What the Pythons Say...

"A Recurring Favorite - Carol Cleveland"

The Pythons weren't able to play all of their parts themselves, and were lucky enough to have a very talented stable of supporting players to back them up. But, whether they appeared in one show or dozens, none is as dear to the hearts of Python fans as their Number One Ingenue, Carol Cleveland.

If there was ever a seventh Python, there can only truly be one candidate. Carol Cleveland started out in the very first Monty Python's Flying Circus, and appeared in two-thirds of the original forty-five shows, as well as virtually every important Python film and stage show that followed.

Carol brought exactly the right attitude to the shows, and the group always tried to use her whenever a real woman was required. She was actually discovered by the MPFC original director, John Howard Davies, and hired to appear in the first few shows only.

"We didn't know who she was when we started the series," says John Cleese. "John Howard Davies cast her and we all liked her, so from then on, we used her for all but the more upper-class roles. We simply liked what she did; she was very easy to get along with, she could be very silly when required and she didn't have an excessive sense of dignity. I thought she was absolutely excellent. She was very solid, very professional, very likeable and easy to have around."

"Carol just had a real inspiration for fitting in. She was absolutely right for what we wanted," says Terry Jones. "She would play these parts, the bosomy, sexy girl, larger than life, and make it funny - she was acting in tune with the rest of us. When Ian MacNaughton took over, he kept trying to bring other girls into the shows, and they were always hopeless. Because it's very difficult to come in and try to hit the same key - but Carol did. We'd insist on Carol if it was a big sketch, but when it was a small bit, especially in the first season, we'd allow Ian to choose other girls. But they never worked the same as Carol did. They would have all been much better if we'd always just had Carol."

"Carol, of course, was excellent. She was the unsung heroine because she was so spot on," says Michael Palin. "We never had to tell her how to play a scene, she just had a Python way of thinking about it. She instinctively knew how to get all those laughs out, which is not necessarily by going over the top or mugging. It's all teamwork, sharing the laughs with the others. She was so very good when she was in love with the pantomime horse! 'Oh, pantomime horse, I do love you so!' Things like that, she did very well indeed - she was never, ever upstaged."

"She had a great appetite for acting, she's got a natural talent for comedy, but I think the great thing about Carol was her temperament. She was able to cope with anything that was thrown at her. She didn't particularly want to become a Python, she didn't want to write, she didn't seem to hold any grudge against us for not writing better parts for women. She enjoyed doing what she did, and she knew she did it well, and there was a feeling of confidence when we'd give a part to Carol. You knew exactly how it was going to be done, and it was done right.

Excerpt from "The First 28 Yrs. of Monty Python" © 1999 Kim "Howard" Johnson.