VIDEO: Eric Idle is always looking on the bright side of life

DAVID SPEERS, PRESENTER: Eric Idle, welcome back to Australia. 

ERIC IDLE, COMEDIAN: Thank you. 

DAVID SPEERS:  You've been coming here for years. In fact, you know us pretty well, and you've been making us laugh for years as well. What makes you laugh about us? What do you find funny about Australians? 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, I, Australians were the nicest places. I'd live here at the drop off a hat. I mean, I've been coming since 1976, there's quite a lot that's funny about Australia since then, you know, including politicians, you know, politicians disappearing into the surf and being eaten by sharks and all that. 

Yeah, so I've known it very well. In fact, my first wife was a sheila. What my current wife calls my trainer wife was a sheila and so I, I was married to her, and then I hadn't even visited Australia. So I came in '76 and I just thought, just a wonderful place. 

DAVID SPEERS: Sheila's a great Australian name, as is Bruce. 

ERIC IDLE:  As is Bruce indeed. 

DAVID SPEERS:  You had a famous, you and John Cleese, famously wrote the sketch, the Bruce's. 

ERIC IDLE:  I know. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Which was the very ocker, everyone was called Bruce. 

ERIC IDLE:  Yes. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Where did that come from? 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, I think we must have nicked it from Barry Humphries, because he had a, he had a thing on called Barry, you know, Barry McKenzie. He was very funny about that so, but I think it was our view of Australia all came from Barry Humphries in London, because we never been. 

(Comedy sketch)

ERIC IDLE:  So, our views were different. It was a long way away. Don't forget, the cricketers came by bus. I mean, not by bus. They came by boat. Six, six weeks it took to get the test match team to England. And we follow it all the way along, you know? 

DAVID SPEERS:  Well, you're here now for a tour called, Always Look on the Bright side of Life. 

ERIC IDLE:  Live. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Live. So I assume you're going to be performing the song, it would be somewhat disappointing to turn up and not hear the song right. 

ERIC IDLE:  No, sure. 

(Music - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)

DAVID SPEERS:  And what does that song mean for you now? This was something you wrote. It was, you know, it's been synonymous with you for years and years. What does it mean to you? 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, it took on a life of its own, and it's been, it's been nothing but a lovely delight. I mean, sailors started singing it in the Falkland’s war when their ship was being hit by missiles and sinking. They sing Always Look on the Bright Side. 

People took it on and on, and now it's become the number one funeral song in England. 

DAVID SPEERS:  That's fabulous. 

ERIC IDLE:  Everybody has at their funerals, you know, which is great, except they don't pay any royalties. 

I think it's nice. So to me, it means a lot. I sang it at the Olympics before 2 billion people, you know, I've sang it for monarchy. I've sang it for the crowned heads of Europe. You know, I've sang it everywhere, in various different costumes and it means a lot. 

DAVID SPEERS:  And you wrote it for the Life of Brian. 

ERIC IDLE:  I wrote it to end The Life of Brian, because we didn't know how to end the film. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Right. 

ERIC IDLE:  Everybody was heading for crucifixion, so I saw, why don't we sing a song? You know, a cheery, uppy song, like looking on the bright side and a whistle, like a Disney song. 

DAVID SPEERS:  And I heard you wrote it very quickly. 

ERIC IDLE:  Yes, because, I mean, I, when I pitched it, I pretty much said all the things about it. It could be Disney song, and we always looking on bright side, you know, there'll be a whistle. 

And so I went home, and I just went, you know, so I wrote a little whistle, and then from there, I just wrote the song. It sort of seemed to flow quite naturally. 

DAVID SPEERS:  That film, just looking back on it, it is religious satire. Is that how you best describe it, or how?

ERIC IDLE:  I mean, I think it does tell people to be individuals and to watch out for I mean, it's about followers. Really, it's a tragedy. It's about a tragedy, about a man who's mistaken from the start, and he can't get rid of them. They keep following him, you know.

DAVID SPEERS:  It was, nonetheless, it was somewhat controversial. It was banned in a lot of places at the time. 

ERIC IDLE:  It was controversial. They made it a big hit in America by banning it, and they would picket outside Warner Brothers saying, you know, Warners are the agents of the devil. 

And that's wrong, that's William Morris has got that particular job, you know, so by picketing and making a fuss and putting it on the news, they made that show a hit. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Is that an early form of cancel culture? 

ERIC IDLE:  I think they failed it if was because the next there was banning songs to date, and the next day we go and see it. 

DAVID SPEERS:   Let's go back to where your comedy comes from, because your childhood, correct me if I'm wrong. You're born during World War II. Your father wasn't killed during the war, but on the way home from war, is that right? 

ERIC IDLE:  Right. He was hitchhiking. They saw the RAF. RAF. It was Christmas time. They said, don't use the railways, because everybody been traveling, hitchhike because everybody stopped for the boys in blue, and he did. He got a ride on a truck, on the back of lorry, and there was an accident, and the metal shifted, and he died on Christmas Eve. I know 

DAVID SPEERS:  So you grow up without your dad. How does someone in what must be, you know, a crushing experience like that, in many ways find comedy and wit and humour. Where does that come from? 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, I was, I was in a boarding school from the age of seven till 19, so you're with a bunch of boys, and I thought a lot of the boys also had no fathers. So that makes it really doubly peculiar, because the RAF paid for our education. 

And so, I think it was a very bizarre environment, but it prepared me to work with a group of weird boys like on Python and also, I think, so I think that was kind of, I think you learn about life in a sort of bitter way. You know, you make your own fun. You realize that people aren't necessarily telling you what's good for you.

DAVID SPEERS:  You had great success with the Spamalot musical, of course, and then on Broadway in London. 

ERIC IDLE:  Right. 

DAVID SPEERS:  And then years later, the Spamalot Diaries. Where did that come from? 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, it's not because we were moving out of our house two years ago. We were, I call it downsize abbey. You get to that certain stage of life where you have to get into an area where you don't have stairs, and so you've got all this junk, you know. 

I mean, I went to boarding school. My wife went to hoarding school. You can't make them get rid of it. So, I found the diaries that I've been keeping in 1970 in 2004. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Through writing the musical...

ERIC IDLE:  All while you're writing and working on this, creating this Broadway musical with Mike Nichols, director, and Tim Curry and various, you know, the cast and everything. And you know, sometimes you didn't know it's going to be a hit, that sort of thing. That is the excitement about a diary. You're in the now, you're depressed, you're fed up, you're angry, you know, and that so comes out in all of that. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Now the King arrives here in Australia tomorrow. 

ERIC IDLE:  Yes. 

DAVID SPEERS:  You maybe the opening act for the King. You've known King Charles or Prince Charles as he was. 

ERIC IDLE:  Prince Charles, I knew, he'd come, we would always go and stay at Billy Connolly's in Scotland in the summer. And very close to Balmoral, and there would be people like me and Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Eddie Izzard and he would find out, Charles would find out. He'd said, I hear you've got some funny people, can I come over, and he'd come over for dinner, and then we just rip him, we'd rip his ass. 

We'd just make him laugh all about him, and he'd laugh and laugh and laugh and of course, it's very healthy, because you mean, people have been treating you like royalty. And he said to me, "Eric, why don't you be my jester?" And I said, "Why would I want a f****** awful job like that?"

And he laughed, because that's what a jester's job is. It's to remind you of your own mortality and that you are funny too. 

DAVID SPEERS:  So what's his sense of humour? He doesn't mind jokes at his own expense. 

ERIC IDLE:  Well, I mean, I think there's certain appropriate times. I mean it. I think people are frightened. I mean, they approach him timorously and I think, he was at Cambridge. He did comedy at Cambridge. He stood in a bin and did some Spike Milligan bits. 

So he, you know, we were all at Cambridge. I mean, so I just found him, he was perfectly nice and pleasant and a human being, you know. It is nice. 

DAVID SPEERS:  I mean, the King's impressive, but that list of people at the dinner party you mentioned is als opretty impressive.

ERIC IDLE:  The most, we'd have the most fun. And we'd all dress up in kilts and have kaylies and dance and everything and, yeah, it was great. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Are these some of these, I mean, you're a comedy legend. Are these some of your favourite comics as well. 

ERIC IDLE: Absolutely. I mean, Robin was a great, Robin Williams is so funny and a great friend. Steven Martin still is a great friend. I mean, you know, it's natural, you sort of congregate near people who do what you do. 

DAVID SPEERS:  You've lived however in the US...

ERIC IDLE:  Yes.

DAVID SPEERS:  ... for around 30 years or so. I notice you're not there, though while the election is going to be taken. 

ERIC IDLE:  Damn. I hate it. It's been going on for 14 years this election. You know, every program is all about people's opinion, this may this, this and that and I'm not a citizen, I don't elect, I'm not an elector. And I find it completely boring and a bit scary. 

DAVID SPEERS:  You're going to be on stage doing what you want, and you know, delivering the comedy that we all love, how important is that for you to have that live interaction with an audience? Is it something you ever tire of? 

ERIC IDLE:  No, no, I don't. I've always tried to keep, at least do one or two shows a year to keep because if you want to face that fear a little bit, you know, you've got to face it. And are they going to laugh, can you make them laugh, and I think that's a sort of healthy thing, and I'm looking forward to doing something slightly different. 

I've got a virtual band with me coming on the road. Yeah, they're much cheaper than real musicians. I've got them on a screen and they're behind me and I play along, you know. 

I'm hoping to have a virtual symphony orchestra next time I'll come but virtual, you know, I was just asked to be on a virtual Michael Parkinson show they're doing in England. 

DAVID SPEERS:  How does that work?

ERIC IDLE:  AI Michael Parkinson, would you come and answer questions? 

DAVID SPEERS:  What did you say?

ERIC IDLE:  I said I'd send a virtual Eric Idle, to answer the questions. 

DAVID SPEERS:  Sounds fair, that sounds fair. 

Well, Eric, wonderful to talk to you. Thanks so much. 

ERIC IDLE:  Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.