![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/076b7c51659c7f3e91d2b4d8f76bfd42.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nMonty Python star Eric Idle has said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage being \u201ctaken seriously\u201d is \u201cappalling to me\u201d after post-Brexit issues meant he was unable to see his Spamalot musical opening in Paris last year.<\/p>\n
The 82-year-old comedian told the PA news agency he had now applied for a talent visa in France, where he has a home, in the hope it will help him avoid a similar issue happening again.<\/p>\n
Claiming Brexit rules limited his options, he told PA: \u201cEight years ago, we could go and live in any country in Europe we wanted to and work, and I wasn\u2019t even allowed to vote (in the EU referendum) because I lived here (in the US).<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, (Brexit) was just a terrible con, it was a real con, and (the fact) that Nigel Farago (Farage) still exists anywhere and is taken seriously is appalling to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was with somebody\u2026 she said, \u2018I hope I never see him in a room, because I want to punch him\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Idle said he was only able to spend three months a year at the home he built in Provence as a result of Brexit, in a recent interview with The Guardian.<\/p>\n
He told PA: \u201cI\u2019ve applied for a talent visa in France, they have a little talent visa, and I feel I\u2019m due one, because last year Spamalot won the Moliere, which is the equivalent of their Tony from Paris.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they love their Monty Python here (in France), we won that, we won the Jury Prize for The Meaning Of Life at the Cannes Film Festival, so they do know Python.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eric Idle will head out on a UK tour in September (Eric Idle\/Note by Note Media)<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019m hopeful that I\u2019ll get a little bit of an extension so I don\u2019t have to get kicked out, because I was kicked out two years ago, I had to leave, and I couldn\u2019t go and see the opening in Paris because I didn\u2019t have another day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote to Monsieur Macron, and offered him a ticket if he\u2019d let me in, and I said, \u2018only one ticket, because I don\u2019t want to be accused of bribery\u2019, but I never heard back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spamalot is the stage adaptation of the Monty Python film Holy Grail (1975), which has previously seen acclaimed productions on Broadway and London\u2019s West End.<\/p>\n
Idle now lives in Los Angeles in the US and thinks he could also be made to leave that country if he jokes about US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI think it\u2019s quite likely \u2013 I\u2019m only a green card holder \u2013 that I will be given the boot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedian will return to the UK in September for a solo tour, which will see him perform at venues including London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Glasgow\u2019s Armadillo.<\/p>\n
He is best known for his appearances in the Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus TV series alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, and its spin-off films Holy Grail, Life Of Brian (1979) and The Meaning Of Life (1983).<\/p>\n
Idle also created The Rutles with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band\u2019s Neil Innes, a parody band of The Beatles, which featured in two mockumentaries in All You Need Is Cash (1978) and The Rutles 2: Can\u2019t Buy Me Lunch (2003).<\/p>\n
Mr Farage\u2019s Reform UK party have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monty Python star Eric Idle has said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage being \u201ctaken seriously\u201d is \u201cappalling to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,30683,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,30685,384,16,15],"class_list":["post-268834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eric-idle","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-monty-python","tag-nigel-farage","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114867618669255619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}