Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59172 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-05-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 189 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus will probably be purchased mostly for the standards--those sketches that have become the staple material of every office joker and pub bore in Christendom--the Spanish Inquisition, the Australian philosophers, the Ministry of Silly Walks. Good fun though these are, once you've expunged the memory of a million witless impersonators, this collection is really worth owning for the material that never quite registered in the popular consciousness. Sketches such as the Summarise Proust Competition, the misunderstanding over the Hungarian phrasebook and John Cleese's manically embittered architect with a grudge against the Freemasons are every bit as funny as the more familiar hits and, free of any associated baggage, they will startle and delight the younger viewer as much as Python must have startled and delighted their parents when first broadcast in the 1970s.

On the DVD: The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus is a three-disc set, and each volume is equipped with a sketch selector that is fussier than strictly necessary. But this is more than compensated for by the wonderful Terry Gilliam animations that the viewer uses to navigate. Subtitles are available in English only. --Andrew Mueller

Special Features
Volume 1 only:
Sing-a-long Lumberjack Song
Palindromes
Biographies
Radio Times -- the Original Billing
Photo Gallery

Synopsis
Monty Python's endlessly influential wit and silliness is on full display in this rather large (yet not overly cumbersome) collection of classic episodes from the entire run of the show. Contained here is more than the usual more, in addition to actors, parrots, cheese shops, Spam, and other various personages, places, and edible items.

Customer Reviews

OMG This is amazing Stuff!
This DVD is really funny, all the classics are here. I'd only heard of some of them before, but now I watch this DVD all the time. Hilarious.

"The Best Of" - Is that a printing error ?
While this box set does indeed contain many of Python's best material (and the really best stuff still is absolutely hysterical, if you're into this sort of thing) it also contains a lot of filler material that just goes on and on long after the punchline has been delivered.

Still, perhaps that's a reflection of the era it came from.

Persoanlly, I think they'd have been better off condensing the actual good stuff down onto 2 DVD's. I sat through the whole thing, dross included, because I'd paid for it - but next time I watch this I will have no hesitations in hitting the skip button to bypass the rubbish material.

The strange thing is that some sketches, which I consider to be their greatest ever, are completely missing from this collection.

Python is I think one of those TV shows that is viewed through rose-tinted spectacles. The REALLY good stuff beats 99.9% of comedy even up to the present date - the only problem is that Python was never consistently hilarious.

This was evidenced during recent repeats of the TV show on cable where some entire episodes were appaling.

If you're a Python fan then buy this by all means as a lot of it is good, but if I had the ability to edit the package I would remove 50% of the material.

The Best of Monthy Python's Flying Circus DVD vols.1-3
Say no more! This 3 DVD set gives almost 5 hours of incredible Python's humour. It is too much, it is 16 TONS! This outstanding compilation is an absolute must have for the collector.