8.9/101,320 votesLoading...#1 - The Spanish Inquisition
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1970
Featuring the Spanish Inquisition, courtroom charades and a semaphore interpretation of Wuthering Heights.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.6/101,292 votesLoading...#2 - Full Frontal Nudity
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 12/7/1969
Featuring an art critic, some hermits, Hell's Grannies and the dead parrot sketch. Some newlyweds attempt to buy a bed and the mafia offer protecting to the army.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.6/10979 votesLoading...#3 - Spam
Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1970
The sketches in this episode include Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook, World Forum-Communist Quiz, Hospital for Over-Actors and Spam.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.5/101,493 votesLoading...#4 - How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1969
Featuring a court scene, the larch, Bicycle Repair Man, children's stories, a restaurant sketch, some seduced milkmen, an interview with some children and a stolen newsreader.
Director: Ian MacNaughton, John Howard Davies
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.5/101,112 votesLoading...#5 - Face the Press
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1970
Featuring Doug and Dinsdale Piranha, Face the Press and the Ministry of Silly Walks. Mrs G Pinnet buys a new gas cooker.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.3/101,189 votesLoading...#6 - The Ant, An Introduction
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/14/1969
Featuring Ken Buddha, a man with a tape-recorder up his nose and a hairdresser who always wanted to be a lumberjack.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.3/101,121 votesLoading...#7 - The Naked Ant
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/4/1970
Featuring the North Minehead by-election, the Upper Class Twit of the Year competition, Ken Shabby and a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Wood Party.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.3/10940 votesLoading...#8 - How Not to Be Seen
Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/8/1970
Features gags and sketches such as Job Hunter, Railway Timetables, How Not to be Seen and Interview in a Filing Cabinet.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.2/10885 votesLoading...#9 - The Money Programme
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 11/2/1972
Features The Money Programme, Erizabeth L, Dead Bishop, Jungle Restaurant and The Argument Skit.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.2/10923 votesLoading...#10 - The Cycling Tour
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 12/7/1972
This episode tells the story of Mr Pither as he embarks on his Cycling Tour.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.1/101,269 votesLoading...#11 - Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the 20th Century
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/1969
Featuring Confuse-a-Cat, discussion programme A Duck, a Cat and a Lizard, the arrest of a newsreader, an erotic film, a silly job interview and a burglar/encyclopaedia salesman.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman
8.1/10994 votesLoading...#12 - Déjà Vu
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1970
Featuring the work of the poet Euan McTeagle, a psychiatrist milkman and some exploding animals. A television presenter suffers from a severe case of deja vu.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.1/10984 votesLoading...#13 - The Buzz Aldrin Show
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/1970
More surreal humour from the Monty Python team. Sketches include The Architects, How to Recognise a Mason, Poets and the Chemist sketch.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.1/10903 votesLoading...#14 - Royal Episode 13
Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 12/22/1970
Sketches in this episode include How to Feed a Goldfish, The Man Who Says Things in a Very Roundabout Way and Lifeboat.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.1/10860 votesLoading...#15 - Salad Days
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/30/1972
Features gags and sketches such as Biggles Dictates a Letter, Climbing the North Face of the Uxbridge Road, Lifeboat and The Cheese Shop.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.1/10851 votesLoading...#16 - Dennis Moore
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 1/4/1973
Features the sketches Dennis Moore, What the Stars Foretell, The Ideal Loon Exhibition, Off-Licence and Prejudice.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.0/10935 votesLoading...#17 - How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body
Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 11/24/1970
Featuring a guide on how to recognise parts of the body, a singing policeman, an interview with a plastic surgeon, a camp soldiers' drill and the Verrifast Plane Company.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
8.0/10860 votesLoading...#18 - Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/1972
Features gags and sketches such as Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror, The Man who Speaks in Anagrams and Pantomime Horses.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/101,747 votesLoading...#19 - Whither Canada?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1969
Featuring 'It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', an Italian lesson, Whizzo Butter, 'It's the Arts', Arthur 'Two-Sheds' Jackson, a cycling race, and The Funniest Joke in the World.
Director: Ian MacNaughton, John Howard Davies
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman
7.9/101,275 votesLoading...#20 - Owl Stretching Time
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/26/1969
Featuring fresh fruit as self-defence, some folk-singing, an art gallery sketch and Lemming of the BDA. An Edwardian man struggles to undress on the beach.
Director: Ian MacNaughton, John Howard Davies
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/101,212 votesLoading...#21 - It's the Arts
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/23/1969
Featuring a gang of legal burglars, the Whizzo Quality Assortment, a Scottish wedding and a day in the life of a city stockbroker. Some film moguls try to impress their boss.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/101,060 votesLoading...#22 - Intermission
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/11/1970
Featuring some historical impersonations, a cinema usherette with a dead seabird, restaurant abuse and Probe Around On Crime.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/10954 votesLoading...#23 - Live from the Grill-O-Mat
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/27/1970
Featuring gameshow Blackmail, The Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and boxer Ken Clean-Air System.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/10922 votesLoading...#24 - Archaeology Today
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/1970
Featuring Mrs Beethoven, the Reverend Arthur Belling, some Australian Mosquito Hunters and a drink party with the Gits.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
7.9/10870 votesLoading...#25 - Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 10/26/1972
Features Emigration from Surbiton to Hounslow, The Fish Slapping Dance, SS Mother Goose, Trim-Jeans Theatre and some very famous guests.
Director: Ian MacNaughton
Writer: Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam
The Best Episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus
Every episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus!
A British sketch comedy series with the shows being composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines.
Genre:Comedy
Network:BBC One
Best Episodes Summary
"The Spanish Inquisition" is the best rated episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus". It scored 8.9/10 based on 1320 votes. Directed by Ian MacNaughton and written by Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, it aired on 9/22/1970. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "Full Frontal Nudity".