Monty Python's Life of Brian December 1976, with a first draft completed by mid-1977. The final pre-production draft was ready in January 1978, following "a concentrated two-week writing and water-skiing period in Barbados". The film would not have been made without Python fan former Beatle George Harrison, who set up HandMade Films to help fund it at a cost of £3 million. Harrison put up the money for it as he "wanted to see the movie" — later described by Terry Jones as the "world's most expensive cinema ticket." The original backers, EMI Films, had been scared off at the last minute by the subject
Monty Python and the Holy Grail as a jaunty assault on the well-made revue sketch and an ingenious misuse of television's fragmented style of presentation, threatens to become as unyielding and unfruitful as the conventions it originally attacked." The film's reputation grew over time. In 2000, readers of "Total Film" magazine voted "Holy Grail" the fifth greatest comedy film of all time. The next Python film, "Life of Brian", was ranked first. A similar poll of Channel 4 viewers in 2005 placed "Holy Grail" in sixth (with "Life of Brian" again topping the list). In 2005, the film spawned a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical smash hit