This book is written by the author of Monty Python, Shakespeare and English Renaissance Drama Larsen 2003) and is a further development of his academic interest in the output of the famous comedy troupe. Notable from the author's introduction is the expectation that the reader will have at least seen or be aware of particular sketches from the programme, and as such this work will not suit the total Python novice. What the title sets out to do is demystify the off‐hand comments and references employed for comedic measure within the show. These it is noted would be unfamiliar to the modern day, and implicitly largely American, audience for whom this book appears to be principally aimed. However, it is readily apparent that despite the author's stated intent in the introduction, the readership of this work would have to be Python scholars of some experience in order to make use of its contents. Sadly this negates a large portion of the market place, the common fan and doubtless the average reference librarian.
The structure of the book is that of an encyclopedia beginning with a basic contents listing of episode titles where available or, more commonly, just their number. However, the text is broken down into 45 sections, each one corresponding to a single episode of the show. Then within each episode's section individual references are arranged alphabetically. For the scholar seeking illumination to a reference within an episode, they would be required to be conversant with the exact episode number to most readily track it down. This is a formatting decision that makes the work problematic to navigate for all but those most conversant with Python minutiae. As a considerable Python fan, I certainly found the format adopted worked against my ready use of the book.
The book contains no images or illustrations, nor tables of data. While the omission of images is perhaps due to the potential challenge of acquiring rights to reuse them, it diminishes the impact of the work. Ideally they would have helped the more casual reader associate, for example, Dennis Moore with the sketches in question. Given the navigation issues resulting from the general format adopted this is a regrettable lapse.
To the rear of the work there is a 19 page subject index. There is also an eight page bibliography and selected internet resource listings which seems useful. However, references within the index are not to individual entries, rather to concepts within them. As such this makes the location of the actual concepts listed in the index (for example Euripides) within the body of the text (12 separate entries on a page to scan within) difficult. Often the concept will not be readily spotted without a thorough reading of the entire page of text and is rarely highlighted or emphasised in a way to draw the eye. As such the index essentially fails as a significant navigational aid and by no means overcomes the other difficulties in navigating to a specific show reference. Cross‐referencing from within the entries is limited to entire episodes rather than concepts. Thus attempting to follow the thematic thread of Cartesian Dualism discussed in Episode 20 would require the scanning of the entire section dedicated to that episode. Thus it becomes apparent that this is not an effective reference work but essentially a monograph dedicated to the subject; requiring detailed and fulsome study in order to gain a benefit of its contents. Finally there is a five page guest and walk‐on actors' index, referencing to pages and entries using the same weak page referencing employed in the main indexing. This is a major disappointment as potentially this could have been a strong resource for television historians and this reviewer would have liked to have seen this expanded to more readily link actors to individual scenes.
For a book claiming to be a complete guide there is a sizable omission from the vast Python back catalogue of spin‐offs. A glaring omission is that no coverage of the films, nor records, produced by the group is included in the book. Whilst it may be argued that Python television shows are the core of the group's output, it rather puts the lie into the “utterly complete” part of the title. Aside from the indexing, the other major issue is that the work is implicitly aimed at the American market, where references from within Python to British life in the 1960s and 1970s are less readily understood. For the UK scholarly reader this may well diminish the value of the work considerably, although younger users may have less personal familiarity with the tropes illustrated. However, to this reviewer much of the minutiae discussed within the work were common knowledge. To the non‐UK scholar though there is a doubtless value in the text.
Taking into account the poorly structured entries and indexing, coupled with the relative familiarity of much of the referenced tropes by the general public it is not possible to recommend this work for purchase within the UK. However, outside the UK literary, sociological, television and historical scholars may well benefit from broader appreciation for the nuances of the show's comedic moments and may be able to overlook the navigational flaws. Thus, libraries supporting their work may consider this a worthy purchase, though the price seems steep for what is effectively a monograph work. For casual fans the structure of this book, the unwieldy format and problematic indexing makes it an unlikely purchase. Thus this book is suited for non‐UK scholars and Python über‐completists only.
