I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again: Series Seven, Episode Seven.

John Cleese's working copy

John Cleese's working copy of series seven, episode seven of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, with his extensive annotations.

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again ran for 9 series between 1964 and 1973 on what is now BBC Radio 2 (the first series) and BBC Radio 4 (the rest), following the transmission of a successful pilot episode called Cambridge Circus on 30 December 1963. There were 74 episodes in all.

The working copy of John Cleese, this script carries his extensive pencilled annotations, deletions and underlinings. The first sketch involves a dramatised German lesson on the theme of 'Entertaining Friends': the script provides the English, cast members were left to devise their own cod-German equivalents. Cleese has written out his 'German' lines alongside the English ones. Where the printed text calls for 'Keep right where you are, nobody move and nobody gets hurt -- do you understand?', Cleese has gone for 'Stehen-sie wo bist du, du Ghastlie Sauerbraten und Schwienbrot Dachshund kaput, verstehen-sie?'.

The script also contains an early incarnation of the sketch which, under the flag of Monty Python, would later become known as the Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Written by Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman, it first surfaced as a sketch called The Good Old Days in a 1967 episode of At Last the 1948 Show before appearing again here, this time set in a gentleman's club and featuring old buffers complaining about young people having it easy. The sketch is very heavily reworked in Cleese's hand.

42pp mimeographed script, secured with split pin to top left corner, final page detached, title and final pages a little marked and worn, but a very well preserved copy.