Monty Python And The Crown: Two Sides Of The Same Problem

How a new Netflix series and an old Monty Python sketch both reveal a deep truth about British delusion

Is there really much difference…?

Half a century ago a group of Oxbridge graduates coalesced to create one of the most iconic television comedy shows in the English language: Monty Python’s Flying Circus. After their time with the BBC ended they ventured into the world of film, with their first effort being the low-budget Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Unlike their television programs which comprised largely unrelated sketches following each other in no particular order, Grail was an affectionate parody of the Arthurian legend and thus had something approaching a plot. Nevertheless, the film can also be viewed as a series of sketches and one of the most famous is the scene in which questing Arthur encounters the Black Knight. We shall have a great deal to say about this scene later.

This week, Netflix released the latest in its ongoing multi-series dramatization of the British royal family. Although it is hardly a literal account, it has been sufficiently well-researched as to qualify as a meta-representation. The British royal family is an anachronism, a peculiar tribe of astonishingly privileged people whose contact with the realities of everyday life is effectively zero. As such…