The images were restored by , and held by ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archives.
Images copyright: Python (Monty) Pictures Limited.
![Terry Jones and Graham Chapman sit shirtless in regency wigs eating from wooden bowls. Two women look on disapprovingly](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pc6hl.jpg)
![John Cleese as a parachutist is confronted in a field by Michael Palin as an Edwardian country gentleman with shotgun](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pc79z.jpg)
![Graham Chapman is dressed as an Victorian old lady by a costumier. He is smoking a pipe](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcv6v.jpg)
![Terry Jones dressed as the Dickensian character Mr Bumble in large 'Nelson' hat. On a building site, he appears to be chewing a brick.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcv8k.jpg)
![Graham Chapman dressed as a woman, sat on a floral sofa reading a tabloid newspaper. He is wearing very 1960s horn-rimmed glasses.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcv9q.jpg)
![Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Terry Jones on a pebbly beach. All but Cleese are in Tudor minstrel outfits, Cleese is in black tie.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvbg.jpg)
![John Cleese, in full evening dress, sat at a news announcer's desk on a beach. The tide is coming in](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvc6.jpg)
![A Terry Gilliam collage animation of a man's head hinged open, eating a fish. The head is emerging from a bird's nest](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvdj.jpg)
![Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Graham Chapman are fitted with outlandish medieval warrior costumes on location](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvh1.jpg)
![Michael Palin, dressed in suit and bowler hat, watches Carol Cleveland and John Cleese embracing passionately on a desk. A pair of legs in sportswear are dangling from the ceiling.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvml.jpg)
![Eric Idle in a full suit looking sheepish between Carol Cleveland and Terry Jones in a bed, with the other two in a state of sultry undress.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvp4.jpg)
![Terry Jones in drag with bri-nylon cardigan and hair in curlers sits with legs wide open on the yard wall of a row of terrace houses.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvt0.jpg)
![Terry Jones as Joseph Montgolfier and Carol Cleveland as his fiancee, Antoinette, who is dangling from a strap on the ceiling. Both are in 18th century French aristocrat costumes.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcvx6.jpg)
![Eric Idle as Chris Quinn and Graham Chapman as a shop assistant, who is wearing a large face and tongue extension.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcw2r.jpg)
![An over saturated photograph of a face with pencil moustache grimaces at the viewer, with the bared teeth showing gaps where they 'dance'.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcw8j.jpg)
![A blobby cartoon man prods a spot on his face as he looks into a hand mirror](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcwbd.jpg)
![Carol Cleveland in Edwardian dress, has a tennis racket lodged bloodily into her abdomen. A costume assistant makes adjustments. Michael Palin and Eric Idle in straw boaters and stripy blazers look on.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcwdj.jpg)
![Eric Idle has a prosthetic severed arm attached by a member of the props department](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/400xn/p07pcwfz.jpg)
Further reading
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Monty Python at 50
‘Sick’, ‘tripe’ and ‘a delicious sense of the ridiculous’, Monty Python shocked and delighted ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ audiences in equal measure. To celebrate 50 years of Python in 2019, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ History digs deep inside ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Archives and lifts the lid on how the series was commissioned, aspiring writers use Monty Python for new comic creations, and our gallery unearths some rarely seen images to mark a very special birthday.