Eric and George
Olivia and George Harrison with Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam on the night they first met (1975)
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography Excerpt #1:
That evening my life changed anyway, for at the screening of The Holy Grail at the old Directors Guild on Sunset, I met George Harrison. I had heard that George wanted to meet me, but I was somewhat shy of meeting him. People said he was an enormous fan of Python and a big fan of me personally because I had written a sketch for Flying Circus about an actor being busted by the police. The policeman had thoughtfully brought a package of his own. When the actor opened the brown paper bag, he found sandwiches.
“Sandwiches?” says the policeman. “Blimey, whatever did I give the wife?”
Cut to a stoned wife. “I don’t know, baby, but it was better than sandwiches!”
This was the only line cut by the BBC from the first series. George had assumed, probably rightly, that the sketch was based on his own drug bust in Esher, where the police had brought their own cannabis, and was anxious to meet me. I was shy and tried to avoid him, but he snuck up on me in the back of the theater as the credits began to roll. I hadn’t yet learned he was unstoppable. We began a conversation that would last about twenty-four hours. Who could resist his opening line?
“We can’t talk here. Let’s go and have a reefer in the projection booth.”
35mmsunsetz