" In writing sessions Chapman " would lob in an idea or a line from out of left field into the engine room, but he could never be the engine ", Cleese said.

In Monty Python Live at Aspen, Cleese said that the original idea came from a man Palin bought a car from, who had endless excuses for everything that went wrong with it.

Cleese said that he and Chapman believed " There was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it.

" In his book Graham Crackers, Chapman said that this took place just before Cleese left the show, and he wondered what the woman thought about his disappearance after getting Idle's response.

" John Cleese said on the same show that he and Chapman " believed that there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it.

" to which Cleese said " I thought you'd never ask!

In a 2002 interview with Michael Parkinson, John Cleese said that when he and Palin were performing the sketch on Drury Lane, Palin made him laugh by saying, when asked if his slug could talk, " It mutters a bit " instead of " Not really.

During the drive back, Graham Chapman said that Cleese should eat something and asked him whether he fancied anything ; Cleese replied that he fancied a piece of cheese.

John Cleese said in an 8 May 2009 interview that the role of Sybil Fawlty was originally offered to Bridget Turner, who " in the worst move of her life " turned down the part, claiming " it wasn't right for her ".

Cleese said that the scene would seem heartless and sadistic except for the fact that the Black Knight shows no pain and just keeps on fighting, or trying to, however badly he is wounded.

: A man ( Palin ) tells a police inspector ( Cleese ) of a theft, and after an awkward silence, decides to invite said policeman to come back to his place, presumably for sex.

Scudamore ( 1985, p. 170 ) cites one interview with the Pythons in which John Cleese said: " Shows prepare the way for other shows, and sometimes shows that make genuine breakthroughs are missed.

And in the Python's ( 2004 ) autobiography, Cleese cites a conversation between himself and Terry Jones: " We both happened to watch Spike Milligan's Q5, and one or the other of us phoned up and said kind of jokingly but also rather anxiously, ' I thought that's what we were supposed to be doing?

In a 2001 interview, Cleese described Yellowbeard as " one of the six worst films made in the history of the world.

In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time, John Cleese stated " Milligan is the Great God to all of us ".

His autobiography is And Now For Something Completely Different, a reference to an interview ( on psychiatry ) with Monty Python star John Cleese.

In an interview with Shaun Micallef in 2007, John Cleese claimed that " we chose ' Tim ' to annoy Tim Brooke-Taylor ".

In a 2001 interview, Cleese described Yellowbeard as " one of the six worst films made in the history of the world.

Graham Chapman, still suffering from alcoholism, was so determined to play the lead role – at one point coveted by Cleese – that he dried out in time for filming, so much so that he was also able to act as the on-set doctor on top of his acting duties.

Cleese, after a brief pause, says, " Right, I'll have that one, then!

A slow crescendo of bouzouki music plays in the background ( for which Cleese initially expresses appreciation, being "... one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean Muse "), but as the sketch progresses it mirrors Cleese's growing frustration until he loudly demands the music cease.

As Cleese lists increasingly obscure, unsavoury, and, in one instance fictional, cheeses to no avail, the proprietor offers weak excuses such as " Ohh!

Up until the 1990s, each of Gilliam's non-Python films was to feature at least one of his fellow Monty Python alumni ( particularly Palin, Cleese, and Idle ), and for his finished projects Gilliam has worked with the following actors more than once ( in order of first film appearance ):

In one sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant ( played by Cleese ) for a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying.

Following his At Last the 1948 Show, Feldman was given his own series on the BBC called Marty ( 1968 ); it featured Brooke-Taylor, John Junkin and Roland MacLeod, with Cleese as one of the writers.

On one occasion, Hatch introduced the team as " Tim Brooke-Taylor, O. B. E., John Cleese, O. B. E., Graeme Garden, O. B. E., David Hatch, O. B. E., Jo Kendall, O. B. E., and Bill Oddie, O. D. D. I. E ..".

Cleese admitted that this was slightly unfair – when the Pythons voted on which sketches should appear in a show, “ he only got one vote ”, but says that Idle was an independent person and worked best on his own.

Perhaps the first time that Wensleydale cheese was thrust into the limelight was as one of the cheeses mentioned by John Cleese in the Monty Python sketch " The Cheese Shop ", which originally appeared in a 1972 episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Apart from the infamous appearance of several of Kenton's streets in one episode of the cult BBC TV series " Fawlty Towers " starring John Cleese, the only known reference to Kenton in modern popular culture is the song " Kenton Kev ", by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band The Magoo Brothers on their album " Beyond Believable ", released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988.

The nice one, Fidgit, as Palin ; the self-appointed leader, Randall, as Cleese ; the acerbic one, Strutter, as Eric Idle ; the quiet one, Og, as Graham Chapman ; the noisy rebel, Wally, as Terry Jones ; and the nasty, filth-loving one, Vermin, as Gilliam himself.

# The one where John Cleese offered Sam and Diane counselling sessions

The Knight was, in fact, played by two actors: John Cleese is in the Knight's armour until he is down to one leg.

The Knight is then played by a real one-legged man, a local by the name of Richard Burton, a blacksmith who lived near the film shoot ( not to be confused with Richard Burton, the Welsh actor of the same name ), because, according to the DVD commentary, Cleese could not balance well on one leg.

Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise.

Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways ( including one that briefly imitates the scissor gait of spastic diplegia ), and it is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity.

The adverts were all on building corners, showing two workers carrying a large glass pane walking towards the corner on one side, and walking towards them on the other side a John Cleese look-alike doing his famous Silly Walk.

Appearing in the company of long-established talents such as John Cleese and Peter Cook helped elevate the perception of Connolly as one of Britain's leading comedic talents.

John Cleese used Marsden's name in his eulogy at Chapman's memorial service.

Those present at the time of Chapman's death in a Maidstone hospital included his brother, sister-in-law, partner David Sherlock, and his former Python fellows John Cleese and Michael Palin, who had to be led out of the room to deal with their grief.

At Graham Chapman's memorial service, John Cleese began his eulogy by reprising euphemisms from the sketch, stating that Graham Chapman was no more, that he had ceased to be, that bereft of life he rests in peace, that he had expired and gone to meet his maker, and so on, finally calling him an ex-Chapman.

On the strength of their work on The Frost Report and other programmes, Cleese and Chapman had been offered a show by the BBC, but Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons, among them Chapman's reputedly difficult personality.

This may be a homage to the eulogy delivered at Graham Chapman's funeral where John Cleese seized the opportunity to become “ the first person ever at a British memorial service to say ' fuck '.” A similar, albeit censored line is also hidden in the sequel.