Pythons legend Eric Idle says he 'fell instantly in love' with Beatle George Harrison

COMEDY fans know him as a vital member of the Monty Python crew, with a nudge and a wink and a tendency to look on the bright side of life. But in a new interview, 83-year-old Eric Idle reveals his surprisingly sensitive side, as he reflects on a glittering career full of laughter. Since bursting on to the scene in 1967 on ITV’s Do Not Adjust Your Set, he’s rubbed shoulders with the great and the good all over the world. Particularly significant was his friendship with George Harrison, the Beatles’ guitarist. Eric was by his side when George died in 2001, having become pals after meeting at the opening screening for Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975. He says: “He was looking for me and we fell instantly in love. It was amazing. And we talked all night. We went back, played guitars. He played me some of his tracks from the studio and we stayed up all night. I figured we kind of played a similar role in our groups, between two powerful blocs.” To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed. When the Pythons’ 1979 film, Life of Brian, lost its backer, EMI, less than a week before filming, George stepped in. Eric says: "Nobody was going to make it. We were building the sets and we were in debt. George said, ‘oh, don’t worry, I’ll find you the money.’ And he did. He mortgaged his house in Henley and he mortgaged his business premises in Knightsbridge. He said ‘I wanted to see the movie.’” Eric’s friendship with George inspired The Rutles, his affectionate spoof of the Beatles, and released a movie in 1978 called All You Need Is Cash. He says: “Apparently John and Yoko loved it. I think Ringo said he liked it after 1968. I still don’t understand what that means. I bumped into Paul McCartney and Linda just up the road and he said, ‘I’m not sure we’re talking to you.’ Linda? Gosh, she loved it, because I’m sort of sending up her husband. Anyway, he’s forgiven me now and he’s very, very friendly and lovely.” Since 1971 Eric - who lives in California - has also had a home in Provence, in the south of France, about 4km outside the village of Cotignac. He bought it with his first wife, the actress Lyn Ashley, as a crumbling stone ruin. Eric and Lyn, whose son Carey was born in 1973, divorced in 1978, and in 1981 he married Tania Kosevich, a former model he met in New York - going on to have a daughter, Lily, born in 1990. The house features in his latest book, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme, published in September. And it became a retreat from the spotlight for superstar pals like the late comedian Robin Williams, who died by suicide in 2014, when they wanted to avoid the limelight. Speaking on BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions, Eric, who paid tribute at his friend’s memorial, says: “Nobody knew Robin in those days in France because Mork and Mindy hadn’t even started in France. So he had a bit of time to get over that. They [the locals] didn’t bother people. It’s quiet and it’s not a big deal. That’s very nice for people who are used to being looked at. It’s not very healthy to be looked at all the time.” David Bowie was another star who came to stay. Eric says: “He gave me a cassette called Diamond Dogs, and he asked me to write a musical with it - so I listened to it. A couple of weeks later, he said, ‘what did you think of Diamond Dogs?’ And I went, ‘well, it’s very loud.’ So we never played music. We did comedy most of the time. He was the most extraordinary polymath. He read widely. He listened to all kinds of music. He was into photography, costume. He did everything. And he was a very wonderful, amazing man.” Eric, who this week cancelled his November and December Evening of Idle Conversation tour in Australia and New Zealand on medical advice, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019. But it was caught early and removed. On getting older, he says: “I lose somebody every few weeks and it’s horrible. That is the worst thing of getting old. I try and make friends [with a] younger group of people who play instruments. We always get together every two weeks and play music.” Born in South Shields on 29 March 1943, Eric’s father Ernest, an RAF serviceman, was killed hitchhiking home on Christmas Eve 1945. “I never really knew him,” Eric says. “He was in the RAF, so they paid for my education. I went to a boarding school at seven until 19 in Wolverhampton. It had been an orphanage and the RAF had taken it over. I also played harmonica first with a little skiffle band. And then when Elvis came along, I saved up and bought a £10 guitar. I’ve played guitar since I was 12. I now have 30 of them.” At school he discovered Beyond The Fringe, sparking a lifelong love of comedy. And at Cambridge he joined the Footlights, the university’s sketch comedy club. He says: “In Cambridge, everything’s 14th century and 15th century buildings, beautiful. Life is beautiful.” Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which Eric co-wrote and starred in, began on the BBC in 1969, running for four series until 1973. Eric says: “It’s fun when you get your own show. The BBC were wonderfully hands off. They said, ‘just go away and make 13.’ It was the only show, I think, that the writers have ever been in charge of.” Meanwhile, Spamalot, Eric’s musical version of Holy Grail directed by Mike Nichols, won the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway in 2005. He says: “They really need cheering up those poor old Americans and they come up clicking coconuts and singing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side. Well, I cleverly stuck that at the end.” But Spamalot has been the focus of a recent feud between Eric and his ex co-star John Cleese. The dispute began in February 2024 over Monty Python’s falling income, when he publicly blamed John for dismissing their longtime manager, Jim Beach, and employing Holly Gilliam, Terry Gilliam’s daughter. It erupted again on 10 September, when Eric marked his new book’s British release by saying on X: “That’s what I’m doing. Python is dead. John said two days later that he, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam had refused to meet Eric “because we are appalled by the way he has been abusing Holly Gilliam”. In 2025, Eric branded his Python co-stars “miserable and b****y” over their money feud. But the fall-out has certainly not dented Eric’s sense of humour. Reflecting on his song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, being Brits’ number one choice for funerals, he says: “I think it’s very healthy.” After HMS Sheffield was hit in the Falklands on 4 May 1982, her crew sang it while waiting to be rescued and Eric performed it at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. He continues: “I sang it at Graham Chapman’s memorial and it was quite hard to do. If you can cry and laugh at a funeral, then you’ve done both.” * The full Radio 3 Private Passions interview is available on BBC Sounds