That this is the stuff of tribute on the other hand I have been around for a long time now most 50 years I suppose since I started in the business. I've been been involved in the number of very very good shows with very good people I mean this goes back to life before the baby is going to go back to the boyhood and all of them. Happy Childhood Yes On the whole it was. In Sheffield. Had that's not a good beginning. I thought of leaving your body that are put in your own sort of intro comma and you fell into the trap I did you have to go wonderful place the last was just London 50 years ago. But it was you know and I'm saying it wasn't a great big city it was a big city but it was a you know how to get strong character we had. Where we did it was nice lots of friends. My father was was a difficult man because he think partly because he had a stammer was got very constantly rather frustrated with life and hadn't really achieved very much so there wasn't a lot of money to go around and I think that was there nothing theatrical in the background my my own Betty who my mother sister had been apparently and the Liverpool red line not quite sure what you're selling tickets for or playing Medea or whatever but anyway she was she was in Liverpool rep that's all we knew. And my sister did want to go into the theatre and she wasn't really an actor but she went into stage management and all that and it didn't really work out and she went around the country came back not having made much money which reinforced my father's feeling that the theatre was pre-sleep bankrupt so what led you to think you should tread the boards. Well whatever it was you wanted to trade or trade exactly I don't know there was a part of me that was very. I could make people laugh I could perform I knew I could act I knew that very well for you but Niger but you're not love the you but nature not love me no I suppose I'm not you know you know but then I never feel that I'm doing the right thing at the right time nothing to be real love you have to love everybody around you love what you're doing however I'm saying I'm not getting into all that I I just felt there was something there that made me resist taking the normal job that my father wanted me to do and so I thought hung back when. I was school careers Masters was just careers in business or banking or advertising or something that I just held off a very very fortunately I met people very stage in my life who shared my own feelings about some comedy performance and was slightly more. Fierce a sort of. Pushy other than I was I know my behalf and got me to do things that I wouldn't have done so kind of fell into it was rather avoided falling into anything else was going to work for the big factor in that that was actually yes that was that was where I met Terry Jones and also a guy called Robert Hewson and it was Robert who suggested that rather than just telling jokes to each other we should put them together and in a half hour act as a cabaret for which we would get 30 shillings one of these big box of balls. And that was the 1st time I sort of actually sort of involved in comedy form of what we study modern history. So I like to write funny enough really Yeah well I mean I don't know about you but I know I'm now far more instant history than I was the time it was engine of a feeling. Other ways of life and now I'm well you know I'm a really good sister historian of London absolutely brilliant and I I'm writing a history books. Itself of the moment so it comes back to you but at the time it was just a way of making. Of keeping myself up for 3 years and getting where I had an enormous amount of opportunities to appear doing comedies and plays and what did you do much work I work very hard in the last sort of 2 or 3 months before the exams and I always did enough to to get my essay known time I had a very good tutor who I think he knew I wasn't the sort of the brightest intellectual in the bunch. And he was very keen on my acting and he would say work for will that piece you did the other day interplay you did that was very very good if you go I say well I haven't got it handed in tomorrow yes I'm perfectly alright so he was very indulgent of me. The mention prince of there was straight acting never a kind of was that what you intended to do it I mention pincher because I I was cast in the. Production of the birthday party right which was not it's been revived now but it was not one of printers most popular plays and it was terrific and I really enjoyed that I think was something marvelously created a real so feeling of menace about these characters and I played McCann The Irishman who just sits there comes into this house you know why he's very good what he's there for he sits there and he saw tears the newspaper strips very carefully and talks of just just a lovely lovely thing to do and I knew then I could do many so I could do you know call to see who is barely so. Well there's no evidence that I did the birthday party Sadly once I met him and I said always I'm in the birth about to say oh yes we know about your birthday party but hey have you mentioned me in other fellow parts and when did that kind of coalesce if you like. Probably on the frost reports I mean I knew Terry and I'd worked with Terry Jones on reviews. At Oxford and admit every card look at Edinburgh he'd been with the Cambridge of view so the 3 of us kind of knew each other. And John Graham was a legendary sketch writers and they wrote some of the best sketches on the Frost Report and we Terry Jones and myself were sort of very much junior writers on last report so we sort of got to know them we met them a bit there and Terry Gilliam came in to really. Came into our ken really after we did do not just your set and he was he was came of New York and said you've got these animations we put in this extraordinary children's show we did 2 series of 512540 I think it was shown so by the time we got to from 9768 we all knew each other but the actual coming together was waiting but not until early 969 when a few phone calls went out. For some reason John and Graeme decided they liked doing or just your set and what we'd be doing and felt like we should write together for something new but for parts and your career set was that you were doing what you were going to do. Not really I was I was struggling to make enough money married in 166 we had our 1st child in 68 so you know mortgages to be paid and. All the expenses of starting a family. And I never felt totally comfortable so I was working for anyone I could work for whether it was sort of Ross Conway writing links for him or canned. Or yeah yes my mom like Roscoe Yes I like Russ convoy he's been. There later lately he was great for violin piano so we were for everyone we could waiting and hoping that there would be some sort of security debate some rather than just being a series of events and you have to sell yourself again is this something that stretches into the future. Presidents feel like that no no it didn't I mean we we felt we were taking a big risk with our lives really in 969 because the B.B.C. Took the show All right thank you very much for doing that but in a rather grudging way and they were the budget was very very low I mean it wasn't it was probably you make more money if you work for the 2 Ronnies or Marty Feldman the lead so we have to we have to just hope that somehow it would work and that you know it was working. Well we knew that was working for us that's what I mean but are you confident in the Yes Well it's very interesting those who question me we sat around the table and sketches came in and these were good good writers and Graham and John wrote brilliant stuff good stuff and we just knew as we read it this was hilarious We'd sort out the various powers but you NEVER Well certainly as far as I'm concerned you never know whether the great British public is going to. Share the same so feelings about something and also see something is to try I guess and try and also how is it going to be done you know and how are we going to get very conventional B.B.C. To deal with something so unconventional but we took heart from Spike Milligan during Q 5 news out that he was allowed to do very daft things but no really for a long long time I think it was it was well into the seventy's before I felt I feel comfortable now and safe and I will always find work I never felt that he do a bit of work here then someone sort of says oh I could do a bit of acting and 3 do a bit of acting and then it just was just just a little putting all the pieces together trying to find some sort of way forward which was a was probably around about Time Life of Brian I felt that do you look back on parts and not just fondly but I mean how do you what's your kind of sum ation of it because it's some of both now who are I look back on it with sort of very very rose tinted specs I suppose because those sessions I was talking about were around the table reading sketches that people have just written and putting them together and giving him coming up with the ideas of how to solve link them with some bizarre animation were terrific I mean that was it was great energy we were all in now 20 years but John in his forty's and we all we all sort of we all felt this energy this buzz and I have no feeling quite like that. Before. Or since that was very special and I look but they're falling Zell ever there were 4 legs outs later Yeah I know I mean the whole question of how many shows we should do we did the 1st 2 series and by the time we got to the end of the 2nd series John particularly wanted to do something on his own and felt that we had achieved all we could as a group. And we did a 3rd series which was good and funny and John was great in it and then. He went off to do Fawlty Towers and all there was there's a feeling at the time that we should stick together and we shouldn't let the side down by breaking up going off somewhere else looking back now I mean that's just the way things happen. And we've had 14 is out a suppose I'd be the one who would be accused of. Not agreeing to do The Last Vegas stage show and then the 1990 S. We all had our various independent ideas of where the series could go and that's what made it very strong me no one was stronger than the Python group together really no one outside could ever say you should do this you should do that we have to decide for ourselves and we put ourselves through fairly rigorous argument about what we should do what we should do was there a post partisan Maloney's. While I like post-partum freedom. From the I ended up being offered a chance to go around the world I know you've been a member I mean how Frank how do you know the best moment ladies how do you feel about it I do know that what a job what do you yeah I want to gay guy me sort of developed from around the world 90 days of touch and feel I was picky cut out for but gradually got comfortable with the way we were doing it and then Yes And then we did poll to poll again we weren't quite sure what the where the public ready for another one but wasn't based on as you vend story in a way but it was because good ratings the book sold well it was tremendous Memon is that. And even maintained a reputation if I may say so myself and you might blanch at this thing a very nice man. Well I mean this is try to be nice thank you Robert you're looking very splendid today look at the same eyes because you did you to fill the microphone is a lovely color No I mean that's become a bit of a flow of a bit of the beach thing I avoid I suppose I avoid confrontation among the conciliator of the group and I just I'm interested in people and I find if you want to get the best out of people and I you yes best to be friendly it's the simple as that but to say that I'm particularly nice I mean definitely the nicest man in Python was Terry Jones who was booed idea man a lovely man so you could be very careful whether you agree with this will disagree that was Michael Palin talking to me back in January. I thought. Just. I don't care. You're listening to a selection of the best bits of the rubber show from the last 12 months in the next few years one of our best loved museums here in London will be on the move back in January I met up with Sharon immense the director of the Museum of London and she took me on a tour of what will become the museum's new I can't believe it is too many of you listening who haven't been to the Museum of London at some stage because it is a fantastic look at the city we share it's it's history and it's present day but it's moving if you have been and I'm sure most of you have your night is currently in a rather strange sight sort of stuck in the middle of a roundabout just by London wall on the edges of the city right near the Barbican. It's an unusual annoyed and difficult site for all sorts of reasons in the museum is always felt rather hen DEAN Well there would be handy no longer because they're moving out they're moving to a brand new site except it's not a new so of course it's an old site it's part of Smithfield market if you look at Smithfield Market from the west so it's in front of you to the left of you is the functioning market that is still there and is still going strong thankfully and is still brilliant and is still a great place to buy meat north of that lot to the right of that is what's known as the the the general goods market I believe and that's been sitting derelict for ages it was going to be knocked down and replaced with a with some offices and luxury flats but thankfully I'm going to happen we won what I think is a real victory in this one prison state it's going to be taken over by the Museum of London which means that we'll get to use it and see it and share it so we thought we'd go down and take a look at the place as it currently is this is before the work has started to actually turn into the Museum of London so the person the reason I listed London and today Sharon took us down there and gave us a guided tour I'm standing outside Smithfield market it's the middle of the afternoon so you'd expect it to be fairly quiet but this has been quiet for a very long time this is the bit right on the frying invert the old Victorian market it's called and it's been closed for ages they were going to knock it all down but it's going to have a very new lease of life I'm glad to say I'm going to come in here and find out more. Or a very large gate into well. As you come in you suddenly start to see the metallic Victorian splendor of the old it's these includes an incredible roof I mean it's almost like a sort of a metal cathedral mean it's incredible and it's going to have an incredible new life as the Museum of London. Is there this morning. I've come here to meet the director of the Museum of London his new home this is going to be and I'm told she's at the top of this staircase and indeed dishy he's sharing. I. So. Explain where we are all OK fair we're. A loft in what's called the general market said this was the last of 3 big market places that was built by the Victorian architect Horace Jones and he was the architect who built tower bridge are well and very quickly this general market became a meat market as that became the most profitable food item which was highly in demand what do you intend to do with it OK I said this is going to be our new home the new Museum of London so we've got to basements West poultry after new what wonderful names the general market the basement of the poultry markets on I like to call the chicken wing. And this will comprise of the new museum you will enter into the galleries through a big circular stair case in the basement so this is sort of the turbine the whole of the museum in London I mean you know comparing it to the Tate Modern for example absolutely unlike Tate Modern where taking a building that had a previous use bar very differently to Tate is that we are really interested in what this building was used for previously it's part of the story of London. So we really need to bring that down because unlike summer us together we're going to take you now I'm going to take you to where the central staircase will be OK. Just seen that done seeming human have a route here that's incredible So this is a huge dome and in their fifty's there was a fire and the original roof was burnt away it was like it's concrete but it's not a Tolo errantly it was. Fiberglass really really. Uncertain all idea of course to clean it all up we might lift it bring more light and under here the dome gate is this wonderful kind of central point under which we could go into the gallery So is this going to be where your big staircase is yes right here and all vision for this place is to be somewhere which is all about contemporary London we are a museum about the history and development and present day life of London there must be people who remember this place as a working functioning I mean I was quite a while ago but it must be people who work today absolutely and many of the families who have market stores in the meat market which still is open and thriving know the history here and some of them are related to have families that are related to the people who originally were here I mean I suckled here from Camden Town and I know that I was cycling along the river the route of the fleet river that must be somewhere here is where it is it runs all the way down Farrington Yes And one of the things that I really want to understand this could we have views into the fly out through our base aren't we then out into the faces some metres below and it was wonderful Victorian engineering by Basle jet but before this was here before the Victorian market was here this was. Like an open sewer animals were killed here slow to Tiffany and then the blood and guts would flow into the fleet it was rolls it is nothing really disgusting so the Victorians with their kind of amazing ambition built this whole market complex above the fleece in the land flows down in a gradient to wards Farrington where you talked about having I mean because on a 6 she spoke of having a railway running 3 Yeah come on let's go and I followed. So we just down the ramp. And this train just come by. And we're back with a Thameslink we've got this fantastic opportunity to be a museum that the train will run through so I won't be able to go to work or to do whatever they're doing and run through a museum. I mean this is what we're going into the catacombs of something I mean it's kind of big Victorian overengineered cheese what we have here yet is the city corporation of London's salt store Wow So is this what they use when the when it's snowing and when the that's right when it's snowing you know we have those really cold winters Yeah well this is the old deployed to stop prevent us from slipping over but that obviously moving it now because it takes about 2 years for the South in this brickwork to leach out and this will be the place for the facts and objects and we've got $6000000.00 of them and the whole of Smithfield was a place where outside of the city was dangerous and kind of naughty things happened you know riots happened here the peasants revolt. It was a place of execution. William Wallace thanks. I'm. Just by the Scottish. Not know. It's it's a place where we just want to it's a place where like mountains were probably just a martyr's what it was you know it was the equal burning on the side it was a place of jalouse thing and the great big St Bartholomew's for one of the big European clubs happened here as well it's an incredible project trying to stop the techno project. You had lines this out to 15 year old boy is charged with murdering a 25 year old in Tottenham will appear at Westminster court on Boxing Day The teenagers are also charged with robbing Willa Mendez a Portuguese nation