Idle Moments

Eric Idle doesn’t live here any more. He lives in the States, and is only in the UK for a week to oversee the opening of Spamalot, his Tony award-winning musical.

Neither will he be coming to Oxford in that time, although he does appear in the show on film as God, obviously. But he is deigning to talk to us, which is something I suppose, and he’s chatty, if not personable.

As for his patriotism, it seems to be waning with each passing year, which explains why the Monty Pythonesque Spamalot opened on Broadway rather than the West End.

“We opened in the States because they were much more appreciative and didn’t have 13 national critics on the first night waiting to kill you,” he says.

“Instead we opened in Chicago and then went on to Broadway where people thought it was wonderful. It wasn’t sensible to open in London and then go to Broadway.

“Python isn’t new in England, but in the US everything exists in a constant state of now, and they still love it because Monty Python is on every day somewhere. It works there.”

Enough about them. It’s over here now and coming to Oxford’s New Theatre on Monday to rave reviews.

“Yes, and the tour is my favourite version. There’s a lot more running about on stage and a tremendous energy,” Eric warms up.

“It used to be you doing the running around,” I remind him.

“I used to be able to do the running around,” the 67-year-old jokes. And then you glimpse the funny man, irrevocably entangled in his English roots whether he likes it or not.

While we would all like to think the Python crew meet up on a regular basis for a pint, nothing could be further from the truth.

“We haven’t worked together since 1983, so we are like old colleagues – we bump into each other from time to time.

“But I did get them all together in October at the Albert Hall in The Messiah,” Eric says brightening up, “where we had the BBC orchestra, 240 musicians and Palin came in full drag as Betty Palin, on a Tuesday night!”

There is a real fondness in his voice when he talks about John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. So does Eric read Michael Palin’s diaries about the Monty Python years?

“I’ve read bits,” he says, “but Michael has written a diary every day since he was 23. It’s like the Forth Bridge and I think he’s too nice to write a diary. I like the Richard E Grant version and think a diary should be more confessional. Mike is too cagey about himself.”

And yet making Spamalot was a big responsibility, was it not?

“There is more of a responsibility to the audience than the Python crew,” Eric says.

“In 2002 we wrote some songs and presented them to the Python team and said this is what we wanted to do, and they all laughed and said great. But no one expected it to work and I don’t think they really cared.

“My job was to find the best people and find a show that worked. Spamalot is different from the film because it’s got girls and emotion and romance. It took 17 drafts and five years to write but since then it’s been seen all over the world. It just goes and goes.”

So at what point did Eric know he was on to a winner. “There are no certainties in showbiz. The gamble was for the investors, and the story still continues to work. I wouldn’t be in Bristol now otherwise and the audiences here still go crazy. Marcus Brigstocke is hilarious and Python audiences always make an enormous noise.

“Because over time Monty Python hasn’t lost its magic and it’s still just as funny. Look at Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, they are still funny so we didn’t need new material.”

OK, but does he miss Blighty?

“I come over in the spring and fall and now that my daughter is in art college I have more time to spend in Europe. While I’m here I’ll go to Bath, do some book shopping and then pop over to Sweden where they are opening soon. I think Spamalot is going to be in Swedish so I won’t be able to understand a word,” he laughs. “I spend summers in France. I like the world – Sydney in winter for the cricket. I like moving around.”

In other words he can’t sit still for a minute. And although Eric’s currently writing the next showstopper, he says despite Spamalot’s success, it doesn’t mean doors have opened for him.

“No, they always remain shut and need to be prised open or you have to climb in the window if you want to do something silly,” he grins.

“So no, I don’t pat myself on the back. Not really. Not even when we won the Tony which we weren’t expecting. After two to three years you might say ‘it’s going rather well’ but we are still being English about it and we don’t pat ourselves on the back, do we?”

You see, you can take the man out of England but you can’t take the Englishman out of the man, however hard you try.

* Spamalot, starring Marcus Brigstocke and Todd Carty, opens at the New Theatre, George Street, on Monday and runs until Saturday, October 30. Call the box office on 0844 8471588.