British Archivists Found a Lost Comedy Series From the 'Monty Python' Creators
As an art form, is comedy really so old that archivists have to unearth it like dinosaur bones? The answer is yes, apparently. For their latest massive discovery, United Kingdom's Independent Television (ITV) just uncovered a Monty Python's Flying Circus precursor series, which was previously thought to be lost to time. Titled The Complete and Utter History of Britain, the six-episode comedy premiered a little under a year before Monty Python's 1969 debut. The Complete and Utter History of Britain was written by (and stars) Monty Python creators Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
According to British Comedy Guide, archivists believed that only the first two episodes of the series survived the test of time. They were part of a 2014 Blu-ray bonus feature—which already sounds like an ancient sentence, even though 2014 was just nine years ago. Somehow, ITV unearthed the remaining four episodes to complete the spoof, which tracks the history of the British Isles. "The series had been sitting in the ITV vaults though mis-catalogued for decades," the channel told British Comedy Guide. "We flagged it to our colleagues in streaming, had the film cleaned and restored from the 16-mm. telerecordings and then finally made available to our viewers for the first time since the original broadcasts."
All six episodes are now available to stream through ITV Premium—marking the first time since the original 1969 broadcast that the entire series can be viewed in full. Watch it now, before the Monty Python precursor becomes the literal Holy Grail.
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