In this weeks English Lunch we had two more nominations for our greatest Briton, firstly John Cleese who was Born in 1939 in Weston-Super-Mare – a town on the northern coast of Somerset famous for its long sandy beach, a Helicopter Museum, a “Grand Pier” and the seasonal “Wheel of Weston” – and secondly the great liverpudlian John Lennon (Liverpool needs no introduction)
John Cleese went to school at Clifton College (the link is a must!) and later to Cambridge University (to read law) where he met Graham Chapman – the rest of the Monty Python crew came together whilst working on “The Frost report”
Monty Python and the Flying Circus started in 1969 and was something people had never seen before. They had new comedy ideas and sketches, often based on ordinary people in absurd positions. John often played upper-class/authoritative characters such as “Upper-Class Twit of the Year”, “the Minister for Silly Walks” as well as “Dangerous Fruit” – if you don’t know how to defend yourself against someone armed with a piece of fresh fruit, then you absolutely must watch…
One of his favourite sketches is the “Fish Slapping Sketch”
We also learnt more about John Lennon – take a look at this clip taken from a documentary given us an idea how the Beatles composed, which also Joko Ono – who became quite controversial at the time – just sitting with them.
As usual if would be great if the presenters could add their presentations and links in the comments section below – that way we can share our nominations with the rest of the English-Please community!
Look forward to hearing / seeing you next week!!