Eric Idle

He’ll take you from the giddy heights of Monty Python to the trauma of his childhood: the highs and bitter lows behind one of the most beloved and celebrated actors and writers of all time.

After losing his father at Christmas 1945, Idle spent twelve years in boarding schools before he escaped to Cambridge, fell in with five other troublemakers, and changed comedy forever.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life became Britain’s favourite funeral song. The Rutles became the world’s first mockumentary, George Harrison mortgaged his house to fund Life of Brian, and a medieval coconut gag became Spamalot, a Tony Award–winning Best Musical.

Expect candid memories of the friends he has loved and lost – Graham Chapman, George Harrison, Robin Williams – alongside fortunes made and squandered, feuds and reunions, a brush with cancer, and why, at 83, he is still looking on the bright side of life.

Unscripted, in conversation, and with the chance to put your own questions to him live on stage, An Evening of Idle Conversation is sixty years of show business told the way only Eric Idle can tell it.

In celebration of his brand-new memoir, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme, copies will be available at each event, with signings where possible. 

ABOUT ERIC IDLE

Eric Idle is a comedian, actor, author, and singer-songwriter who found immediate fame with the sketch-comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The group’s films include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life. Eric wrote, directed, and created The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, the world’s first mockumentary, and the Tony Award–winning musical Spamalot. His memoir Always Look on the Bright Side of Life was a New York Times bestseller; his latest, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme, is out now through Penguin Random House.