Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 January 23

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January 23

Monty Python's Fabulational Cooperations

It is well known that Michael Palin and Terry Jones worked as a team, and John Cleese and Graham Chapman worked as a team, before and after they met for the Flying Circus. But are any Python bits known to have been written by some other pairing? —Tamfang (talk) 07:09, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

I remember reading in some Python-biography that they mixed things up at least once, and Cleese wrote with Palin. Can't say what came of it. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:59, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Cleese and Palin collaborated on later projects, such as A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. Chapman and Palin collaborated on the "Car Salesmen" sketch from the pre-Python How to Irritate People. However, those are all acting collaborations, I've been looking and I can't seem to find many "cross-collaborations" between the writing teams in terms of writing. They would frequently act in cross teams (for example the entire family of "shopkeeper and irritated customer" sketches feature Palin and Cleese in the two respective roles; these were usually written by Cleese and Chapman). There are occasional cross-collaborations, according to the incomplete list of authorships noted at List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes, Palin and Cleese co-wrote the sketches "Army Protection Racket" from S1E8 and "Mr. Hilter and the Minehead by-election" from S1E12. --Jayron32 16:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Those are good ones. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:08, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Michael Palin's diaries (which are a marvelous read) do mention switching up the writing teams a couple times. I apologize for not being able to remember any specifics though. MarnetteD|Talk 17:44, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

(ec) Thanks! Yes, obviously the acting was not all done by the respective writers. Nudge Nudge, for example, was introduced by sbhoolboys (Jones and Palin) saying they want to see a sketch written by Eric, but in some documentary or other Eric Idle mentioned his bewilderment at being handed a script that's all "nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more". —Tamfang (talk) 18:27, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

But our article Nudge Nudge says Idle wrote it for Ronnie Barker. I am all at sea. —Tamfang (talk) 18:32, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Tamfang, if you like Ronnie Barker I hope you've seen this one: [1] Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:36, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

Help finding reliable sourcing to save CANO’s “Spirit of the North”

Hi! I need help finding reliable sources for CANO’s album “Spirit of the North” (1980). Album reviews or interviews with band members talking about it, etc.

Any help appreciated, I can get copies of sources from WP:RX if I have the newspaper/magazine publishing info. Thank you! Gleeanon409 (talk) 20:10, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

I haven't found much besides confirmation that the record exists. There are many articles on the band in both French and English, and on other records, but this one, as it was a greatest hits compilation rather than comprised of original songs, did not seem to get much critical attention. There are also a lot of false positives because the album is named after one of the band's best-known songs. The places to look - likely not to be online - would be archives of Franco-Ontarian newspapers from the period, such as Le Droit from Ottawa or Le Voyageur from Sudbury, or the student newspapers from bilingual universities. Good luck. --Xuxl (talk) 13:19, 24 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you so much for looking! Gleeanon409 (talk) 09:35, 25 January 2020 (UTC)