Python website relaunched

As well as news and forums, the relaunched Pythonline will offer clips of old material which fans can use to make ‘mash-up’ videos of their own

The move follows the recent launch of a YouTube channel to showcase the group’s work, which has attracted 1.1million views.

Idle, who was behind the Spamalot musical and even dubbed his own live tour Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python, is the driving force behind the site. The other Pythons will not be taking an active role, although they will benefit from the royalties.

He told the New York Times: ‘What we have is a brand, a franchise. We created this name that exists, and everyone knows what it means and we should be grateful to our younger selves that we own it all.

‘It’s on television all the time, and people know it backwards and forwards. They all learned The Holy Grail in college as though it were a text. There isn’t a demographic that hasn’t been tickled by Python, which struck me as completely bizarre.’

John Cleese added: ‘The rest of us aren’t terribly interested, but we are very grateful that Eric is doing it’, adding that he found it’terribly boring to me to be going back and doing something I did 35 years ago’.

Idle, who is also working on a book about Python’s touring days, intends to officially relaunch Pythonline later this month, although it has already gone live.

Published: 8 Dec 2008