Monty Python legend Eric Idle on growing up in Wirral and why he bonded with pal George Harrison

Their fame and influence means Monty Python are often described as The Beatles of comedy, but for Eric Idle the connection is far more personal than that.

The comedy legend, who brings his one-man musical show to Liverpool Empire this September, was close friends with George Harrison for over 25 years. He says the pair had an instant affinity when they met in the mid-‘70s.

George, who was known as ‘the quiet Beatle’, approached Eric after a gala screening in LA of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Eric said:

“I was watching the credits at the end from the back and I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned round and it was George, he said ‘I’ve been looking for you, I’ve got to talk to you’ so we went off and we talked all night. It was like finding a friend you’ve known all your life, it was amazing,”

“I shot some films for him and he actually mortgaged his house and his business and raised $4.5million to make The Life of Brian, can you imagine that? I asked him why he did it and he just said, ‘I wanted to see the movie.’

“George was a great friend in my life, he’d encourage me always, and we had a lot in common.

“When I came to visit him once while we were doing Life Of Brian he asked me, ‘how’s it going?’ and I said, ‘it’s hard getting on screen with Michael Palin and John Cleese’. He said, ‘imagine what it was like trying to get in the studio with Lennon & McCartney’ so I said, ‘say no more, I’ll shut up!’”

For Eric, who’s now 82, a close friendship with George wasn’t his first connection with Liverpool. He spent three years of his childhood in Wirral and still remembers days out in the city.

“I went to school there between the ages of 5 and 7, St George’s in Wallasey was my first school.

“I remember on my fifth birthday we went on the Mersey Ferry across to Liverpool and went on the overhead railway which existed in those days.

“I’ve always liked Liverpool, we filmed The Rutles there so I spent a lot of time in the city, and I think Liverpool has the best sense of humour.”

It’s no surprise then that Eric’s upcoming UK tour, titled Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Live!, will be coming to the Empire on Sunday September 14.

The show is a mix of comedy, music, anecdotes and memories from a career that’s spanned an incredible seven decades, from Cambridge Footlights in the ‘60s to now.

“When I write a show like this one I want to surprise people,” explains Eric. “I want to do things they haven’t seen and put in clips of film stuff they don’t know. I don’t want to play them the Dead Parrot Sketch again. I want lesser known things that I think are hilarious, and it’s the same with songs and anecdotes because people don’t know half the stories.

“What’s important to me about this show is shape, you want an audience to feel you’re leading somewhere. It becomes emotional, and you feel like you’ve gone through a life which in a way you have, from earliest days to now.

“This is the most personal intimate show I’ve written, without any question. I had pancreatic cancer about six years ago and I survived, you’re not supposed to do that, so I always feel like every day is a pleasure, it’s a gift, so I can talk about life and death because I‘ve experienced it quite a lot.

“When you get to my age you’ve lost a lot of friends and what you tend to do is find other people, younger people, and then you play with them. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12 and I love to have what I call a ding-dong.

“I have a jam session every week – I’m going tonight to play with Professor Brian Cox and his son – and it’s the most natural and nice thing to do in the world.”

At an age when most people have long retired Eric, who splits his year between California and France, has no plans to stop performing.

“I love being on stage because you can’t fool an audience, if they laugh they laugh. That’s one of the most seductive things to do there is, it’s really nice to keep people entertained and thinking and that’s what I like about live performing.

“I wouldn’t ever want to lose that, you’ve got to still face the fear. Comedy is inside you and it needs to be fed.”

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Live! is at the Empire on Sunday September 14.