Before we had 'Monty Python', we had 'At Last The 1948 Show'. This Associated Rediffusion sketch show featured some of the best comedy talent around at that time - Marty Feldman ( who later would land his own BBC sketch show ), Tim-Brooke Taylor ( who later became one of 'The Goodies' ), John Cleese and Graham Chapman ( both of which would later become part of the 'Monty Python' cast ).
This was one point on the starting ground for what would eventually become the Monty Python troupe. Both John Cleese and Graham Chapman were writers as well as performers on this show along with Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Believed lost for decades, this series is finally available on DVD (well, five episodes of it, at least), and it is definitely one of the great comedy finds. Written by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman, it is one of the clearest forerunners of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (along with "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which has also been given an archival release).
At last, the chance to compare what's left of this show (bringing John Cleese and Graham Chapman together with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman, with 'the lovely' Aimi MacDonald) with the other pre-Python comedy show, Do Not Adjust Your Set.Five compilation episodes from the 1948 Show are now available on DVD, and although the viewing quality is pretty poor, there are some gems here - the Four Yorkshiremen (done later by Python at the Hollywood Bowl and by Python plus Rowan Atkinson at the Secret Policeman's Ball); the Plain Clothes Policeman (where Cleese, Chapman and Feldman are in unconvincing drag); the Chartered Accountant Dance (Tim Brooke-Taylor in one of the highlights of the set); the Sidney Lockerbys; and much more.
Okay, it is black-and-white, but that is what we had in those days. We considered ourselves lucky to have pictures!
Contrary to popular belief, Monty Python's Flying Circus did not spring fully-formed out of thin air. In the heady days of the early sixties lots of young British comic performers were coming up with ideas for shows that, like radio's Goon Show of the fifties, would break the mould of the rather stuffy sitcoms of the time.
