Giant sculpture of Pythons' Norwegian Blue hits London

A 50ft 'dead parrot' sculpture has been laid out on London's South Bank to mark the last night of Monty Python.

The fibreglass model took more than two months to design, construct and paint, and was commissioned by TV station Gold to mark its live broadcast of the troupe's final gig at the O2 arena this coming Sunday.

Commuters looked on as the sculpture was hung upside down by a crane before being laid on its back at Potters Fields near Tower Bridge this morning.

Lead sculptor Iain Prendergast said: 'We are all Monty Python fans so we were delighted to receive the brief from Gold to recreate the mythical Norwegian Blue on a giant scale. We watched both live and televised versions of the sketch and found that there have been a number of different incarnations of the parrot with a variety of different plumages.

'Our sculpture provides a colourful hybrid of the dead parrots which have featured in the celebrated sketch. The key challenge for us was capturing the comedy value of the dead parrot, keeping the realism of the bird whilst also adding touches like the bloodshot, "stunned" eyes.'

The Dead Parrot sketch, performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin, was first broadcast on December 7, 1969 and last week topped a poll of Britain's favourite Python moments of all time.

The parrot will eventually be taken to The O2 for the final shows.

Steve North, general manager of Gold, added: 'We believe that our giant dead parrot provides a fitting tribute to a sketch that is so loved by audiences throughout the world.'

Published: 14 Jul 2014