Eric Idle says he feels ‘lucky every single day’ after surviving cancer

Actor and comedian Eric Idle has said he feels lucky “every single day” after surviving pancreatic cancer.

Idle, 82, revealed in 2022 that he had received an early diagnosis and been successfully treated for the illness.

In a Letter To My Younger Self for the Big Issue, the Monty Python star said: “I miss a lot of people. Great people like Mike Nichols.

“I will find myself thinking of a funny line and thinking, you must tell Mike that. Or Jonathan Miller. So many of my heroes have gone, like Robin Williams. I still kind of occasionally speak to Billy Connolly, but I really miss him.

“You’ve got to find other people, you know, because there are still other funny people you can have dinner with or play guitar with.

“I got lucky, because I had to, I survived pancreatic cancer. So I feel that since 2019 I’ve had a reprieve. So I don’t know or care what people say about me, I’m lucky every single day.”

Idle also reflected on some of the issues financing Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, which saw the film’s creators receive help from Beatles star George Harrison.

He said: “For a while we had no money. (Media impresario) Lew Grade read it and just went nuts. He said, we can’t possibly make this. I went to America to find money.

“I had been talking to George Harrison who was a huge fan, and he said, ‘I’ll phone you in the morning, don’t worry’. And I thought, well, nobody’s got four and a half million dollars.

“But finally, when everybody turned us down, there was a call from him saying, ‘I’ve got you the money’.

“He had mortgaged his house and his business and raised the cash and put it all on a Python film. The most extraordinary thing to do.”

Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Sir Michael Palin fronted the ground-breaking sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

A huge hit, 45 episodes were made between 1969 and 1974, as well as five films including 1975’s The Holy Grail, on which hit musical Spamalot – written by Idle – is based.

Read the full interview with Idle in the Big Issue, out now.