Ian MacNaughton gave unruly comedians room to be funny without making their nonsense hard to follow. We recommend his work on Monty Python's Flying Circus, with a warning that the weaker sketches can run too long.
Fi1m perspective
Somebody speaks with complete authority and refuses to make sense. In Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), MacNaughton and fellow director John Howard Davies let that behaviour continue long enough for us to appreciate how much care goes into sounding so pompous. We laughed at the performers' persistence in being unreasonable, because the staging gives us time to notice how seriously they take themselves. MacNaughton's contribution is easy to undervalue when the actors are doing such conspicuous work. We rate the patience that makes their behaviour easy to follow, even when their conversation is going nowhere.
His move from television drama to light entertainment in 1969 put that patience to a demanding use. Spike Milligan's Q5 (1969) led to the Python assignment, and MacNaughton went on to direct and produce all but four of the programme's 45 episodes. Those credits matter because they establish him as a sustained contributor to the comedy, rather than a visitor to a handful of sketches. The job involved supporting the performers' experiments and defending their work to broadcasters. Early friction with the team over directing decisions is a useful reminder that this freedom had to be negotiated.
The practical virtues are clearest in Flying Circus, where the staging does not hurry every hesitation towards a laugh. Robert Berk's production design is most useful when it stays unobtrusive, leaving faces and bearing to establish how seriously these people take themselves. The weaker stretches are stubbornly long, however, and the performers' care cannot make every one of them worth the wait. We would still recommend the series, but not every sketch rewards the time it is given.
With And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), the team's first feature, MacNaughton took on remakes of existing sketches. His later work included producing and directing the Rising Damp pilot (1974) and directing Leonard Rossiter in the short comedy Le Petomane (1979). These credits place him across sketch comedy, sitcom and short film, though Flying Circus gives us the strongest basis for judging his work. Start there, particularly if pompous people talking themselves into nonsense is your sort of evening.
Biography
Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director. Born in Glasgow, he was educated at Strathallan School and began his career as an actor after service in the Royal Marines, appearing in stage productions and films including X: The Unknown (1956) and an uncredited role in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
He later moved into directing and producing. MacNaughton directed and produced all but four episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974), as well as the team's first feature film And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) and two German specials, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (1971 and 1972). He had previously worked with Spike Milligan on the Q series and went on to direct the short film Le Pétomane (1979).
In 1973 the production team shared a BAFTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Programme for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
