Career: Cleese's showbiz break came with The Frost Report. By 1969, he and Chapman were working alongside Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam on Monty Python's Flying Circus, which made them household names. He left the group in 1972, although they reunited for several films. In 1975, Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth wrote and starred in Fawlty Towers, which was a worldwide hit. Projects since include A Fish Called Wanda, which he co-wrote, two Bond movies, and two Harry Potter films. He has also appeared in 3rd Rock from the Sun and Will & Grace. His stand-up show, The Alimony Tour, proved hugely popular in 2010; his most recent film, God Loves Caviar, was released in 2012.

Career: After graduating, Palin presented TV show Now! and worked in light entertainment. In 1966, he and Jones began writing for BBC comedy shows. Three years later, they joined forces with John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam to front 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. Palin has also starred in movies including A Fish Called Wanda, A Private Function, and American Friends (which he also wrote), and appeared in acclaimed TV drama GBH. Since the mid-1980s, he's become famous for globetrotting programmes such as Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole. He's written books to accompany each series, as well as two novels; three volumes of his diaries have also been published. He delivered 2013's Royal Television Society lecture.

Career: During the 1960s, Chapman began writing professionally with John Cleese. They wrote for David Frost and Marty Feldman, and episodes of long-running sitcom Doctor in the House. Chapman also contributed sketches to the BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and TV programmes such as Cilla Black and This is Tom Jones. In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin to star in sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. He would often play comical authority figures. Chapman went on to star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) and Monty Python's the Meaning of Life (1982). In 1983 he co-wrote and starred in the movie Yellowbeard. He died of cancer on October 8, 1989, a day before the 20th anniversary of Monty Python.

Career: Idle's first TV appearance came in Jonathan Miller's 1966 adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. A year later he featured alongside Terry Jones and Michael Palin in Do Not Adjust Your Set. In 1969 the trio joined forces with John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Graham Chapman to make sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. The programme ended in 1974, but the team went on to make several films, including The Holy Grail, on which hit musical Spamalot - written by Idle - is based. They also reteamed in 2014 for a final, sell-out series of gigs at London's O2. Other projects include Rutland Weekend Television, The Rutles, Nuns on the Run, Splitting Heirs and voicing Merlin in Shrek the Third. He also wrote and sang the theme for hit sitcom One Foot in the Grave.

Career: The duo's 1964 Oxford Revue proved popular, but the pair parted when Jones got a job first at Anglia TV, then at the BBC. He worked as a production assistant before writing jokes for Late Night Line-Up and, when reunited with Palin, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set followed before they were teamed with John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam to form Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969. The show ran for five years and spawned several successful movies. Since then he's turned to writing, directed the movies Personal Services, Erik the Viking and The Wind in the Willows, and has presented history programmes including Terry Jones' Medieval Lives and The Story of One. In 2008, he wote and directed an opera titled Evil Machines.

Career: Gilliam created the animated segments for Do Not Adjust Your Set and Monty Python's Flying Circus before co-directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Jones in 1974. He made his solo project Jabberwocky in 1977 and was art director on Monty Python's Life of Brian. His first blockbuster was 1981's Time Bandits, which paved the way for the controversial Brazil four years later. His follow-up, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, was one of the industry's most expensive flops, but Gilliam redeemed himself with The Fisher King in 1991. Other movies include Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the much-delayed The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.