In 1978, Chapman co-wrote ( with Bernard McKenna ) and starred in The Odd Job alongside David Jason who had previously appeared on Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle, Jones, and Palin.

The film, which starred Chapman as the eponymous pirate, also featured appearances from Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Cleese, Idle, Spike Milligan, and Cheech & Chong.

The " Rutlemania " live show was conceived and written by Eric Idle which starred The Beatles tribute group " The Fab Four " as " The Pre-fab Four " Rutles.

Continuing under Frost, Corbett starred in No-That's Me Over Here !, a sitcom written by Frost Report writers Barry Cryer, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle ( ITV 1967-70 ).

He also starred as the principal in Idle Hands.

Young did, however, direct Splitting Heirs, which starred Cleese and Eric Idle.

Following The Frost Report the Palin / Jones team worked both as actors and writers on the show Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and David Jason.

Moving to England, he animated sequences for the children's series Do Not Adjust Your Set, which also featured Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

* Eric Idle, a former member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, wrote a children's book entitled The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat which was based on the poem.

On television, Idle created Rutland Weekend Television ( RWT ), a sketch show on BBC2, written by himself, with music by Neil Innes.

In 1978, the Rutles ' mockumentary film All You Need Is Cash, a collaboration between Python members and Saturday Night Live, was aired on NBC television, as written by Idle, with music by Innes.

This originally fictional band, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for 1970s television programming, became an actual group ( while remaining a parody of The Beatles ) and toured and recorded, releasing two UK chart hits.

The common theme was of an average man ( played by Michael Palin in the original television version, but in later live versions by Eric Idle ) who expresses dissatisfaction with his current job ( as a barber, weatherman, pet shop owner, etc.

# Sir Edward Ross: The audience chases Ewing through a television studio, interrupting a talk show ( presented by Idle ) in which an interviewer ( Cleese ), attempting to create a rapport, calls his subject – Sir Edward Ross ( Chapman ) – increasingly inappropriate nicknames: " Eddie ", " Eddie Baby ", " pussycat ", " angel drawers ", and " Frank "... claiming " President Nixon had a hedgehog named Frank.

BALPA was featured in the Monty Python's Flying Circus television episode " Déjà Vu " in which Eric Idle portrays the BALPA spokesman in the ' Flying Lessons ' sketch.

In its original airing on Monty Python's Flying Circus, the sketch was preceded by a short link in which Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin portray schoolboys being interviewed for television by John Cleese.

He made his film debut in 1976, at the age of 17, as a waiter in Bugsy Malone, That same year he had significant roles in three television series: The Molly Wopsies, Four Idle Hands, and The Flockton Flyer ; however, he had enjoyed an incidental appearance ( with fellow drama students ) the previous year ( 1975 ) in Thames Television's You Must Be Joking!

Rutland Weekend Television ( RWT ) was a television sketch show on BBC2, written by Eric Idle with music by Neil Innes.

Idle rants about the uselessness of television critics for a while, but Henry Woolf informs him that his satirical invective has won him a rave review.

Charles appeared in the John Godber comedy play Teechers, in which he swapped in and out of various roles, at the Arts Theatre, London, and at the Edinburgh Festival ( 1989 ), and he played Idle Jack in the pantomime Dick Whittington, at the Hull New Theatre ( 1997 ).

Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin later became members of the hugely successful Monty Python comedy troupe.

In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons including Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin for their sketch comedy show Flying Circus.

Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python, a member of the Rutles on Saturday Night Live, and the author of the Broadway musical Spamalot.

In 2004, Idle created Spamalot, a musical comedy based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

* Idle was voted the 21st favourite comedian out of 50 in The Comedian's Comedian 2005 poll by comedians and comedy insiders.

One of the most influential sketch shows was Monty Python's Flying Circus, a comedy from the late 1960s and early 1970s that introduced both British and American audiences to such luminaries as John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam.

The Road to Mars is a 1999 science fiction comedy novel by Eric Idle.

She also appeared in Splitting Heirs ( 1993 ), a comedy starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and John Cleese.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 British adventure fantasy comedy film written and directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman and Robin Williams ( credited as Ray D. Tutto ).

Nuns on the Run is a 1990 British comedy film starring Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane, also featuring Camille Coduri and Janet Suzman.

Next there was a comedy interlude with members of the Monty Python troupe ( Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam along with Neil Innes ) performing " Sit on My Face ".

" Always Look on the Bright Side of Life " is a comedy song written by Eric Idle that was originally featured in the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian and has gone on to become a common singalong at public events such as football matches as well as funerals.

On 13 November 2008, Eric Idle sung as the finale of We Are Most Amused, a comedy show at the New Wimbledon Theatre to celebrate Prince Charles's 60th birthday.

Originally written by Eric Idle for Ronnie Barker in another comedy show, the sketch was then rejected as a script.

Idle Hands is a 1999 horror comedy film directed by Rodman Flender, written by Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer, and starring Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, and Vivica A.

At the same time the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set had led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series and, while it was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese's proposal and brought along Idle, Jones and Gilliam.

This scene has been recreated many times ; for instance, in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Tonic, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Lonesome Ghosts, in The Three Stooges short Idle Roomers ( 1944 ), in The Pink Panther ( 1963 ), in the TV series Gilligan's Island (" Gilligan vs. Gilligan ", 1966 ), in the film Big Business ( 1988 ), The X-Files (" Dreamland ") and Family Guy (" Road to Germany ").

In the 1940s, he wrote a series of book musicals with social messages, including the very successful Bloomer Girl ( 1944 ) ( about temperance and women's rights activist Amelia Bloomer ) and his most famous Broadway show, Finian's Rainbow ( 1947 ) ( perhaps the first Broadway musical with a racially integrated chorus line, featuring Harburg's " When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich ").

* " The Lumberjack Song " – A rugged, masculine outdoorsman ( Idle, as opposed to Palin in the original BBC series ; Palin had also performed it in Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus ) unsettles the chorus by revealing his fondness for women's clothes.

He was one of the show's most prolific writers, with nine episodes to his name ( including the original series finale, " The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings ", and the Writers Guild Award-winning episodes " Godfellas " and " The Prisoner of Benda ").

Indeed, the last show of the first series featured Idle and Innes, stripped and shivering in blankets under a bare bulb, singing about how the power's about to be shut off.

As the star of the show, Idle plays many of the lead roles in the series.

In the show, he was often the straight man, and second only to Idle in the number of his performances throughout the series.

Idle changes tack and begins praising TV critics, but the cast rebel against him and talk about putting in for their own series as the credits roll.

This scene was later remade in the spinoff film, All You Need Is Cash, featuring Idle, Innes, Rikki Fataar and John Halsey ( who also appeared in many of the musical items in the series ) as the " Pre-Fab Four ".

Innes has claimed that Idle has no interest in seeing the series released as it reminds him of an unhappy time in his life, but recent litigation and bitterness concerning The Rutles spin-off may also be a consideration.

It was at this time that he painted the six pictures known as the Laetitia series, and, just preceding his marriage, four other didactic works, The Idle and the Industrious Mechanic and The Idle Laundress and the Industrious Cottager.

Writers for the series included Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Roland MacLeod, Marty Feldman, Barry Cryer, Barry Took, Jim Franklin, Simon Brett and Chris Stuart-Clark.

During one first series episode of DNAYS, Eric Idle followed the Captain Fantastic segment with the song " Captain Fantastic, We Love You ", backed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

She had the lead role in the 15-part BBC TV series The Lotus Eaters in 1972-73, starring with Ian Hendry ; and made a guest appearance in Rutland Weekend Television, the first TV series made by comic Eric Idle after Monty Python's Flying Circus came to an end.