How the first Monty Python pitch meeting could have gone...

Could this have been what happened when Monty Python first pitched their sketch show to the BBC 50 years ago?

Comedy writers Lorelei Mathias with Emmy McMarrow have imagined how the prospect of a six-man comedy show might have been received had the sexism that still affects the industry been reversed.

Mathais said they based on experiences they had with production companies and agents, saying: 'We're happy to be rejected for our writing being bad, or our ideas being shit - but not because of our gender.

'Then I read the Chortle article about representation being around 11 per cent - which is frankly a bit of a circus in 2020 - and after that the sketch wrote itself.'

The sketch was premiered at a Comedy 5050 event last week – the initiative set up to address the off-screen gender imbalance in TV comedy writing.

The writers star with Jonathan Hansler as John Cleese,plus Robin Bailes, Steve Kent, Nick Ewans and Alan Devey.

Published: 8 Mar 2020