PomPoms Up!

  Carol is always upbeat, a cheerleader and she never throws in the towel. Both your careers went in different direction. Carol has famously gone on record stating that working with the Pythons has been both wonderful and similar to a ball and chain career wise. What are your thoughts on this?

  LLP: “As my career took off in a different direction – no longer acting but now a full time writer and opening a production company – we still always kept in touch. Sadly her marriage broke up, but never one to feel depressed, she was always upbeat and the only woman I know that actually said they were looking forward to growing older and to get the opportunity to play more mature roles. This is now on the cards and at the same time it is extraordinary that Monty Python have returned!!! Maybe she will never live down the success of the show, and for me I don’t think she should, she is still glamorous and all those years of working out make her physically so fit and still curvaceous that she will have to age up!”

  Lastly, how do you, as a successful writer and author, feel about your good friend taking up the book writing pen? Do you think this is a long overdue development?

  LLP: “I am now thrilled that Carol has written POMPOMS UP! I think she has packed into it all the fun times we had and all the hysterical moments she has experienced, because she is a consummate wonderful comedienne, and she has a remarkable memory and always makes me laugh when she tells me a story. I hope it will be yet another string to her accomplishments, and wish her every success.”

  INTERVIEW with TERRY JONES

  Like Carol Cleveland, Terry Jones was born in one place, Wales, and grew up in another, Surrey England. So he didn’t travel as far and wide as a child but his career has covered a great deal of ground. His impressive credentials list his many successful endeavours as comedian, screenwriter, author, lyricist, actor, film director and historian. Again, like Carol, his writing and stage career began before the halcyon days of Monty Python’s Flying Circus although while studying at Oxford, he appeared on stage performing comedy in The Oxford Review with Michael Palin. Years later both men were destined to become Pythons. Terry Jones appeared again with his future Python cast mate Michael Palin on the television show Twice a Fortnight (1967) and he appeared alongside future Python Eric Idle on Do Not Adjust Your Set (1969). His TV career had him featuring in several other shows and formats as well as writing material for David Frost including content for the internationally popular Frost Report.

  Terry, when did you first meet Carol and what qualities in her did you first notice?

  TJ: “Oh, well…. ahem… She was very sexy and wonderfully funny and I think she was everything we wanted.”

  Did you know right away that Carol would manage to hold her own in your tight knit band of men?

  TJ: “I didn’t think about it at all so I just assumed she could hold her own. I just thought she was really funny and that’s why we brought her into the group and she became the 7th Python really. We wrote the scripts for her and she just brought her own integrity and acted the material we wrote. She was so lively and had such intelligence, which she brought to her acting. Carol herself didn’t have any input into the writing side of things. There was the sketch with Eric Idle as the marriage guidance councillor. Michael Palin, as Arthur Pewtey brings Carol into his office as the vivacious wife, Deidre. Carol is very voluptuous in short dress and big blonde hair. As I recall she had no lines in that sketch but she did make two very good points! She played the sexy and the glamorous roles just brilliantly. This is why she was chosen above all other actresses we worked with to become a permanent member of the team. I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing those parts. In another sketch about sheep who have taken to nesting in trees, thinking they’re birds, you’d hear the baahhh-ing of sheep followed by thumps as they threw themselves from trees attempting unsuccessfully to fly. I think Carol was meant to be a lamb being shown how to fly by her sheep mother. She made a baahh sound and I think that was one of our first sketches together and maybe the first sketch of the series, so Carol was there from the very beginning.”

  How did Carol integrate with the team overall?

  TJ: “She was just Carol on the same basis as John, Eric, Graham and the rest really. As I say, she was the 7th Python. Of course she was a like a young boy’s pin up of an American beauty queen but that had no bearing on her acting ability. I don’t think either that her having lived in America influenced her acting talent in any particular way but possibly her American brand of receptiveness, amiability and her sort of cheerleading qualities did lend an ease to working with her. There were no difficulties with romantic agendas that I knew of anyway. She was very attractive yes but nobody blushed. It was always a professional working environment. Having a woman with us doing comedy was new however. At that time, 1969 and the early 70’s there were not many female comediennes that I can think of anyway, apart from Joyce Grenfell or someone like that. Certainly there were no female stand-up comics. We definitely wrote sketches and created roles particularly with her in mind on many occasions. We were very grateful for Carol Cleveland. She filled out her part in Python like nobody’s business! I absolutely think Carol’s role was ground breaking in that way.

  “Now over the years when our paths do come together like this it is always pleasant because we get on really well. There is no rancour or anything and we just get on like a house on fire! I always look forward to working with her because it’s a delight to be on stage with her.”

  Carol remains a very curvaceous and alluring woman but she has famously mentioned that while at RADA they suggested she have a nose job to aid her career.

  TJ: “I never noticed her nose.”

  INTERVIEW with JOHN CLEESE

  John Cleese is one of the founding members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. His career in writing and performing has seen his talents establish him from the UK to Hollywood. His humour and acting has featured in shows such as the Frost Report, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers and major motion pictures such as A Fish Called Wanda, not to mention his role in two Bond films as “Q”.

  John, can you tell us about the very first meeting you had with Carol Cleveland?

  JC: “I remember that she was working on reception at a gym I used to go to on High Street Kensington. It was called the West Side Health Club. Carol knew the owner of it, a guy called Smith. She used to work on the reception desk sometimes, an afternoon here or there, and I remember chatting to her a few times. After that, in one of the very early Pythons, on the sketch called The Marriage Guidance Councillor we needed a sort of sexy blonde, and the director, who at that point was John Howard-Davies, cast her; and she did some things very well and we used her after that.”

  You had worked with other women in At Last The 1948 Show!; Do Not Adjust Your Set; The Frost Show and other projects and productions. How, in your memory, did Carol’s prominence as a supporting permanent cast member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus develop?

  JC: “There were a number of other women, actresses who we used. For instance my ex-wife Connie Booth played a number of funny parts too, and she was the girl in The Lumberjack Song and also the girl in the sketch called Ken Shabby. Our producer and director of all but the first four shows, Ian MacNaughton, was married to the actress Rita Davies, a slightly older woman who we brought in when we had written parts that required a more mature character. Carol was the one who embodied the sort of sexy blonde girl and she really was very energetic and nice to work with. Carol also was the one female who featured on practically all our stage shows. We did one in 1973 and we took that same show to Canada. In 1974 we did it on Drury Lane and then we did it in New York at The City Centre in 1976; and finally we did the Hollywood Bowl in 1980. Carol was in all of those stage shows. She was well established with the team.

  “I remember her in the opening number at the Hollywood Bowl when we did a silly thing about llamas. Carol was also at the reception desk at the start of the Argument Clinic sketch. She was the girl who now did the stage versi
on of The Lumberjack Song. She was also The Spanish Inquisition for these stage shows.”

  Was she on the same sort of comic plane as the Pythons as a whole? Was Carol a quick study on the set and how would you say she integrated with the all-male team, both in front of and behind the cameras?

  JC: “Carol integrated easily and although we men drove the sketches and wrote primarily for us, her parts were intrinsic. Carol filled her roles well, delivered what was required and with great characterisation. She didn’t write any material, so in that sense the ‘comic plane’ was the shared material and writing of us men, the Pythons, but she was adept at grasping the essence of our humour in her performances. Both on and off set she was very professional indeed.”

  In your opinion what was the state of play in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s in the UK for actresses who were also ‘comics’?

  JC: “I can tell you that almost everyone I knew was on the lookout. We were all always saying, ‘Is there a good funny woman actress around?’ and at that point there weren’t so many. They gradually became more plentiful until we hit the high point when Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French came to the top. That was the first time I think that two women were funnier than any of the men. We were always looking for actresses who were funny but not that often finding them. At the same time I think that a lot of my crowd didn’t write particularly well for women. It was relatively unusual to discover anyone that we thought was wonderful. We were very fortunate to have Carol.”

  It is often said that Carol’s appearance as a comic alongside the Pythons in a ground breaking national and international TV series was outstanding. With that in mind, what was the approach in writing material for her to perform?

  JC: “We primarily wrote material for the male characters that we portrayed. But sometimes we wrote something that required a woman and, when that was the case, we would decide whether it was going to be one of us men who would play the female role, if it was one of us being one of the Pepperpots that Terry Jones played so well. Graham, I, Eric and Michael; we all liked playing those Pepperpots! Pepperpots were older middle-aged ladies. But if we wanted a good sort of sexy blonde, the kind you’d find in an English sex farce, that’s when we would obviously get Carol to do them.

  “Carol was perfect in these raucous sketches, like at the beginning of The Spanish Inquisition or the sketch where a whole lot of awful people show up to spoil a young couple’s evening. I think it was Mr Equator (The Visitors). Graham and Carol are a couple having a quiet time at home when Eric shows up, they’ve met him before at a party or something, followed by me as Mr Equator and Terry Jones as my rather loud, gauche wife. The young couple’s evening is ruined as I manhandle Carol and Michael arrives with a goat before I shoot Graham dead with a pistol and lead a mob in a sing-a-long.”

  Can you recall any favourite sketches that you appeared in with Carol, and were there any amusing asides to them, unrecorded or that occurred during rehearsals?

  JC: “There have been a few. One I think I was in a bus or was I piloting a plane? Do you know? I’ve forgotten! I have looked online and some of the sketches there I haven’t seen since we did them! We did one called Scott of the Sahara. We went down to Torquay I think. Carol had a part in that and I seem to recall her costume being ripped off her body by strategically placed cacti as she flees towards the sea!”

  Can you recall attending Carol’s wedding to Peter Brett?

  JC: “I do remember Peter Brett. He filmed with us on The Life of Brian in Tunisia. I was very fond of him. We had a couple of interesting conversations. He loaned me a book.”

  The Pythons and Carol have worked together on films and personal appearances since the TV series ended. How is it this time, coming back together again for a reunion on stage with the lads and Carol?

  JC: “It has been something we are all looking forward to. We incorporated her in the photographs at the London press conference. The media always loves a sexy girl you know. I must say that when we had the read-through it all felt funny again. We weren’t at all sure it would.”

  In the making of the Python films where you shared scenes with Carol is there any scene that you recall as a particular favourite?

  JC: “In the Holy Grail she played the twin sisters in the Castle Anthrax sequence. I only came into a scene with her for literally ten seconds to grab Michael and tear him away. But again I must say in working with her, like on the TV shows, she was always very good, pleasant, came on and did her part without any fuss. We got on well with her and it was a very good relationship.”

  When away filming and touring internationally did the team socialise with each other and Carol greatly, at dinners, events, clubs and so forth? What memories do you have of socialising as a group on the road?

  JC: “I don’t think I socialised with the group as much as the others. I used to find that we spent enough time together without my needing to go out with them in the evenings! Very frequently I used to go off on my own to a quiet restaurant and just read a book.

  “When we were doing the British tour of course we were normally performing in the evenings and we might well have had drinks afterwards. It was 1973 you see and I remember the travelling; the endless, endless travelling. I remember few details even of travelling with the others. I remember we were driven in a couple of cars when we toured in the UK, but apart from an interminably stupid chauffer, I can’t remember much at all. Once it all becomes standard, once you go into the same rehearsal room, or get into the same car, or onto the same train or same plane it all just blurs together.”

  What in Carol’s personality, besides her acting skills and gifts, would you say cements her so closely to the team?

  JC: “Carol came in on a regular basis. Carol worked hard and yes, she fitted in well and was a pleasure to have around. Carol was deservedly our dedicated ‘other’ performer on our stage tours and in that sense, although she was not a writer, she became part of the ‘team’.”

  As a group of talents you’ve all led diverse lives and pursued different directions and enjoyed many successes. Carol has continued with roles on stage, screen and TV. Now she has turned her hand to writing, capturing all the fun and highlights of her long career in this book, PomPoms Up! What are your thoughts and hopes on this latest arrow to her bow?

  JC: “Well, I didn’t realise she could write. I know her publishers are very pleased and I am delighted for her. It’s going to be fun to have a look at this. Yes! I shall certainly read it.”

  INTERVIEW with ERIC IDLE

  Eric Idle’s voice resonates through the decades and not least from his writing and performing in the long story of Monty Python but also earlier bastions of English comedies such as Do Not Adjust Your Set. A consummate film and TV actor, Eric Idle’s voice-overs are legendary too as he has put voice to many outstanding film and TV series animations. A serious musical writer, composer and Broadway producer, he recorded Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, created the Beatles spoof band The Rutles and produced the popular stage show Spamalot.

  Eric, can you recall the details of your own first meeting with Carol and the events that led her into her entering the world of Monty Python’s Flying Circus?

  EI: “Memory is an unreliable guide to the past, and I was surprised to learn from All The Words that though Carol appeared for the first time in Episode Two of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, transmitted on the 10th of December 1969, it was actually the very first Python show ever recorded, actually on the 8th of August 1969, so that she was in from the ground floor right from the start.

  “Of course we had been working on our big new late-night BBC TV show since May, writing thirteen episodes which the BBC had commissioned, and had then gone off filming to Torquay on the 8th July 1969 but Carol was there from the beginning in Studio One at the old BBC Television Centre in Shepherds Bush, rehearsing for five days in the back room of The Old Oak Club, an Irish Drinking Club, (which we called variously The Old Joke Club or the Old Soaks Club) somewhere in Act
on. This venue could only have been chosen by Ian MacNaughton, a man who never liked to work very far from a glass of something stronger. Oddly the TV Director of the first four episodes was not the legendary drinking MacNaughton but the even more legendary acting John Howard Davies, he who as a young boy had played the eponymous Oliver Twist (“Please sir may I have some more”) in David Lean’s magnificent black and white classic Dickens film. He would go on to direct Fawlty Towers for John and he knew a thing or two about acting. In fact he taught me more about acting in those first four episodes than anyone ever has. So it was he who first cast Carol when we said we needed a real girl.

  “Carol’s induction into the legendary all-male world of the Flying Circus went like this. We were not looking for a girl, for we readily grabbed at any parts we could. The show was only half an hour long and there were six of us, which left only short straws for many of us in terms of meaty parts, but I had written a sketch called Marriage Guidance Counsellor about a smarmy young counsellor who seduces the beautiful wife of a very meek man, Mr. Pewtey, played by Michael.

  COUNSELLOR: And what is the name of your ravishing wife? (holds up hand) Wait. Don’t tell me – it’s something to do with moonlight – it goes with her eyes – it’s soft and gentle, warm and yielding, deeply lyrical and yet tender and frightened like a tiny white rabbit.