Eric Idle

Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the internationally renowned British comedy group Monty Python. Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham (now Tyne and Wear) in Harton Village, the son of Nora Barron (Sanderson) and Ernest Idle. His father had served in the Royal Air Force and survived World War II, only to be killed in a hitch-hiking accident on Christmas Eve of the first Christmas after the war. His mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so when he was seven, she enrolled him into the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder. The school had begun life as a Victorian orphan, and during Idle's time was a charitable foundation dedicated to the welfare of children who had lost one or both parents. Its pupils, who were mainly the children of dead English soldiers, still referred to it as the 'Ophney'. Idle is quoted as saying: "It was a...