BookOpinion

Amazon has released a podcast excerpt from Michael Palin’s “Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years.”

“Told in Palin’s inimitable voice,” Amazon writes, “this is a wry, revelatory look at the comic brains behind the show, and Palin’s diary format results in a true day-in-the-life portrait of the troupe.”

In this podcast excerpt Palin reads through diary entries for the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Palin says in the book, that a diary “becomes history, but quite unselfconsciously. What proves to be important over a long period is not always what a diarist will identify at the time. For the historians’ sake I should probably have noted every detail of the birth of Monty Python, but it seemed far more important to me to record the emergence of my new family than the faltering steps of a comedy series that would probably last no more than two years. And that, I feel, is as it should be. Legends are not created by diaries, though they can be destroyed by them.”

The Washington Post writes, “Palin provides insights into the group’s dynamics during the decade that brought the Monty Python troupe to international acclaim. This abridgment can be satiating and frustrating, often simultaneously. At face value, it provides many behind-the-scenes moments and explores how and why the comedy troupe went about its business. Yet the mere knowledge that it’s an abridgment will have listeners yearning to hear more—especially Python-quoting fans.”

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