Michael Palin: Monty Python was 'not very good'

The actor and author has admitted a lot of Python was 'crap'

Palin says people have 'forgotten the dross' (Getty Images)

Much of pioneering comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus was “crap”, according to Michael Palin.

Palin, 70, said there had been some “gleaming moments” in the TV show such as the dead parrot and Spanish Inquisition sketches.

But he also admitted that a lot of other material was “not really that good”.

“People forgive you the things that don’t work. A lot of Python was crap, it really was,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“We put stuff in there that was not really that good, but fortunately there were a couple of gleaming things that everyone remembers while they’ve forgotten the dross.”

He is due to embark on a solo tour in September and October called “Travelling to Work” which will look back over his near 50-year career.

Palin said he would talk about his successes but also the “lowlights and cock-ups” in case it looked “rather as if you are gloating”.

“I’m very proud of the things I’ve done. There are a lot of things looking back which you would say were brilliant,” he said, “but it’s also about what’s behind it and feeling of how you recover from things that didn’t work so well.”