With news that legenday sketch comedy group Monty Python are going to reform for a live stage show - albeit without the selfishly deceased Graham Chapman - we thought it a good opportunity to look back at a selection of the best sketches from the sextet's defining work: 1969 sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Military Fairy

Lumberjack Song

The Lumberjack Song itself is fairly well-known, but the build-up to it is a perfect example of how the Pythons would regularly flow seemingly punchline-less sketches into one another, creating a far more surreal, longer sketch as a whole.

The Bishop

A delicious and often overlooked parody of 1960s crime dramas (specifically, The Saint), it can only be: THE BISHOP!

Silly Olympics

The Spanish Inquisition

Oh those naughty Catholics. This cluster of sketches from the second episode of Flying Circus Series 2 is one of the show's most famous creations. However, despite nobody expecting the Spanish Inquisition, QI recently asserted that they in fact gave 30 days' notice...

Hell's Grannies

Nudge Nudge

From way back in the third episode ever, the famed Nudge Nudge sketch sees two ordinary chaps enjoying a drink in a pub....

The Ministry of Silly Walks

There are many very silly departments of government. But none are quite so silly, nor as delightfully physical, as the Ministry of Silly Walks. Much like the Lumberjack Song sketch above, this is a good example of multiple sketches segueing into each other.

Dung (Book of the Month Club)

Undertakers' Sketch

There's no way we can really introduce this - other than to say it's not for the easily offended...

It mightn't be a sketch, but we can't fail to mention this magnificent gem from the film Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life:

The complete four-series Monty Python's Flying Circus collection is available to buy on DVD

Three of the team's four celebrated feature films are also now available to buy in high-definition Blu-ray format:
Monty Python And The Holy Grail
Monty Python's Life Of Brian
Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life

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