Michael Palin Reveals Monty Python Feuds Over Money and Creative Ownership

Sir Michael Palin has broken his silence the long-running behind-the-scenes feud that has divided the surviving members of Monty Python. 

In his most revealing comments yet, the 82-year-old star said that the group’s carefree, contract-free approach to writing sketches in the 1970s has come back to haunt them – fuelling rows over who created what, and who now reaps the rewards.

‘I can’t remember absolute specifics,’ he told The Louis Theroux Podcast. ‘But if something’s very successful – Python became very successful – then issues like who thought of what at the time, or who thought of the name here and there, becomes kind of important to the people who thought about it.

‘So it’s not a big issue, but if you find someone else saying, “We had this idea that day and we wrote this sketch,” and you know patently that you were the ones who had the original idea, that didn’t seem fair.’

His remarks come after years of on-off rows between the Pythons, reignited most recently last year when Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Gilliam clashed publicly over money and management.

Eric, 82, triggered the row when he revealed he was still ‘working for a living’ despite his global fame, blaming ‘financial disaster’ and what he called mismanagement of the group’s assets.

He appeared to take aim at Terry’s daughter Holly, who has managed Monty Python’s affairs since 2014, posting on social media: ‘If you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.’

His daughter Lily Idle quickly waded in to defend him, hailing her father for ‘finally sharing the truth’. 

The row re-opened old wounds over money, royalties and control – exposing deep fractures in the group once hailed as comedy’s tightest ensemble.

Now Sir Michael, long regarded as the mild-mannered peacekeeper of the Pythons, has spoken candidly about how that creative chaos began.

‘The problem was that there are a number of sketches in the films and on TV that are absolutely clear – they have not been changed, they work perfectly – and they may be written by Graham [Chapman] and John [Cleese], or myself and Terry [Jones], or Eric,’ he said.

‘But then there’s another area where it’s less clear – ideas would come in. The Ministry of Silly Walks, I think, went through about three or four different rewrites from various people within the group.

‘You’d say, “Well, we’ve gone as far as we can with this, why don’t you take it away?” And people would take it away, and so things became co-authored. But it was never written down, there were no contracts. 

‘That was the great thing about Python – it was supposed to be as free as possible. Just get on with writing the funniest stuff possible.’

He added: ‘It did mean there were those areas where people could say, “well, I thought of Silly Walks or whatever.” I mean,’ he laughed, ‘I claim credit for most of them.’

When asked whether such disputes still have any financial implications, Michael admitted there were ‘complications’ over who owns what.

‘It isn’t entirely [financial],’ he said. ‘I’m being a little bit cagey here, because there are certain complications in material ownership. Everything was really divided up and everybody got a bit. 

‘I think that Eric managed to get a deal on Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – he didn’t have to share everything with the rest of us in quite the same way. He wrote that, he did very good. It’s a brilliant song. But who knew that it was going to become the most requested song at funerals.’

Eric, who now lives primarily in Los Angeles, has long claimed that he was underpaid and under-credited, while John and Terry have dismissed his claims as nonsense.

John, 85, last year accused Eric of ‘invention’, denying that he had ousted the group’s long-time manager Jim Beach in favour of Holly Gilliam. ‘Jim resigned after a stroke,’ John insisted, adding that the new arrangement was agreed by everyone. 

Behind the scenes, the dispute has taken on a legal edge. Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd, the company that controls the group’s intellectual property and licensing rights, was placed on a strike-off notice by Companies House earlier this year – raising fears it could be dissolved altogether.

Eric was quick to describe that move as ‘the death of Python’ on social media, comparing it to the troupe’s own Dead Parrot sketch. However, the strike-off was later discontinued and the firm remains active.

In 2013, Holy Grail producer Mark Forstater successfully sued the group over royalties from the hit stage musical Spamalot, arguing he was owed a full seventh share of profits. 

Sir Michael appeared in those proceedings, firmly rejecting suggestions that Forstater was a ‘seventh Python’ or had any creative role in the films – underlining how questions of ownership have long shadowed the group’s finances.

The actor and comedian, who has famously travelled the world for the BBC and Channel 5 since his Python years, has occasionally alluded to tensions before, notably in 2014 when he said that by the time of their final film The Meaning of Life ‘unanimous agreement on anything’ had become impossible.

But his latest comments this week are the clearest acknowledgment yet that their creative freedom carried a hidden price.