Eric Idle, the 83-year-old Monty Python star, has spoken candidly about his friendship with Beatles guitarist George Harrison, his battle with pancreatic cancer, and his life in the south of France in a new interview on BBC Radio 3's Private Passions.
Idle, who rose to fame in 1967 on ITV's Do Not Adjust Your Set, first met Harrison at the opening screening for Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975. The pair quickly became close friends, and Idle was by Harrison's side when he died in 2001.
A friendship that saved Life of Brian
Reflecting on their first meeting, Idle said: "He was looking for me and we fell instantly in love. It was amazing. And we talked all night. We went back, played guitars. He played me some of his tracks from the studio and we stayed up all night. I figured we kind of played a similar role in our groups, between two powerful blocs."
When the Pythons' 1979 film Life of Brian lost its backer, EMI, less than a week before filming, Harrison stepped in to fund it. Idle recalled: "Nobody was going to make it. We were building the sets and we were in debt. George said, 'oh, don't worry, I'll find you the money.' And he did. He mortgaged his house in Henley and he mortgaged his business premises in Knightsbridge. He said 'I wanted to see the movie.'"
Their friendship also inspired The Rutles, Idle's affectionate spoof of the Beatles, which was released as a movie in 1978 called All You Need Is Cash. Idle noted: "Apparently John and Yoko loved it. I think Ringo said he liked it after 1968. I still don't understand what that means. I bumped into Paul McCartney and Linda just up the road and he said, 'I'm not sure we're talking to you.' Linda? Gosh, she loved it, because I'm sort of sending up her husband. Anyway, he's forgiven me now and he's very, very friendly and lovely."
A retreat in Provence
Since 1971, Idle, who lives in California, has also owned a home in Provence, about 4km outside the village of Cotignac. He bought it with his first wife, actress Lyn Ashley, as a crumbling stone ruin. The couple, whose son Carey was born in 1973, divorced in 1978. In 1981, he married Tania Kosevich, a former model he met in New York, and they had a daughter, Lily, born in 1990. The house features in his latest book, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme, published in September.
The home became a retreat for superstar friends like the late comedian Robin Williams, who died by suicide in 2014, when they wanted to avoid the limelight. Idle said: "Nobody knew Robin in those days in France because Mork and Mindy hadn't even started in France. So he had a bit of time to get over that. They [the locals] didn't bother people. It's quiet and it's not a big deal. That's very nice for people who are used to being looked at. It's not very healthy to be looked at all the time."
David Bowie was another star who stayed. Idle recalled: "He gave me a cassette called Diamond Dogs, and he asked me to write a musical with it - so I listened to it. A couple of weeks later, he said, 'what did you think of Diamond Dogs?' And I went, 'well, it's very loud.' So we never played music. We did comedy most of the time. He was the most extraordinary polymath. He read widely. He listened to all kinds of music. He was into photography, costume. He did everything. And he was a very wonderful, amazing man."
Health and later career
Idle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019, but it was caught early and removed. This week he cancelled his November and December Evening of Idle Conversation tour in Australia and New Zealand on medical advice. On getting older, he said: "I lose somebody every few weeks and it's horrible. That is the worst thing of getting old. I try and make friends [with a] younger group of people who play instruments. We always get together every two weeks and play music."
Born in South Shields on 29 March 1943, Idle's father Ernest, an RAF serviceman, was killed hitchhiking home on Christmas Eve 1945. He attended a boarding school in Wolverhampton from age seven until 19, and has played guitar since he was 12, now owning 30 of them. At Cambridge he joined the Footlights, the university's sketch comedy club. Monty Python's Flying Circus began on the BBC in 1969, running for four series until 1973. Spamalot, his musical version of Holy Grail, won the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway in 2005.
Spamalot has been the focus of a feud between Idle and his ex co-star John Cleese, which began in February 2024 over Monty Python's falling income. It erupted again on 10 September when Idle marked his new book's British release on X. Cleese said two days later that he, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam had refused to meet Idle "because we are appalled by the way he has been abusing Holly Gilliam". In 2025, Idle branded his Python co-stars "miserable and b****y" over their money feud.
Reflecting on his song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life being Brits' number one choice for funerals, Idle said: "I think it's very healthy." After HMS Sheffield was hit in the Falklands on 4 May 1982, her crew sang it while waiting to be rescued, and Idle performed it at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. He added: "I sang it at Graham Chapman's memorial and it was quite hard to do. If you can cry and laugh at a funeral, then you've done both."
