Pye Electronics: John Cleese

From the collection of

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia

The East Anglian Film Archive, the UK's first regional film archive, offers a unique record of the East of England's social and cultural history. As part of the University of East Anglia, we continue to lead moving image heritage research and inspire audience participation through community projects and events. Our collections represent a broad range of amateur and professional creativity, from 1896 to the present day.

Pye Electronics: John Cleese

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia
Cambridge
1970-01-01
Sound
1m

Actor, comedian, and Monty Python, John Cleese plays to type as a sophisticate loony in this advertisement for Pye Electronics of Cambridge.

A cinema and television advertisement from Cambridge-based electronics manufacturer, Pye featuring comedian John Cleese, who at the time would have been a very familiar face appearing on television screens every week as a member of the Python team in the BBC comedy sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Near Your Local Cinema

Local goods for local people! Screen advertising wasn’t all national brands and chain stores.

Purpose-built cinemas began appearing around Britain shortly before WWI, booming in popularity during the War and developing into the ‘picture palaces’ of the 1920s - when adverts jostled for space alongside newsreels before the main feature. Local businesses were quick to see the potential of a big screen and a captive audience to promote their wares.

While they didn’t have access to the budgets of the national brands, regionally-specific businesses had the benefit of that personal touch. Products and services evolved over time, but that scratchy ad for your local Indian restaurant, so integral to the cinema-going experience into the 1990s, had its roots in the booming entrepreneurship of the industry many decades before.