N. F. Simpson which no episodes survive. His final series for television was the unsuccessful "Charley’s Grants" (1970), co-written with John Fortune and John Wells, starring Hattie Jacques, and produced by Ian MacNaughton (who produced "Monty Python’s Flying Circus"), which is also entirely lost. Plays followed, including a satire on advertising, "Thank You Very Much" (1971), and an effective three-hander for ITV, "Silver Wedding" (1974), directed by Mike Newell. Simpson’s highest-profile production for television was "Elementary, My Dear Watson" (1973), a Sherlock Holmes parody for BBC One’s "Comedy Playhouse" starring John Cleese and Willie Rushton. It has been screened several times at the
John Cleese often involved authority figures, some of whom were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that opened with idyllic countryside panoramas. Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. During this period Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook. It was as a performer on "The Frost Report" that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure in the classic "class sketch", contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, "middle class" Ronnie Barker and the even shorter, "working class"