Eric was part of the Monty Python comedy that shocked some viewers but he is bored by TV output now except for sport
Monty Python star Eric Idle says he no longer enjoys watching TV – saying it is not “terribly interesting”.
The comedian was part of a revolutionary kind of sketch comedy on the BBC, a forerunner to many other series and alternative comedy for decades ahead. But Idle insists TV is formulaic these days.
Idle said: “Television now seems to be people trying to bonk each other on islands, game shows or news shows, so it’s not terribly interesting. I mean, it’s been stolen by the streamers, which is really bad news. They’ve uninvented television and it’s very sad.”
By contrast Idle told Radio Times they had been free to do what they like when Python began in 1969.
He explained: “When we were given our TV show, it was late on a Sunday night and the BBC was just trying to see if anybody was awake after 10pm and the pubs were closed.
“What was really lovely was that we could please ourselves, there was no one overseeing us, so it was executive-free comedy and all the funnier for it. No executive has ever improved a comedy.”
Idle, speaking to promote a new tour, says these days he mainly watched cricket on TV or Chelsea his football team, as he is not a fan of many other shows.
But there was one comedy he singled out for special praise.
He said: “What South Park is doing with Trump is heroic and I know they’ve done him a lot of damage. There’s a reason Hitler and Trump get rid of the comedians first. They hate being laughed at. So, it’s great that Governor Newsom is taking the p*** out of Trump and his hands. Comedy is saying the right thing at the wrong time. It’s so important. It’s telling truth to power and it’s keeping people sane.”
Idle was part of the Monty Python troupe which became one of the UK’s best known comedy act which a hugely successful BBC TV series.
He starred alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Sir Michael Palin in TV series which began in 1969 as well as films and live shows.
Chapman died in 1989 of tonsil cancer aged 48 while Jones died in 2020 aged 77 from a rare form of dementia.
In 2022 Idle revealed in an interview he “survived” pancreatic cancer after receiving a rare early diagnosis in 2019.
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