Introduction

The Debate

They didn’t look like trouble. The Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Mervyn Stockward in all his glorious, purple gowns and Christian broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge in mustard jacket and tie, but like the Spanish Inquisition they came to attack and condemn the film, ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ as blatant blasphemy.

Defending themselves were Monty Python’s Michael Palin and John Cleese. But by the end of the discussion the Right Reverend pointed his massive cross, like Abraham Van Helsing warding off Dracula, at the blasphemers and announced that the two sinners would"get their thirty pieces of silver".

Malcolm Muggeridge on the other hand took the stand that “There is nothing in this little squalid number that could possibly affect anybody because it’s much too tenth rate for that.”

This attack certainly made the wonderfully ‘nice’ Michael Palin show some extraordinary (for him) anger. As he recalls,"We had done our homework, thinking we were going to get into quite a tough theological argument, but it turned out to be virtually a slanging match. We were very surprised by that. I don't get angry very often, but I got incandescent with rage at their attitude and the smugness of it."

The anger came from the inability to argue against such a comment. What were Michael and John supposed to say, “it is a good film or its a great film etc, etc…” How can the filmmakers themselves actually say that? But now 30 years later we do have the ammunition to deal with these scornful and derisive remarks.

In 2007 ‘Life of Brian’ was voted, ‘the funniest comedy ever’ in Channel Four's ‘50 Greatest Comedy Films’. And then theBritish Film Institute declared it to be the 28th best British film of all time. And here are some of the latest comments today on a Utube clip of the debate.

Crisis123456789:- ‘There’s nothing in this little s