Here's a real Monty Python rarity - the film inserts from Out of the Trees, a
 1975 television sketch show pilot written by Graham Chapman, Douglas Adams and
 Bernard McKenna that was broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. The show shared some of
 the stream-of-consciousness style of Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which
 Chapman was a member. Actors included Mark Wing-Davey and Simon Jones.

This seventeen-minute reel [of which a lot is black space and leader] includes
 the various filmed inserts for the show, including the entire "peony" sketch
 starring Simon Jones, as well as portions of the Genghis Khan sketch starring
 Graham Chapman [and some stock footage and caption cards]. The peony sketch is
 actually much longer here than it was on the broadcast!

Quality is okay, it has a second generation VHS look with time code.

I've also included the [very low quality] audio for the entire show.

The entire show does exist as low quality video but has not yet been shared to
 the general public.


The concept of the show was, according to Chapman, to follow the exploits of two
 modern-day linguists who would travel around a Britain gripped in rapid
 decline. The linguists would comment upon the origins of a word or phrase,
 which would then be the genesis of a sketch. Although two scripts were written
 (the second a collaboration between Chapman and David Yallop), only one episode
 was ever filmed. It was broadcast only once by the BBC, with little promotion,
 at 10pm on Saturday 10 January 1976 opposite Match of the Day, and so was seen
 by relatively few people.

The videotape recording of the show has since been wiped, as used to be common
 for archived BBC shows, due to the relatively high cost of videotape at the
 time. The film segments shot in outdoor locations survive, and consist of a
 sketch titled "Severance of a Peony", and some inserts intended for an item
 about Genghis Khan. The former was included on the DVD for Adams's 1981 TV
 series adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and also appeared,
 rewritten as an anecdote, in Chapman's book A Liar's Autobiography. Rewrites of
 the Ghengis Khan sketch appeared in some editions of Adams's posthumous work
 The Salmon of Doubt as the short story "The Private Life of Genghis Khan".

It was reported in 2005, by a representative posting on the forum at the archive
 television website The Mausoleum Club, that a videotape made by Chapman on an
 obsolete format had been handed to the National Film Television and Videotape
 Archive. This was restored and shown at the National Film Theatre on Saturday,
 2 December 2006 as part of the Missing Believed Wiped event.


Directed by
Ian MacNaughton	 	
 
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)
Douglas Adams	 	
Graham Chapman	 	
Bernard McKenna	 	

Cast (in alphabetical order)
	Maria Aitken		
	Roger Brierley		

	Graham Chapman		
	Jennifer Guy		
	Maggie Henderson		

	Simon Jones		
	Marjie Lawrence		
	Tim Preece		
	Mark Wing-Davey		

Produced by
Bernard Thompson
 
Original Music by
Neil Innes