This was around the corner from the same little farm that we had worked in. We just had very little to work with. This scene, in particular, I love because I love watching Mike, John and Eric as the incensed villagers against the witch [Connie Booth]. If you watch that scene, you'll see at one point Eric starts breaking up. He actually can't control himself. He starts laughing. Mike is really funny. and Eric starts biting down on a sickle trying to stop from laughing so you don't see it on film. But you watch it and you'll see he's laughing. [Laughs]
Terry Jones as Bedevere sets up the walk to the magic lake. I know nohting about this scene because I wasn't there that day. It was Graham and Terry and John and the camera department and they just went and got that shot. At the time, I was trying to sort out the dragon boat that they eventually arrive at and get onboard. So that was shot on some great vista. And it doesn't require major directing to ask two people to walk away from the camera and to keep walking until they can't hear us shouting anymore. Normally, in a situation like that, we would've packed up the camera while they're still out there - about a mile away - and then made a run for it, leaving them there. But I wasn't there that day, so... Had I been there, it might have been like that. [Laughs] There's nothing more fun than sending actors out into this wee wee distance with their back to you, then disappearing. [Laughs]
The black knight sequence was filmed in Epping Forest. The thing about this scene is that when we got to the stage of having the Black Knight's legs being chopped off, the arms had gone, and John [Cleese] was still in the Black Knight outfit with his arms tucked behind him. When it came time to chopping the first leg off, we replaced John with a one-legged man. It was a really good guy, a silversmith, and he had one leg. So we attached a false leg and then off it went. In fact, it was very useful because when we got to the final stage, when it's just the torso on the ground, it was easier digging a hole for a one-legged man than for a two-legged man. It saved us a lot of time. [Laughs] Everything we do is practical, you see.
Monty Python & the Holy Grail will be released on DVD on 10-23-01.