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By David Hartwig
Great Britain’s Royal Mail celebrates the comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus with a set of six stamps in an Aug. 14 issue, and a souvenir sheet included with the issue marks the 50th anniversary of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
“From TV sketches to massively successful movies, and chart-topping albums to sold-out live shows, the team known collectively as Monty Python — and individually as Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — have dominated the comedy landscape for almost six decades,” Royal Mail says.
The stamps in the set of six are presented in three se-tenant (side-by-side) pairs, and the souvenir sheet contains four additional stamps. All 11 stamps in the issue are valued at the first-class rate (currently £1.70).
The stamps in the set of six show a montage of characters and sketches from the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which ran from 1969 to 1974. Four stamps in a souvenir sheet included with the issue feature stills from the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail along with a quote.
The sketches portrayed on the stamps in the set of six include “The Spanish Inquisition,” “Upper Class Twit of the Year,” the “Nudge nudge” innuendo sketch and the “Spam” comedy sketch.
In a presentation pack included with the issue, film journalist Tom Huddleston explains that all of the members of the Monty Python comedy group were “nice middle-class boys from respectable homes” who had attended universities such as Cambridge and Oxford.
“But while all six had studied ‘serious’ subjects — ranging from medicine and law to history and political science — each had discovered along the way that they had not just a passion but a talent for writing and performing comedy (or, in Gilliam’s case, crafting satirical magazine strips),” Huddleston says.
According to Huddleston, the audience who watched the first episode of the sketch comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus on BBC1 in the fall of 1969 represented the week’s lowest audience figures.
“Of those who did tune in,” Huddleston says, “not many seemed to like it: the show scored poorly on the Audience Appreciation Index, while BBC bosses branded parts of the programme ‘appalling,’ ‘cruel’ and ‘disgusting.’ “
As the series continued with 12 more episodes, the audience numbers improved enough for the BBC to continue the program another year.
“Sketches about dead parrots, transvestite lumberjacks and men with three buttocks may have scandalised the BBC’s top brass but they were a big hit with other sectors of society, notably college students, musicians, dropouts and schoolkids, who thrilled to the show’s absurdist wit, bursts of wildly inventive animation and staunchly anti-establishment position, poking fun at Army majors, priests, bankers and the government,” Huddleston says.
The popularity of Monty Python’s Flying Circus continued, and the show eventually aired 45 episodes across four series.
The Monty Python comedy group then wrote and performed the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which parodies the legend of King Arthur through a series of sketches and loosely connected scenes.
Gilliam and Jones directed the movie, which helped establish Monty Python as a major force in comedy and influenced later films, television and stage productions.
Common Curiosity designed the stamps and the souvenir sheet. Cartor Security Printers printed them by lithography.
The stamps in se-tenant pairs were produced in sheets of 60 (sold in panes of 30 at most postal outlets). These stamps measure 60 millimeters by 30mm each and are perforated gauge 14.5.
The souvenir sheet is 192mm by 74mm. The sizes and perforations of the souvenir sheet’s self-adhesive stamps are as follows: “ ’Tis but a scratch!” measures 41mm by 30mm with 14.5 by 14 perforations, “That is your purpose, Arthur” is 60mm by 30mm with perforations gauge 14.5, “You’re lucky you’re not next to him” is 37mm by 35mm with 14.5 by 14 perforations, and “Run away!” measures 27mm by 37mm with perforations gauge 14.
A collectors sheet included with the issue contains the six stamps with attached labels featuring stills from some of Monty Python’s most famous sketches. The selvage of the sheet shows a theatrical backdrop with stage curtains.
Royal Mail offers a presentation pack which includes the set of six stamps and the souvenir sheet along with illustrations and text.
First-day covers franked with either the set of six stamps or the souvenir sheet have two available postmarks. The standard Tallents House postmark depicts John Cleese performing his silly walk, and a postmark showing the logo from Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a postmark from Doune, a burgh about 30 miles north of Glasgow where many of the movie’s scenes were filmed.
What Royal Mail calls a fan sheet includes three of the “That is your purpose, Arthur” stamps from the souvenir sheet. Royal Mail also is offering 11 postcards reproducing the designs of the 10 stamps and the souvenir sheet.
The stamps and related products can be ordered from Royal Mail’s website at https://shop.royalmail.com. Ordering information also is available from Royal Mail, Tallents House, 21 S. Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB, Scotland.
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