ERIC Idle can always look on the bright side of life, in the words of his most famous song, originally delivered in a loincloth while pinned to a cross in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.

At 67, he is in the limelight once more and so is that whistling song from 1979, now featured in Monty Python’s Spamalot, a “new musical lovingly ripped off from Monty Python And The Holy Grail” – and more specifically lovingly ripped off by Idle himself and John DuPrez with Tony Award-winning success in New York.

From Broadway triumph in 2005 and West End success, Spamalot’s tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table has moved on to the touring circuit with comedian Marcus Brigstocke and former EastEnders star Todd Carty leading the cast as King Arthur and Patsy respectively.

Amy Nuttall, from Emmerdale and Hotel Babylon, will be joining them in York for the November 22 to 27 run at the Grand Opera House, where she will play the Lady of the Lake.

“It’s lovely; it’s a gift that keeps on giving,” says Eric, on a flying visit to the Manchester Opera House to promote the tour.

For all the fact that Monty Python’s team has long stopped working together, their popularity shows no sign of waning, and Eric attributes that to the role of comedy in our lives.

“Comedy is part of being human and a very important part of it,” he says. “While I was writing the novel The Road To Mars, about a robot to two comedians in space, I came to realise that comedy is a survival tool in the sense that it tells you that something serious is happening.

“Whether it’s truthful or not, comedy is always present in moments of danger, and they always say, ‘Look on the bright side’ in moments of war.

“It’s not just an English thing: it is human experience that allows us to come to terms with fear, grief and possibly anger.”

Comedy provokes a reaction, an instant response, and the Monty Python team of Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam knew that only too well. “Whatever we were doing with Python, we were always doing something rather honest. We were trying to be unpleasant and annoy people,” says Eric.

“We were the last generation raised on the radio and it seemed that when Python started, it was entirely about showing how TV viewed the world and how it changed your experience or view of something.

“It was also about being angry with authority figures, who were telling you to take things for granted, when as rebellious figures, you were the ones being caned for being funny.”

No one would be angrier than John Cleese, says Eric. “My God, is there anyone any more angry than Cleese? His whole body is anger. Basil Fawlty is all about anger.”

Idle, Cleese and co picked up the mantle from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. “Every generation will have its poets and artists and comedians, and we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and ballsy enough to capitalise on it. It was a lot of fun; they were so scared of us at the BBC,” he says.

“What’s interesting with the establishment is that once you attack it, it admits you. We were hated by thousands of the bourgeoisie but now we’re the cuddly old Python, whereas someone like Marcus [Brigstocke] still has anger.”

Cuddly old Python they may be, but the humour still works wonderfully well in Spamalot, even if the only Python in the show is Idle in film form as God. “Why is it so popular? I think it’s darn, bloody funny,” he says.

“But what I had to do to make Holy Grail into a stage show was to complete the myth and that’s what now happens in the play.” •Monty Python’s Spamalot will be on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, from November 22 to 27 at 7.30pm, plus Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm. Box office: 0844 847 2322 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk