Monty Python Live! shows (minus the animation and Neil Innes songs), alongside a selection of lesser performed sketches plus some new comedy pieces written specially for the book. Monty Python Live! Monty Python Live! is a book detailing the various live performances of the Monty Python team between 1971 and 1980. Edited by Eric Idle, the book was released in 2009 as part of the team’s 40th anniversary celebrations and features recollections from surviving members John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, alongside archive interviews with Graham Chapman. Also contributing are Python regulars Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes, promoter
Monty Python Idle, and Cleese, as well as many other English comedians including Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, and Marty Feldman. Palin and Jones wrote the comedic TV series "Ripping Yarns" (1976–79), starring Palin. Jones also appeared in the pilot episode and Cleese appeared in a nonspeaking part in the episode "Golden Gordon". Jones' film "Erik the Viking" also has Cleese playing a small part. In 1996, Terry Jones wrote and directed an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's novel "The Wind in the Willows". It featured four members of Monty Python: Jones as Mr. Toad, Idle as Ratty, Cleese as Mr. Toad's lawyer, and