John Cleese waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones, and Idle. "Monty Python's Flying Circus" ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though Cleese quit the show after the third. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticated and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop" and by Cleese's Mr Praline character,
The Gladiator March Traveler. Sousa had not written many marches before that, and none of them received great popularity. The Gladiator, however, sold over a million copies - a record for the time and was soon performed frequently. It follows normal march style, IAABBCCDCDC, and is played at the normal pace of most marches: 120-128 beats per minute. Although marches such as "Semper Fidelis", "The Washington Post", "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Hands Across the Sea" have achieved greater popularity, the "Gladiator" is still regarded as John Philip Sousa's first success. The Gladiator March "The Gladiator" is a march by John Philip Sousa,