The beeb screened a couple of documentaries on Monty Python last night, obviously  kicking off the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, but I have to say I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw.  For one,  both docs, aired back to back, covered pretty much the same ground: both were  histories of Python, largely telling the same stories, even using some of the same footage. The second felt like a repeat of the first, although  it mentioned the 2014 reunion.  Yet that was the briefest of references, so I was left feeling unsatisfied: that reunion –  python’s revival after so long – warrants a lot more exploration. This is a golden jubilee which obviously deserves to be marked; it’s just strange that the bbc would do so just by airing two very similar programmes in quick succession.

If Monty  Python has had an impact on British comedy as big as the one both programmes said it has had, I hope the beeb celebrates it’s fiftieth anniversary far more lavishly than this. I felt it was a lame start to a birthday party which should be far more stupendous – this is Monty  Python, after all. Even if another on-stage reunion is out of the question, I just feel something awesome needs to be done to mark Python’s legacy on  British and world comedy.