Ann Howard and Eric Idle (Always look on the bright side of life). Royal Variety Performance 1991

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• Ann Howard and Eric Id...
The 61st Royal Variety Performance Filmed from the Victoria Palace Theatre on 19th November 1991 by LWT. Many, many stars in the cast including Diana Ross, Elaine Paige, Wayne Sleep and Les Dawson.
This show was attended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and was in aid of the EABF (Entertainment Artists Benevolent Fund).
This particular sketch is of Ann Howard the opera singer and Monty Python´s Eric Idle singing "Always look on the bright side of life". It´s highly amusing and entertaining.
Chubby Oates (my father) makes the absolute briefest of appearances during the sketch as the Sumo wrestler on the right as you look at the screen. I have no idea how he got involved with this but I imagine his contact was someone in the EABF as he did a lot of charity work for them.
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[@MrOdiewayne]

Lol, glad it's on here. Had to check it out after Mr. Idles description in the book.

[@johnpearson8190]

Ha exactly same here

[@robinellard]

Me too... great book btw

[@andrewdaniel3047]

Likewise! Never seen it before reading the book. The Olympic ceremony performance makes more sense now (not that it really needed to!!!)

[@amybrooks1020]

Same here! :D it's fantastic. Listening to the audiobook though which I find adds so much more

[@conniedavis]

Me too. I mean six.

[@alexandreassis1051]

She’s such a good sport! Just heard him describe this moment in his bio, so I had to track it down. Fantastic!!!

[@jaysonlayman6213]

Yup. Heard the audiobook. Can’t tell how much I love this clip Can’t tell how much I love this clip She’s such a good sport! Can’t tell how much I love this clip

[@pulpbabe]

She’s such a good sport!

[@destinytroll1374]

The fact that this was infront of the Queen 😂😂😂

[@brownstone12345]

That's probably why Life's a Piece of Shit was changed to Life's a Piece of Spit in this version.

[@lintym]

I'm sure our Queen heard similar. As she said, she married a sailor!

[@stefanleo8963]

Can’t tell how much I love this clip

[@deeprollingriver52]

Such a voice!

[@andysadler7304]

Absolutely f***ing brilliant, this WILL be played at my funeral

[@melaniamonicacraciun9900]

Happy Easter resurrection celebration fans, turning back to life again, this is the best point for a start, keep on enjoying spreading good vibes fans

[@alexvillarreal6039]

Yup. Heard the audiobook.

[@mosseisleyYT]

I was watching this when it was first broadcast, and I _knew_ that _that_ word was coming up in the song that Idle was singing ("Life's a piece of s-..."), and I knew that the Queen was there, too. I was anxiously (?!) waiting to see whether he would actually say that word in front of the Queen. I was a bit disappointed, actually, to hear him mince the offending word to "spit". Former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien (at the time, attorney general) had no such compunction on one occasion (a rather important occasion: the signing of our new Constitution in 1982). When the pen was passed to him for him to sign, after the Queen and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had both just signed, he found that the pen's nib had been broken and he couldn't write with it. This caused him to utter the word "Merde!", apparently loud enough for Her Majesty to hear. She seemingly found that hilarious. She broke out laughing. For those who don't know French, that word that Chrétien uttered is the French equivalent of the one that Eric Idle minced.

[@Fcutdlady]

It was on tv too, not sure if it was live or not, so besides the issue of singing before the Queen, the word shit had to be minced for broadcast, like it or not .

[@janjilovec3420]

Looks like Trevor Francis.

[@smedlysspeakeasy5226]

if sacrilege has a pecking order, then eric, along with mark twain would be the top tier, but then that would be sacrilege itself...oh well just look on the bright side of life...

[@peterfrengel3964]

What's going on at 1:47, where a guy randomly falls onstage and then crawls away?

[@andymassingham]

I’ve re-watched it a bunch I’d times and it just doesn’t make any sense. The fall looks legit, but the crawling off doesn’t, but there’s no payoff. Still, it kinda works.

[@peterle6883]

Cultural appropriation big time.

[@tylersherry7142]

Not really pal it’s from a real opera he justhijacked it