How we created Brian, the life of Monty Python | Movie

Michael Palin, actor, writer

We were doing an advertising tour in Amsterdam for Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Eric Idle proposed the title Jesus Christ: lust for glory. We all laughed, "We could never do that!" But we loved the challenge of making a movie about religion. Then, someone suggested that it was about the time when Jesus was alive, but it is a case of mistaken identity. Someone who thinks to be the Messiah, but pbades the whole film to protest against him.

In a general way, Pythons wrote in separate groups that came together later. We ended up in Barbados for two weeks and finished writing the script – networking the various sketches. This gave the script a great clarity that Holy Grail and The Meaning of Life do not have.

EMI was going to finance the film, but got cold feet. It was a deadly blow because we were already in pre-production. So Eric went to Hollywood and introduced him to George Harrison, who was a big fan of Python since the first TV show. He pledged his house and got a loan of $ 5 million. When asked why, he simply replied, "Because I want to see him." Few people pay $ 5 million for an entry ticket.

John Cleese wanted to play Brian. Graham Chapman had drunk a lot and John thought we needed safe hands for the main role. But Graham stopped drinking just before and was dry all the way through. He had a kind of modesty this anchored all the film. He was also a qualified doctor. It was therefore very useful for the surveillance of the actors and the team during the shooting in Tunisia, with all the stomachaches that people had.

The most difficult thing to shoot was the Pontius Pilate scene because it had to be structured around repressed laughs. All the centurions were about to crack, while Graham and I had to remain totally impbadive. It was really hard work. On the different takes, I used to think of an idiotic word for whispering in someone 's ear. It worked very well, but there is a catch where I'm face to face with Chris Langham and we both fear and I'm not completely diverted from the camera.

It has been banned in Ireland, Norway and Italy. 39 British councils banned him or gave him a certificate X. John and I decided to participate in the BBC televised debate on Friday night, Saturday morning, to defend the film against the bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge. We wanted to explain why it was not a film denigrating Jesus in any form whatsoever. So getting there and finding out that they were behaving like little kids, playing in front of the crowd and saying, "You're going to get your 30 pieces of money" was incredibly irritating. This meeting was a turning point: it broke with the idea that religion was something the institution told people to talk about. They embarrbaded themselves by making a pathetic case.

Terry Gilliam, actor, writer, production designer

I co-directed Holy Grail with Terry Jones, but I had no problem making Brian's life alone. Leading Python was hard work because people did not like being uncomfortable: they did not like to wear beards or uncomfortable costumes. These, for me, were important elements and I did not want to have to fight for that.

I just wanted to focus on his appearance. It was very important to keep the feeling of being real, dirty and run down. By making everything so dirty and unpleasant, it made humor funnier. We did most of the shooting in Sousse in Tunisia and the ribat in Monastir; it looked fantastic, but we added various things, like the ramp and the portico, where Pilate and Biggus Dickus are trying to "fix the Wodewick".

Terry and I are so agreed on this point, but then we disagreed on almost as many things. We built this extraordinary set for Pilate's atrium, but you do not see it because of the way Terry fired. He filmed it to showcase the character's comedy, which is the right way. I loved playing jailer. It was another case where I would make a grotesque character – a cracked skull, awful clothes – because the others would not do it. This sequence with Mike and Eric was one of the rare cases of ad libbing; Python did not advertise because John did not like it, he's a fundamentalist of humor, ironically.

The demonstrations in New York were really vigorous. We managed to blame Catholics, Protestants and Jews. The scene of the crucifixion did it every time. Christians seem to regard crucifixion as their only, and this has been done to many non-Christians. My own mother, who was a real practitioner, could not see what was annoying people, because it concerned someone called Brian. It was not a blasphemy.

I was very proud to have got this reaction. We were looking for these people: those who blindly follow religious diktats and do not think for themselves.

We did it 40 years ago, but it's so applicable to our world now. Which says that the world never really changes or that it just becomes more absurd. Fundamentalism, anti-Semitism – we talk about it when Brian discovers that his father is a centurion – and then there is Stan who wants to be a woman. Our titles deal with this subject every day. The only difference is that people have lost a lot of their sense of humor that they had when we did the movie.