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Eric Idle is a comedian, actor and film director,
as well as an author and accomplished
guitarist/songwriter. He wrote and performed as
part of the Monty Python team.

==Early Life==

He was born on March 29, 1943, in South Shields,
County Durham, England.  Idle's father had been in
the RAF and survived the Second World War, only to
be killed in a car crash shortly afterwards. His
mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job
and raising a child, so at the age of seven she
enrolled him into the The Royal Wolverhampton
School as a boarder.

The school had begun life as a Victorian orphanage
and during Idle's time it was a charitable
foundation solely dedicated to the welfare of
orphans and semi-orphans.  Its pupils, who were
mainly the children of dead English soldiers,
still referred to it as the
'http://uk.geocities.com/ophney77/ Ophney'.

"It was a physically abusive, bullying, harsh
environment for a kid to grow up in," Idle is
quoted as saying, "I got used to dealing with
groups of boys and getting on with life in
unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny
and subversive at the expense of
authority."ref|McCabe  All this turned out to be
the perfect training for his future career.

Idle maintains that boredom drove him to work hard
and he eventually won a place at Cambridge, where
he met other members of the groundbreaking United
Kingdom|British comedy team Monty Python. Unlike
the other Pythons, who wrote in pairs (John
Cleese|Cleese/Graham Chapman|Chapman and Michael
Palin|Palin/Terry Jones|Jones), Idle wrote alone.
His work was often closely associated with long,
complex speeches or catchy one-liners. Amongst the
many Python sketches written by Idle is the "Nudge
nudge|Wink Wink Nudge Nudge" sketch, the title of
which has become a catchphrase.

==University Life==

Eric Idle attended Pembroke College,
Cambridge|Pembroke College at The University of
Cambridge, where he studied English.  At Pembroke
College he was invited to join the prestigious
Cambridge University Footlights Club by fellow
Pembroke College students, the then 1963 President
of the Footlights Club, Tim Brooke-Taylor and
Footlights Club member Bill Oddie.

"I'd never heard of the Footlights when I got
there, but we had a tradition of college
smoking-concerts, and I sent in some sketches
parodying a play that had just been done.  Tim
Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie auditioned me for the
Footlights smoker, and that led to me discovering
about and getting into the Footlights, which was
great".ref|Perry

Eric Idle became President of the Footlights Club
in 1965.  Other Monty Python members of the
Cambridge University Footlights Club were John
Cleese and Graham Chapman.

With regard to the other Monty Python members,
both Terry Jones and Michael Palin attended The
University of Oxford, while Terry Gilliam attended
Occidental College in the United States.

During the 1960's period, the combined comedy
students of both The University of Oxford and The
University of Cambridge became known as the
Oxbridge Mafia.  

====Further information==== 
Further information regarding this, and about Eric
Idle, can be found in the following books:

*From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a
Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' - Roger
Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980.

*Footlights! - 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge
Comedy' - Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd,
1983. (The preface for "Footlights!" was written
by Eric Idle).

==Monty Python==


His skills as a singer-songwriter were also put to
use in his work with Monty Python, having written
the majority of the songs featured in their
television series' and films. These include "Eric
the Half-a-Bee", "The Philosophers' Song" and
probably his most recognised hit "Always Look on
the Bright Side of Life|Always Look on the Bright
Side of Life", which was written for the closing
scene of the film Life of Brian, sung from the
crosses during the mass crucifixion, as something
of an antidote to Death. When a clip of this song
was used as part of a jingle by Simon Mayo on the
Radio 1 breakfast show in 1991, it was re-released
to much acclaim, and reached the UK Top 10. It
later became a staple football chant.  He also was
in the prolouge for The Meaning of Life which
contains the following: 

:There's everthing in this movie-- everything that
fits.  
:From the meaning of life in the universe to girls
with great big tits.     

:We've got movie stars, foreign cars, explosions
and lot... 
:Filmed as only we know how... on the budget that
we've got.  

:We spent a fortune on locations and quite a bit
on drink... 
:And there's even the odd philisophical joke...
just to make you buggers think.  
    
:Yet someparts are as deep and serious as you
could wish.  
:But largely it's all tits and ass and quite a lot
of fish.        
    
:Other bits are frankly childish and some are
frankly rude... 
:But at least we've got a lot of nice girls all
banging in the nude.  
    
:So take your seats, enjoy yourselves, and lets
just hope it's funny.  
:Beacause it's not just done to make you laugh...
but to make us lots of money.  
    
:Yes, sit back and have a good time with your
boyfriend or your wife. 
:Relax and just enjoy yourselves... for this is
The Meaning of Life.

==Writing==
Idle has written several books, both fictional and
nonfictional. His novels are Hello, Sailor and The
Road to Mars.  He also wrote the book for the Holy
Grail spinoff musical, Spamalot which premiered
January 2005 in Chicago, Illinois before moving to
Broadway, where it received the Tony Award for
Best Musical of the 2004-2005 season.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted amongst the top 50 greatest comedy acts
ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

An example of Idle's idiosyncratic writing is
'Ants in their pants' - a poem about the sex life
of ants.

==References==
#note|McCabe'The Pythons' Autobiography of the
Pythons', Bob McCabe (et al), Thomas Dunne
Books/St. Martin's Press, 2003.
#note|Perry'The Life of Python', George Perry,
Pavilion Books Ltd, 1994.

==External link==

*http://pythonline.com/plugs/idle/ PythOnline
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/i/idle_e
ric.shtml Eric Idle - BBC Guide to Comedy
*http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001385 Eric Idle at
the http://us.imdb.com Internet Movie Database