Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Complete Fourth Series [DVD] [1974] [2007]

Pythonites tend to disparage Series 4, partly because of the absence of Cleese; this is a pity, because Series 4 has many, many good things to commend it. First, it is exceedingly silly from first to last, and there's almost none of the padding that blighted many Series 1, 2, and 3 shows. Second, the absence of wordy Cleese/Chapman sketches allows the shows to flow in a more concerted way. Third, the team were able to develop stronger narrative structures that helped prepare the transition to movies. Last, individual Pythons have more latitude as performers, and Graham Chapman and Terry Jones in particular are given meatier roles that allow them to display their comedic brilliance.

Now the down side: I suspect that these shows were sourced not from the original master tapes, but from the intermediate re-masters created for the VHS issues of yore. The picture/audio quality is not up to the standard possible from good digital transfers from 1970s PAL videotapes: see the Till Death Us Do Part 1972 and 1974 series DVDs for proof of this; ditto the Thames Benny Hill Show DVD issues (from Network DVD), which are crystal clear, sharp, superb colour, great audio.

Not sourcing the shows from the original master tapes for DVD means we have a substandard product. Most viewers - even a good many Python fans - will probably not be bothered by the slightly substandard quality. But if I had paid anywhere near the £19.99 RRP, my copy would have been winging its way back to Amazon Returns pronto.

Surely if there's one classic TV comedy that deserves best possible DVD presentation it is Monty Python's Flying Circus. I don't know if the other three series issues have suffered the same fate - for they all were issued on VHS - but one fears the worst. (I better buy them to check.)

Firstly I must say that if you are planning to buy all four series (and who wouldn't) then the best way by far is to go for the German Box Set on Amazon.de. It's not difficult to order because the web pages follow the same layout and your account details will already be there. Mine took just under two weeks to arrive, and cost about £28. It's probably the last Flying Circus DVD I'll ever need; no pointless "...I really can't remember much about this..." type commentary or watch-once extras; just the whole damn motherlode of Python with great picture and sound quality. What more could you ask?
Edits...? Well, let's just say we are left in no doubt as to Harry Baggot's true hobbies, and what's a silly bunt between friends? As far as I can tell it's virtually all restored now.
Anyway, I'd agree that there's something very special about the fourth series, which is the one I always go back to the most. In fact I think the very last episode is the best of the whole bunch. By the way, admirers of the lovely Carol Cleveland who are handy with the pause and zoom function will find a particularly tasty "easter egg" at 26 Minutes 54 Seconds into episode six. Nudge, Nudge.

With Cleese absent from this series, Gilliam contributing less animation, and Chapman and Idle - apparently - not writing an awful lot of material, this series more or less rests on the shoulders of Palin and Jones. In fact I'd go further and say this is more Palin's series (in his Diaries, he even notes that one episode is more or less his own work). It's certainly the strangest Python offering, and you know what? I think it's the best series.
I know, I know, that sounds like I'm being deliberately awkward - this series features none of the famous sketches at all, the most celebrated member isn't in it, and at times isn't even conventionally funny - but I find this one the most watchable. When it's funny, it's very funny, and when it frequently goes bafflingly weird, that's when I like it best! More than any other Python series this connects more with today's surreal comedies. Cleese once said of Reeves and Mortimer "Even when they're not being funny, they intrigue me... I like the strange stuff"... and I think the same about this batch of episodes.
Half the series is an attempt to make half-hour stories rather than unconnected sketches, which takes the series into even odder areas. A story about buying ants manages to include Oueen Victoria, Jimmy Hill, unconvincing wigs, kiddie's vasectomies and desks on fire; another show keeps lapsing into thinking its Hamlet. It's like Spike Milligan's Q series if it had been much, much better.
And then there's an episode called Light Entertainment War which is one of the very best Python shows of all time; very funny and quite dreamlike. More than at any other time, the sketches weave in and out of one another, constantly reference each other, and all the while led along by a Neil Innes song which crops up throughout the episode in different musical styles... it's a very odd show, like a labrynth of sketches that you, the viewer, are trying to find your way out of, only to find you're back where you started. So, unexpectedly, a little like David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE.
There's no Dead Parrots here, or silly walks, or Spanish Inquisitions; this is SO much better.