This is the first time Idle, 83 later this month, has visited Estonia, and the first time he will have performed in this region more broadly. "I've never played anywhere in Scandinavia or the whole area," he told "Ringvaade's" Hannes Hermaküla, himself a Monty Python fan from back in the dark days of the Soviet occupation of Estonia, but when Finnish TV could be picked up in Tallinn.

"I've never been to Estonia. My first time, I've never performed anywhere in all of these [Baltic] countries."

The present-day stage show features comedy, songs, and some celebrity guest appearances including from physicist and popularizer of science Brian Cox.

As for the beginnings, Idle and the rest of the Pythons: John Cleese, who appeared on stage in Tallinn as recently as September 2023; Michael Palin, who visited Estonia for his "New Europe" series in 2007; U.S.-born animator Terry Gilliam, and the late Terry Jones and Graham Chapman, were mostly writing together pre-Python.

Idle noted they wrote for big names such as David Frost and the Two Ronnies. The launch of Monty Python came, mercifully, just after color TV had become standard in the U.K., at the end of the 1960s ("otherwise it wouldn't have worked").

The first movie soon followed, 1975's "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."Idle said he was of a generation which sort of invented things – be they comedy or rock n' roll – as they went along and as an antidote to post-war austerity. Indeed, he noted he is from the same generation as Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. With regard to the latter, one of Idle's finest comedy collaborations was "The Rutles," a pastiche of the fab four, which spawned a 1978 movie "All You Need Is Cash."

Just a year later came the movie they all came to talk about: "The Life of Brian."

This famously hit trouble when it came out, leading to a memorable talk show encounter between Palin and Cleese on the one side, and satirist and born-again Christian Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, on the other, with songwriter Tim Rice refereeing.

Idle did not take part in that particular show, but offered to "Ringvaade" his own take on the controversy at the time.

"The reason it was successful was because of all the protesters. The people who were against it and protested hadn't seen it. The story really was about this unfortunate fellow who was born in the house next door, mistaken for a messiah. And that's like a nightmare."

"I think they've stopped having a go at it now bc so many kind of nice Christians have actually enjoyed it. It's not offensive to the religion," he noted.

Of course, no discussion of "The Life of Brian" would be complete without referencing the signature tune, rather more of a coda, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" – which Idle himself penned.

"We stuck on an ending, because everybody was heading for crucifixion, so how are we going to end it?'," Eric explained.

"So I said 'we should end with a song, on the crosses, and it should be like a Disney song, with a whistle, and about looking on the bright side, so I went straight home and wrote it."

Despite its ad hoc beginnings, the number only grew and grew in popularity in the years which followed.

"It became a number one hit in England 13 years later, because all the football fans would sing it when they were losing. Then they started playing it on the radio every day, and then it went to number one in England and Ireland, it was amazing," Eric added.

The surviving Pythons and others from the world of comedy and satire performed "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" at Graham Chapman's memorial service at the end of 1989, and it has perhaps aptly become not only a popular ditty to play at funerals, but even the most-requested funeral number.

"If you add in it's been the most popular song at British years for the past 25 years – 25 years it's been the number 1 song requested at British funerals, isn't that great? I love that, I think that's so funny, it's so healthy," Idle reflected.
Eric Idle is bringing his "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live!" show to the Tallinn stage at the Alexela Concert Hall on April 20.

The full "Ringvaade" segment is below.

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