"Monty Python's Flying Circus"
Intermission (1970)

Director:

Ian MacNaughton

Writers:

John Cleese (written by) &
Graham Chapman (written by) ...

TV Series:

"Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969)

Original Air Date:

11 January 1970 (Season 1, Episode 13)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Albatross | Doctor | Classic Episode | Absurd Humor | Eccentric

Cast

John Cleese	...	Voice Over #1 / Douglas / Albatross seller / Inspector / Nurse / Interviewer / First 'Probe-Around' Host / Policeman at Ouija board / Beryl / Flight Lieutenant Ken Frankenstein (Mrs.) / Dr. Larch
Graham Chapman	...	Headmaster / Vicar / Florence Nightingale / Marcel Marceau / Trevor Atkinson / Crossdressing Sergeant / Surgeon
Eric Idle	...	Shirley / Advertisement Announcer / Dr. Walters / Julius Caesar / Eric / Fairy Godmother / Second 'Probe Around' Host / Letter writer against the 'Mr. Atilla the Hun' sketch and the next letter / Squatter
Terry Jones	...	Intermission Announcer / Waiter / Albatross person / Mr. Burtenshaw / Second Gumby / Napoleon / City Gent / Policeman with wand / Very, Very, Very Stupid Policeman / Chief Constable / Mr. Phelps
Michael Palin	...	It's Man / Head Waiter / Hopkins / Luigi Vercotti / Robbed man / First Gumby / Wally Wiggin / Cardinal Richelieu / Michael / Inspector Harry H 'Snapper' Organs / Mr. Atilla the Hun (Mr. Alexander the Great) / Brigadier Zoe La Rue (deceased) / Mr. Notlob
Terry Gilliam	...	Voice Over #2 / Knight with chicken / Burglar / Animated character
Carol Cleveland	...	Sister / Receptionist / Hippie woman
David Ballantyne	...	Ivan the Terrible

Trivia:

The word "albatross" is spoken thirteen times in this episode.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: During the restaurant sketch, Eric Idle (playing the wife) almost breaks out in laughter when Terry Jones is wheeled in naked on a cart, garnished with lettuce and an apple in his mouth.

Quotes:

Surgeon: Ah come in, please take a seat. My colleague who has a similar office has explained your case to me. Mr. Notlob, as you know I am a leading Harley Street surgeon as seen on television.
[Puts needle down on gramophone; "Dr. Kildare" theme begins playing]
Surgeon: I'm afraid I'm going to have to operate. It's nothing to worry about, although it is extremely dangerous. I shall be juggling with your life, I shall be playing ducks and drakes with your very existence, I shall be running me mitts over the pith of your marrow...
[...]

Soundtrack:

Theme from 'A Summer Place'

Ills of the interregnum

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The title is printed on a card, then removed from it and fed to a bird-man in his nest.

The batty wife is brought to a vegetarian restaurant where the headwaiter excuses himself to blow his brains out ("it's nothing serious"), replaced by another who met his second wife at a second-wife-swapping party, and just like him to be late. A man is wheeled nude to the kitchen with an apple in his mouth, announcing he's the daily special.

"The management regrets that it will not be showing a feature film this evening as it eats into the profits." Advertisements will serve to drive the clientele away. "Pearls for Swine presents" car models, Soho Motors, 2nd Floor. Also a Mafia restaurant raided by police. A vendor hawks albatross in the theater aisle.

The breakdown worsens as a policeman and a gentleman complainant go off together. A punctilious doctor runs in circles archly correcting the speech of those around him. Stodgy suburbanites express entertainment preferences. Thus, Cardinal Richelieu ("16 stone of pure man") lip-synchs Petula Clark. John the Baptist's head vrooms off on a silver platter as Graham Hill. 16 tons fall on Marcel Marceau. A schoolboy would rather have Raquel Welch fall on him. An insurance executive would like more fairy stories about the police.

The police use fairy wands as better than "the old truncheon." A Ouija board tells them, "up yours." It begins with an inflatable robber chased by cops over the countryside, and ends with them dancing round the captive by a Stonehenge fire.

A.T. Hun, a piquant gentleman, gives himself up at the police station, but is proved to be A.T. Great.

Two physicians and two patients make the grand finale. A psychiatrist troubled with insecurity over his particular branch of medicine is rebuffed by a barking mad Napoleon who's seen it all before. "I can't even get it started," says the doctor, who refers his second patient to a colleague "with an office very much like this one."

This leading Harley Street surgeon draws a mustache and glasses on a photograph of the psychiatrist and receives the patient, who hears guitars and singing. An operation slits him open to find hippie squatters in him. The police raid his body with a court order.

The title card is shown again, with a coming précis from the Radio Times describing all this as "a history of Irish agriculture."