Audio: Cleese and Palin relive the Life of Brian debate

Michael Palin told The Today Programme that he prepared for the debate "quite carefully". "I didn't know what the Church's attitude was going to be - that's what I felt when I turned up there," he continued.

Although the Pythons were originally inspired by a title (Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory) to make an irreverent biblical comedy, Life of Brian is not about the son of God. It's about the guy in the next-door manger, born on the same night: Brian Cohen. It was an easy mistake to make; even the three wise men were momentarily fooled. Predictably, the film caused wide­spread outrage; accusations of blasphemy prevented it from being screened in many countries, while the marketing campaign cheerfully capitalised on the protest, proclaiming the film "so funny it was banned in Norway".

In spite of his obvious lack of divinity, and the fact that he's more interested in women and anti-imperialist politics than religion, Brian (Graham Chapman) is plagued by followers convinced that he's the saviour. The real Jesus is glimpsed at one point delivering his Sermon on the Mount, but Brian is so far back in the crowd that the people around him are wondering what Jesus meant by "blessed are the cheesemakers". Brian fixates on a rebellious young woman called Judith and gets tangled up with the People's Front of Judea (not to be confused with the Judean People's Front). A series of misadventures and misunderstandings lead him to Calvary, where the whole Messiah mix-up reaches its painful, and tuneful, climax.

The film was shot in Monastir, Tunisia, for $4m, with financing from George Harrison's HandMade Films, and each of the Pythons plays at least three roles. Michael Palin played 12, including a Boring Prophet and an ungrateful ex-leper who complains that, by curing him, Jesus has taken away his source of income.

These days, Life of Brian exists less as a film than as a series of endlessly quoted gags floating around in the popular imagination. People who have never even seen it can still chuckle heartily at "What have the Romans ever done for us?", or whistle Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. It's not like the Pythons took the narrative terribly seriously either: at one point, Brian is plucked out of a tight situation by a visiting alien spaceship. This is not necessarily a shortcoming, more a classic Python method of sending up something rather silly that has been taken far too seriously for its own good.

No bright side of life on Good Friday

A German secular group is sued for breaking a ban on showing the Life Of Brianp on Good Friday.

The making of Monty Python's Life Of Brian

It was the simple story of a very naughty boy who gets mistaken for the Messiah. Somewhere along the line Monty Python's magnum opus was mistaken for a blasphemous parody of the Gospels. Hmmm, wonder why...

Archive Letter: We're sorry you've been misled

When released in 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian was instantly banned in a number of countries due its supposedly blasphemous content. So numerous were the written complaints that the Monty Python team had no option but to compose the following form letter with which to respond.

Very naughty boys: The Pythons on making Life of Brian

It was the simple story of a very naughty boy who gets mistaken for the Messiah. Somewhere along the line Monty Python's magnum opus was mistaken for a blasphemous parody of the Gospels. Hmmm, wonder why...

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Monty Python's 1979 film, 'Life of Brian', is rightly considered a comedy classic. But, thirty years on, it wouldn't be made today, argues Sanjeev Bhaskar.