfunny wandering years are worse even that Mr. Idle’s. But then there’s Jonathan Miller, who changed fields and worked to become the top of his new field, with mature (if still occasionally funny) work that remains provocative. And then there’s Alan Bennett.
Talk about Untold Stories...
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-Vardibidian.