Jesus vs. Monty Python

WHEN Monty Python's Life of Brian opened in November 1979, John Cleese and Michael Palin appeared on Tim Rice's BBC show Friday Night -Saturday Morning to discuss it with Malcolm Muggeridge and the Rt Revd Mervyn Stockwood, the then Bishop of Southwark. Muggeridge called it a "squalid little number" and "tenth rate", while the Bishop, resplendent in purple cassock and fingering his large pectoral cross, accused them of "blasphemy", looking to get their "thirty pieces of silver".

As the Monty Python team gather for a series of reunion shows at the O2 arena, and an international academic conference, "Jesus and Brian", is being held next week in London, it is high time to reconsider these accusations. The intervening years have demonstrated how much the Church got it wrong, misunderstood the film, and missed a significant opportunity to debate the importance of Jesus in British life.