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    Monty Python's Eric Idle Looks Back On The 'Bright Side' Of A Life In Comedy

    Eric Idle talks with Here & Now's Robin Young about his favorite Monty Python moments, and his new memoir "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography."
    Oct 02, 2018 7 minutes
    "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography," by Eric Idle. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

    Monty Python co-founder Eric Idle‘s memoir “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography” comes out Tuesday.

    Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks with Idle (@EricIdle) about the book.

    • Scroll down to read an excerpt from “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”

    Interview Highlights

    On the impact the early 1960s British stage comedy “Beyond the Fringe” had on him

    “They were the first people really I ever saw who actually attacked the prime minister or the cabinet or the queen and the royal family, the Army, the Navy, religion — and they just demolished everything. I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh, you can be funny about all this stuff.’ ”

    On how growing up after World War II shaped Monty Python members

    “We we all born in the war, and then we grew up in the ’50s, which was a time in England where there was rationing of everything: butter, cheese, sugar, beef. So there was very great shortages. London was filled with bomb sites, everything was blitzed and horrible. What was interesting is that that generation, as

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