The final episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on BBC 1 this day 18 January, 1973, marking the end of an era for the most influential British sketch show ever made.

More accurately, we should say episode 13 of the third season of Flying Circus – titled ‘Grandstand’ – marked the end of the beginning for the six-person comedy troupe known as Monty Python.

Monty Python would return for another series the following year — and for many more adventures after that too — but founding member John Cleese didn’t appear in it. The lanky comic had grown tired of the sketch format, and was starting to branch out into solo work.

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His masterpiece, Fawlty Towers, would premiere on the BBC in 1975, but he still managed to write some sketches for the fourth season which aired under the shortened title of Monty Python.

Read more: yahoo