N.p. [London]: N.p. 1967-8

Original typescripts, printed typescripts and photocopied typescripts, a small quantity, many secured by a staple to top left corner, many with handwritten amendments, additions and deletions. Housed in a blue card folder bearing a typed white paper label label: TERRY JONES & MIKE PALIN. Some wear and toning consistent with age, staples mostly rusted, otherwise in near fine condition.

A SMALL QUANTITY OF ORIGINAL, PRINTED AND PHOTOCOPIED TYPESCRIPTS OF SKETCHES WRITTEN BY TERRY JONES AND MICHAEL PALIN FOR FROST ON SUNDAY AND THE FROST REPORT, WITH EXTENSIVE CORRECTIONS, AMENDMENTS AND REWRITES BY BOTH. MANY OF THE SKETCHES IN THIS COLLECTION WERE WRITTEN TO BE PERFORMED BY RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT.

Terry Jones and Michael Palin first met as undergraduates at Oxford. After graduating, they began writing together for TV comedy shows. All the future Pythons save Terry Gilliam worked together for the first time on The Frost Report (1966-7) which also featured Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, both as writers and performers. The Frost Report ran for twenty-eight episodes over two series, and launched everyone who was to be anyone in British comedy over the next twenty years. A less well-known show, but just as formative for those who worked on it, was Frost On Sunday, which ran for thirty-six episodes between 1968 and 1970. Once again it featured the two Ronnies, and among its writers were Barry Cryer, David Nobbs, Esmonde and Larbey, Dick Vosburgh, Neil Shand -- and Terry Jones and Michael Palin, once again writing as a team. Although the programme only ever credited the pair as writers on two late episodes, the material offered here shows they were an integral part of the show's team from the outset.

This remarkable collection features one sketch written for The Frost Report; all of the rest of the material was almost certainly written for Frost On Sunday (one or two sketches lack programme headings). Many of the show's episodes were wiped and are now presumed lost; what material survives was recently released on a 3-disc DVD distributed by Network.

TWO PYTHONS BEFORE PYTHON, THE TWO RONNIES BEFORE THE TWO RONNIES. A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL SKETCH MATERIAL BY TWO OF BRITAIN'S BIGGEST COMEDY NAMES, MUCH OF IT WRITTEN FOR TWO OTHERS, AND ALL OF IT PRODUCED JUST BEFORE THE BIRTH OF MONTY PYTHON.

The sketches for Frost On Sunday, all typescripts, are headed FROST ON SUNDAY unless otherwise stated, followed by either 'by Terry Jones & Michael Palin' or 'by Jones & Palin', and are as follows:

-- Julie Andrews. 3pp. 2 copies. i) Original typescript written for Palin to perform with Ronnie Corbett (specified in text). ii) Photocopied typescript, earlier draft, with pencilled amendments in Palin's hand to first page. Dated 22 July 1968.

-- Political Commentator. 1p. 2 copies, one typescript and one photocopy, the latter heavily rewritten in Palin's hand. Dated 31 July 1968.

-- Holidays. 2pp. 2 copies, one typescript and one photocopy Dated 1 August 1968.

-- The New Breed. 2 copies, 2pp. and 3pp. Printed typescripts, same text but differently set. 2pp. version dated 8 August 1968. Other undated.

-- Olympics Selection. 2pp. Printed typescript, written for Palin to perform with Ronnie Corbett (specified in text). Dated 14 August 1968.

-- The Friendly Postman and The Friendly Postman Mark II (two copies). 2pp. each. Original typescripts and a printed typescript, significantly different drafts of the same sketch, written for Ronnie Corbett to perform (specified in the text). Four minor handwritten corrections to the first draft, one to the second, and two to the printed copy. All three headed FORST [sic] ON SUNDAY; both dated 15 August 1968.

-- New University. 1p. Original typescript. Three small handwritten corrections, inked ticks and question marks to margin. Dated 21 August 1968.

-- Nixon. 2pp. Printed typescript. Dated 22 August 1968.

-- Cricket Commentators. 3pp. Photocopied typescript, with numerous rewrites in Palin's hand in blue biro. Dated 27 August 1968.

-- Argyll And Sutherland Highlanders (film). 2pp. Original typescript. Inked ticks, crosses and question marks to margin, otherwise unmarked. Dated 27 August 1968.

-- Opening Speech. 1p. Photocopied typescript. Dated 11 September 1968.

-- Monologue For His Good Self (three copies). 2pp. each. i) Original typescript. ii) Printed copy, with pencilled deletions and corrections (and a doodle in top right hand corner of p. 1), all in Jones' hand. iii) A second printed copy, unamended, on yellow paper. All three dated 11 September 1968.

-- Wedding. 4pp. Original typescript (pp. 1-2) and printed typescript (pp. 3-4). Extensively amended in pencil in Palin's hand. With a second copy, printed typescript on yellow paper. Both dated 11 September 1968

-- Gone With The Wind. 3pp. Printed corrected typescript. Dated 18 September 1968.

-- Trade Figures. 2pp. Two copies. i) Original typescript. ii) Printed typescript, heavily amended by Palin , the amendments mostly blue-pencil deletions. Both dated 19 September 1968.

-- The Considerate Doctor. 3pp. Original typescript. Minor handwritten amendments (parentheses, deletions etc.). Dated 19 September 1968.

-- The Spy. 2pp. Photocopied typescript, marked '12 copies' at top right hand corner of first page. WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text). Dated 2 October 1968.

-- Lavatory. 2pp. i) Original typescript. WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text). No programme heading. ii) 4pp. camera script of the sketch from the show, probably Series 1 Episode 11, broadcast on 13 October 1968.

-- The Weapons Expert. 1p. Original typescript, WRITTEN FOR RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text). Dated 16 October 1968.

-- One Downmanship. 3pp. Written by Jones and Palin with Michael Terry. Original typescript, WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text), and marked REWRITE by Jones at top right hand corner. One handwritten stage direction added by Jones -- and, also in Jone's hand, a self-deprecating comment on the sketch to top right hand corner of first page: 'V. bad/ stay in after/ transmission'. Dated 2 October 1968.

-- Scouting In The Modern Age. 1p. Original typescript, one red-line deletion. Written for Ronnie Barker (specified in text). Dated 22 October 1968.

-- The Hotel. 2pp. Original typescript, WRITTEN TO BE PERFORMED BY RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text). Minor deletions and amendments to second page. Dated 22 October 1968.

-- Secret Service. 2pp. Two copies. i) Original typescript, two single-word corrections. ii)Printed typescript, heavily amended in Jones's hand, with deletions, rewrites and a doodled bomb. Both undated.

-- Censorship. 2pp. i) Original typescript titled CENSORSHIT [sic], the words 'A 'Typing Error' in Jones's hand beneath. The introduction deleted, and in the top right hand corner of p. 1 Jones has written INTRO. UNIMPORTANT COPIES TO EVERYBODY. AUTOCUE AS SOON AS POSS.'. WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT TO PERFORM WITH DAVID FROST (specified in text). A stage direction after the introduction reads CUT TO THE TWO RONNIES -- certainly one of the first public references to Messrs. Barker and Corbett by the name which would later define them. ii) A second copy, with the last four lines of the sketch blue-pencilled. iii) A 1p. photocopy of the sketch.

-- Chocolates. 4pp. Original typescript. Undated.

-- Football Commentator. 1p. Printed typescript. Undated.

-- A Quickie.Original typescript of a three-line gag. Pencilled instruction -- '12 copies'-- to top right hand corner. Undated.

The rest of the material in the archive is as follows:

-- Sketch for The Frost Report On Money: A Sketch Exemplifying The Many And Various Difficulties Experienced By By[sic] Strangers To This Island Of Ours In Their Dealings With English Finance In General And The Monetary System In Particular. 2 pp. Hand-dated 3 April 1967 by Jones. WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text). The Money episode of The Frost Report was the first episode of the show's second series, and was broadcast on 6 April 1967. NONE OF THE SECOND SERIES OF THE FROST REPORT IS KNOWN TO HAVE SURVIVED.

-- Sketch entitled Overdraft, no programme given, undated. Original typescript, 2pp. WRITTEN FOR RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text), and almost certainly written for Frost On Sunday.

-- Sketch entitled The End Of Steam, no programme given, undated. Printed typescript, 1p. Written as a filmed drop-in -- an expensive idea in which, in the wake of cuts to the rail service, several carriages of commuting businessmen arrive at and leave a rural station in a non-existent train.

-- Sketch entitled Party Political Broadcast, Jones' and Palin's names handwritten by Jones at head, no programme given, but dated 26 September 1968 and so almost certainly for use on Frost On Sunday. Original typescript, 2pp. Two handwritten amendments by Jones.

-- Sketch entitled Business Men's Lunch, no programme given, undated. Printed typescript, 1p. Two copies.

-- Sketch entitled The Jury (MK II), headed The Marty Feldman Show, this title deleted. Dated 4 May 1968. Two copies. i) Original typescript, 2pp., with, in pencil, '12 / Prisoner: Keith Smith', to top right hand corner of p.1. The first episode of Frost On Sunday was not broadcast until 4 August of that year. Jones and Palin were regular writing contributors to Feldman's show Marty (1968). This sketch may have found a home there, or it may have been reheated for David Frost (the deletion of the show title suggests the latter). ii) A second copy, a printed typescript on yellow paper, 3pp.

-- Camera script for sketch entitled Doctor Sketch, 10pp. Printed typescript on yellow paper, undated. From an unidentified episode of Frost On Sunday. Written by Jones and Palin, AND FEATURING RONNIE BARKER AND RONNIE CORBETT (specified in text).