In October 1969, the BBC broadcast the first programme in a new series entitled 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', written and conceived by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Over the years the six of them followed this with another forty-four extremely silly programmes, a German TV special, five full-length feature films, seven books, nine long-playing records and live stage shows that toured the UK, Canada and America. In 'The Very Best of Monty Python', each of the surviving Pythons makes a personal choice of their favourite bits from the vast Python oeuvre. These include: Why accountancy is not boring, Spamalot, The Piranha Brothers, The Lumberjack Song, The Larch, Every Sperm is Sacred, The Ministry of Silly Walks, Always look on the Bright Side of Life, Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink, Rat Recipes, Albatross, Constitutional Peasants, Spam, Monsieur Creosote, The Meaning of Life, I'm so worried, Stan's right to have babies, Careers advice for Mr Anchovy, The Truth about Protestants, The News for Parrots, What have the Romans ever done for us?!, The Undertaker Sketch, Find the Fish, How to Talk to the Queen and many other classics of silliness.

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group that created "Monty Python's Flying Circus," an influential British television comedy sketch show. With the success of the show, The Pythons became a phenomenon that included touring stage shows, films, albums, books, and a stage musical, and that eventually granted members individual stardom.