At the end of last year I went along to hear Michael Palin speak as part of his promotional tour for his new book and TV series (which is currently screening on TVNZ).

He told a great story about the filming of “The Life Of Brian”. Apparently the film was originally backed by EMI, but when they found out the details of the script they freaked out and pulled their funding (lots of which had already been spent on sets etc, but that’s a different story).

So, somewhat desperate the Pythons eventually convinced George Harrison to pick up the pieces. He even got a cameo role. The rest is history.

Years later Palin said he asked Harrison why he decided to take the risk and put up the money. His response: “I just wanted to see the movie”.

Nice :-)