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Tony Roche

Tony Roche

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Holy Flying Circus

1 x 90', 2011 Hillbilly Television Ltd for BBC4 Creator Tony Roche Producer Polly Leys and Kate Norrish Director Owen Harris Writer Tony Roche Starring Darren Boyd, Charles Edwards, Stephen Fry, Mark Heap & Steve Punt

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A fantastical reimagining of the controversy surrounding the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian, focusing on the infamous television debate where Michael Palin and John Cleese defended the film against the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge.

Holy Flying Circus first aired on BBC4 at 9pm, 19th October 2011 drawing in nearly double the average audience figures for BBC4, as well as proving a smash hit with critics. 

Read Tony's article about why he wrote the show.

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Holy Flying Circus

Agent Representation

Theatre, Film & TV Ben Hall Ben Hall
+44 (0)20 7393 4452
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Theatre, Film & TV Lily Williams Lily Williams
+44 (0)20 7393 4452
 Lily's Profile >

Cheeky, fantastical and occasionally very funny

Simon Horsford The Telegraph

A mad mash-up of self-reference, cross-dressing, ribaldry and nonsense. I loved it

Alison Graham Radio Times

Quite brilliant

Phelim O'Neill The Guardian

Light, funny and ultimately quite sweet, riffing off plenty of famous Python sketches with some note-perfect performances from the actors playing Palin, Cleese, Muggeridge and others

Phelim O'Neill The Guardian

Ridiculously funny

Jane Simon Mirror

Seeing each of the Pythons caricatured was the first of Holy Flying Circus’s many joys... Constantly inventive, often very funny

Chris Harvey The Telegraph

Even the performances were trumped by writer Tony Roche, a man who clearly knows his Python history inside out but who never let the story... get in the way of a merry jaunt up a surreal side alley

Keith Watson Metro

There ought to be a bit of a ruckus about how good it was

Tom Sutcliffe Th Independent

BBC 4's drama about the release of Life Of Brian is a bold move - but an exceedingly welcome one

Oliver Franklin GQ

Holy Flying Circus 

is a beast like no other... The fun of the programme comes from its anarchic style, the fact that it makes serious points in classic Pythonesque fashion... and glorious impersonations of the Python team. Pick of the Day.

David Chater The Times

Tony Roche's frenetic but hugely enjoyable film documents these events but happily, this is no tediously faithful BBC4 biopic... [it is an] inventive approach

Phil Harrison Time Out

Tony Roche perfectly and often hilariously matched form and content

Andrew Billen The Times

Holy Flying Circus is one of the most insanely creative, joyous, electric, ridiculous, heart-felt, ballsy and unique dramas I have ever seen... it makes most other dramas look like tired old men sitting in bathchairs

Caitlin Moran The Times

It won me over. It was rather clever, and wittily made, with imagination and style, and Stephen Fry channelling Morgan Freeman as God; and quite a lot of it made me laugh, in a nostalgic way

A. A. Gill The Sunday Times



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