00:00good afternoon my name is phil hewitt group arts editor at sussex newspapers now what an enormous
00:07career privilege this is to be sitting talking to none other than eric idol with the t-shirt show
00:13the t-shirt the t-shirt yeah the name the name of the tour which brings you back to the uk you're
00:19doing dates including bournemouth and brighton and lots of big cities manchester liverpool etc
00:24wonderful title for the show always look on the bright side of life alive now that song does that
00:32sum up your your approach to life it must do mustn't it is that what you are about personally would you
00:37say i suppose in a way i mean it wasn't written for that reason it was written to end the life of
00:43brian yeah because everybody was being crucified so we didn't know how to end the movie so i said
00:48it should be a song and they said well well what do you mean they said well it should be like a disney
00:53song with a whistle you know cheery uppie song be ridiculous like always looking on the bright side
00:58i mean because if you are being crucified you don't have very long to look on the bright side so
01:03it is a very ironic song so i went away and wrote it and brought it back next day and they and they
01:09liked it and you know and so when you look back on your career you can look on the bright side all
01:14the things that you've achieved goodness i think i think i think that i think there is i am a more
01:20an optimist so i usually say i'm an optimist in the morning and a pessimist at night
01:23when the day is sunk in you know but because i i think you start again every day you've got a fresh
01:30day you know so i i think some people wake up depressed and so others go well well what are we
01:35going to do today you know and i i like to write first thing in the morning and i find out then what's
01:40in my mind or what i'm thinking or i continue to write a book or whatever i'm doing and for the show
01:46you'll be looking back on your fabulous career and obviously monty python now it's what 50 odd 55
01:51years ago plus well i mean why is it still so big do you think monty python still so important now
02:00i don't think i'm not sure it's important i think it's interesting because i don't think comedy is
02:06supposed to last that long comedy is supposed to be about the time you're in and as we were talking
02:11slightly before i i think python is not involved in time because it followed a satire boom and so
02:19most of the sketches are generic they talk about upper class twits of the year i mean they don't
02:25talk about particular people so you're not locked into a time in the 60s and early 70s when it was
02:31written they're generic people they're they're characters uh and they're they're not locked into
02:40time so i think that's one of the reasons that it it has stood up a bit and it's also pretty silly
02:47and it's also i think written by five quite good writers who are at the peak of their that's wonderful
02:53british understatement stood up a bit quite silly written by quite good writers you've excelled yourself
02:58there well i don't know because i don't know how much it's known i mean i know that it's i don't know
03:04how much it's played i mean now it seems to be tying little bits in tiktok you know what i mean
03:09they like funny bits and i like little funny bits too i mean there are some very funny little bits and
03:14i i choose the best ones for my show that i like that aren't necessarily the most popular that have
03:20made me laugh and um i like i like that it's a nice way it's really me talking to an audience about
03:29what it's like to be a comedian and have some memories of people i've met and you talk about the
03:36people you've met let's talk about george harrison a hero of mine that pirate song see you i just
03:42instantly think pirate song that was genius wasn't it i think he was so game wasn't it olivia harrison
03:48said she thought it was the bravest thing he ever did because he comes down and he's singing the
03:54his biggest the hollywood ball and he goes off into a pirate song and you know he loves that he
04:00loved doing that i know he did and uh we wrote it together so it is the only idol harrison song
04:06and i don't i never wrote any song to any of the other beatles i never asked so um
04:11well i didn't write about them i mean i did make the ruttles there's a new eight minute cut of the
04:18ruttles in the show and i say it's by peter jackson uh it isn't really but i say it is and
04:24the ruttles was brilliant it combines such respect but it's taking too didn't it well well it was the
04:30first i think it was a bit like brian when we we fell onto doing religion nobody'd ever done comedy
04:35about religion so you've got a free market you've got plain empty canvas and i think the the beatles
04:41were like that doing a thing on the beatles nobody ever sort of taken the piss out of the beatles
04:46story it wasn't really taking the piss out of them as the way the world saw the newspapers
04:51covered their story you know that's and that that's sort of what it was really about but uh
04:57and george helped me with that he showed me a film called the long and winding road which neil
05:03aspinall had put together and none of them could agree to release it because they didn't
05:07they couldn't agree which bits to cut or be which should be left the path clear for you fortunately
05:12well they did eventually an anthology brings most of those bits out absolutely anyway i'm really
05:21conscious that i've gone way past my time but it has been fabulous to speak to you thank you so much
05:26for your time a real pleasure to meet you and to talk to you next time i think a rutter's picture
05:30on the wall i do think so okay absolutely send me one signed lovely to see you okay so thank you take care
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