Eric Idle explains why he ‘laughed’ after pancreatic cancer diagnosis

‘I thought it was very funny,’ the Monty Python comedian said

Eric Idle has reflected on being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, revealing he “laughed” when he discovered the news.

After being told the news, the Monty Python star, 82, found himself giggling upon recalling how he almost played a man struck down by the same illness years before.

In 2009, Idle researched “the quickest way” to kill off a character in a stage production he’d written – and was told by doctors to give him pancreatic cancer.

When Idle found himself on the receiving end of a real-life diagnosis, he found himself overcome with laughter due to the morbid irony of the situation.

Idle said on a forthcoming episode of BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life: “Before I had pancreatic cancer, I went to my doctor and said, ‘I’ve got to get rid of a character very quickly – what’s the quickest way?’ and he said, ‘Pancreatic cancer – you may only have three weeks or three months.’

“And then, 12 years later, we’re looking at a screen and I said, ‘What’s that?’ And [the doctor] said ‘pancreatic cancer’. And I laughed, because I thought it was very funny.”

Idle’s 2009 project Death: The Musical was ultimately never produced, but he is set to perform it;s opening number in a new “farewell tour” taking place across the UK.

Eric Idle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019 (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)

The comedian will perform several musical numbers from his career as part of the show, called Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! – named after the track from comedy film Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979).

Idle previously said he feels lucky “every single day” after surviving pancreatic cancer. He was successfully treated for the illness after receiving an early diagnosis and been successfully treated for the illness.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

“I feel that since 2019 I’ve had a reprieve so I don’t know or care what people say about me,” he said.

Idle was part of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Sir Michael Palin, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones.

Palin, 82, recently said a reunion of the surviving members was off the cards.

Monty Python co-stars Michael Palin, John Cleese ad Eric Idle (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival)

They did a series of comeback shows in 2014 but without Chapman, who died of tonsil cancer in 1989, aged 48, and Jones, who died in 2020, aged 77, from a rare form of dementia.

“There are ideas for us getting together but now there’s only four of us left and people do their own things,” Palin told Saga Magazine.

“I don’t think we keep in touch with each other as much now,” he said in a new interview, calling their reunion shows “a very good farewell”.