The Complete and Utter History of Britain

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The Complete and Utter History of Britain
Format	Television comedy
Created by	Terry Jones Michael Palin
Starring	Wallace Eaton Colin Gordon Terry Jones Roddy Maude-Roxby Melinda Maye Michael Palin Diana Quick
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	6
Production
Executive producer(s)	Humphrey Barclay
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	London Weekend Television
Original run	12 January 1969 – 16 February 1969
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Complete And Utter History Of Britain was a 1969 television comedy sketch show. It was created and written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones between the two series of Do Not Adjust Your Set. It was produced for and broadcast by London Weekend Television but was not shown in other ITV regions.

The idea (inspired by a sketch in an earlier show, Twice a Fortnight) was to replay history as if television had been around at the time. Sketches included interviews with the vital characters in the dressing-room after the Battle of Hastings, Samuel Pepys presenting a TV chat-show and an estate agent trying to sell Stonehenge to a young couple looking for their first home ('It's got character, charm and a slab in the middle').

Seven programs were written and made but LWT amalgamated the highlights of the first two episodes into one, resulting in a six-part series.

For many years the entire series was believed to have been wiped. Copies of some episodes have since been found, but have not been broadcast or released on DVD as of 2007.

Terry Jones has expressed dissatisfaction with the show, complaining after a showing of surviving episodes that the pacing was off and the soundtrack all wrong.

"It was doing The Complete and Utter History of Britain that got me really convinced that you have to control everything. You not only act in the things - you've got to actually start directing the things as well." ^[1]