A history of Monty Python's feuds
Monty Python are still regarded as one of the greatest comedy troupes in British film and TV history, but the members' off-screen feuds have drawn just as much interest in recent years.
The group consisted of John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Graham Chapman, and they came to prominence in the 1960s with their BBC sketch comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and the subsequent movies they made together. It wasn't long before the group began to clash, and their constant arguments led to the disbanding of the group.
The animosity between them continued long into their individual careers, and has been aired in public spheres such as X and in their individual books. Here is everything we know about their history together.
A history of Monty Python's feuds
Tension during Monty Python's Flying Circus Days
Monty Python had struggles even into its early days, with Palin's diaries from 1969 to 1979 revealing that there was friction between the group long before Cleese left Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1974.
Read more: John Cleese calls Michael Palin ‘the most boring man I’ve met in my life’
The group were split into different writing groups at the time — Cleese and Chapman were a pair, while Palin and Jones worked together and Idle wrote his own sketches, Gilliam provided many of the visuals that appeared on the series. As such this led to frictions between the different writing teams, namely over Cleese's attitude towards others according to Palin.
Palin wrote: "John was a big name, one of the great new discoveries of the Sixties… the rest of us were journeymen scriptwriters”.
He also wrote how much tension there was between Cleese and Jones at the time, writing: "At lunchtime, Terry had a shouting match with John, and the intensity of T’s outburst took even John by surprise. It was all about T feeling oppressed by John’s rather dismissive handling of any suggestion of Terry’s."
Idle has since claimed that Cleese was a bully and was particularly nasty to Jones during their tenure together, telling fans on X in February 2024: "He bullied Jonesy. I always felt ashamed we did nothing." before adding that he felt he "still is" a bully.
Things came to a head between the group before the release of the fourth season of their sketch show, with Cleese deciding to step back from the venture because he felt he had no new ideas to offer and found Chapman —who was struggling with alcoholism at the time— a difficult writing partner.
Idle saw things differently, as he once said of Cleese: "He gets bored more easily than the rest of us. He’s a difficult man, not easy to be friendly with. He’s so funny because he never wanted to be liked. That gives him a certain fascinating, arrogant freedom.”
In a 1971 entry from his diaries, Palin said of the group: "The split between John and Eric and the rest of us has grown. John and Eric see Monty Python as a means to an end — money to buy freedom from work."
A tense reunion
While their behind-the-scenes squabbles continued, the troupe reunited for three films that went on to become big successes — Monty Python and The Holy Grail in 1975, 1979's The Life of Brian, and 1983's Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Tensions were still high at the time they made the first two films, with Chapman's alcoholism leading Cleese to question his casting as Brian in The Life of Brian. In the end he became sober before the making of the film.
Read more: Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: Mr Creosote is the ultimate gross-out icon
When Chapman died of throat cancer in 1989 the group put on a united front at his funeral, but it was one of the last times they would do so. The surviving members did consider doing a 30th anniversary tour but in the end Gilliam and Palin's disinterest in it led to it being dropped completely.
However, the group did do 10 sold-out shows in July 2014 at the 02, which Idle has argued was done purely for financial reasons.
Idle went on to make a Spamalot musical based on The Holy Grail which was also a success, and led to a number of barbed words exchanged with —and about— Cleese. The Fawlty Towers star voiced God in the musical, which might have suggested the pair had let bygones be bygones but this has since proven not to be the case.
Taking the feud online
In recent months, Idle has been outspoken about his feelings towards his fellow Python members and their current manager, Gilliam's daughter Holly.
His most recent complaints have been about the group's finances in connection to the Spamalot musical, as in February 2024 Idle wrote: "I don’t know why people always assume we’re loaded. Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age."
He went on to say: "We own everything we ever made in Python and I never dreamed that at this age the income streams would tail off so disastrously. But I guess if you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.”
Idle added insult to injury when he further tweeted to a fan: "I’m doing no more Python. I gave already. Ungrateful b*****ds." He went on to say: "Once they put Gilliams daughter in as Manager and Cleese fires Jim Beach, well it’s over."
Cleese responded to Idle's remarks, sharing a statement on X that read: "I have worked with Holly for the last ten years, and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard- working, and pleasant to have dealings with. Michael Palin has asked me to to make it clear that he shares this opinion. Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this."
And he went further to say that he and the other members of the troupe "always loathed and despised each other" but went on to clarify that this was a joke.
Cleese reignited his feud with Idle in September 2024 when he tweeted: "This is an invention. Jim, who was an old friend of mine from Cambridge days, became Python manager after the O2 show. About four years ago he suffered a bad stroke and subsequently resigned as our manager. His number two, Holly Gilliam, automatically took over as Python manager."
