Tonight we celebrate 50 Years of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Bacon Theatre, Dean Close School.

Someone who shall be nameless vigorously promoted a live appearance by its co-director Terry Gilliam and then, after a whole nightmare, the appearance fell through. We have been apologising and trying to salvage something ever since. 

This is what we have come up with. Terry and I had two long conversations, one while I was in the foyer of The Playhouse waiting for the start of Neil Brand’s wonderful Phantom of the Opera show, and the other recorded to show you tonight. Terry was everything I’d hoped for. Funny, insightful, wise, inventive, outspoken, indiscreet, self-deprecating and hilariously furious.

As we speak, my Brazilian Sancho Panza, John Bellinghall, is editing nearly an hour of this Google Meets love-in for human consumption. It is silly in parts, of course. I hope not too silly. 

Here’s a snippet of us discussing the fierce rivalry and companionship of the Python gang. Boys will be boys.

There’s lots of sensible stuff, too, so come along and watch the rest of it.

The film, of course, is gloriously funny. Terry was a complete outsider among the Oxbridge boys, and that vantage-point helped both him and them. Here’s my Gilliam-pastiche poster. I hope he won’t mind. Typically, I haven’t had time to print or distribute any. Please pass it on.

Otherwise, we have had a lot of fun over the last week or so and are grateful to those who have come along and supported us.

In due course, we will move our home-made jalopy out of the way and let the NewFest machine roll through. I wish them luck and am happy to publicise their activities when they are ready.

Forthcoming attractions

We have a few more events fixed up and ready to go. Sorry Baby is on at the Barn in Cirencester on Sunday. If you haven’t ventured that far south, give it a try. A splendid little cinema/theatre and enthusiastic people. La Cocina is on at the Exmouth Arms in Bath Road next Tuesday. It’s a Mexican director’s feature about the ‘hospitality’ industry in New York (cooking, to you) and it is shot in stylish black-and-white. Looks good to me. Radical, also Mexican, is on at Pip and Jim’s church, in Grafton Road, on Wednesday. I’ve seen it and it is very powerful. In grisly narco-war Mexico, a young teacher arrives in a dead-end school and changes children’s lives with radical methods. Naturally, everyone tries to stop him. It’s a good venue. Do come and give it a try. Next Thursday, From Ground Zero is on at the Electric Picturehouse in Wotton-under-Edge. This is a portmanteau or anthology film created by 22 film-makers in Gaza. I haven’t seen it but it comes garlanded with praise. Back at Charlton Kings, next Friday, we have Polite Society, a Working Title film about a school in East London. One girl seems destined for a career as a receptionist, but is determined to be a stuntwoman. Lots of dancing, music and feelgood moments.

We are currently looking for venues for three or four events, following various disappointments. We would like to show all three films in Edgar Wright’s World’s End trilogy, possibly in a continuous rolling programme so people can wander in and out. Why not? Most people have seen them at home. We have the excellent Signs of Life, a beautiful and witty film about the experience of exile and loneliness. And we have our programme of short films made by young creators. We are talking to people about those films and more.

We will tell you more about these as soon as we have news. It’s more exciting like this, isn’t it? Well, I think so. If I wanted to know every thing that was going to happen years in advance, I’d have stuck with Stalin and his Five-Year Plans.

Past Glories

Here are a few pics of our events. Neil Brand at the Playhouse on Wednesday, accompanying the 1925 silent Phantom of the Opera, was fantastic and I doubt anyone who was present would disagree. Silent film is a lovely thing, but live piano accompaniment by a sensitive and thoughtful musician is exactly what it requires. I hope to bring Neil back again soon, possibly for a slightly larger audience.

And here’s the stuntman Rick English introducing Batman and in conversation with Ben.

And here are some wonderful creations being put together by the lovely students at All Saints School, Cheltenham, in the workshop we organised with Aardman of Bristol.

Thank you to Rachel Plant from Aardman and Zoë Hutber, a talented young animator who told everyone about her career to date and the progress of her new film, currently heading for post-production.

Here’s a link to more about that event on LinkedIn. And lots more pictures.

Meanwhile, don’t forget the Eclectic Cinema and Charlton Kings Film Society, both of which have interesting programmes for you to enjoy.

=What a pity, though, that no one in the arts in Gloucestershire seems interested in sharing resources and expertise instead of pursuing the war of all against all as ordained by the gods of Wall Street late monopoly-capitalism.

[Puts away soapbox – I’ve got a soapbox and I’m gonna use it – and heads for Swindon to collect gloriously amateurish posters to be given away at Holy Grail event. There will be a quiz, probably devised this morning in The Dockle while I wait for the printers to finish their work.]