HALLELUJAH! Eric Idle hopes to continue the Monty Python team’s pursuit of their money-making Holy Grail with a comical take on Handel’s oratorio the Messiah.

The stage show, to be called Not the Messiah, will draw inspiration from their satirical movie of 1979, Life of Brian.

Plans for the show were disclosed this weekend by Idle as he prepared to bring his comedy musical Spamalot to London after a hugely successful 18 months on Broadway. It is based on the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Idle said that Not the Messiah would remain true to the spirit of Life of Brian, which was one of the most controversial films of its time.

“As the Messiah was to the Bible, so Not the Messiah is to Life of Brian,” he said. “I promise you that it will have more jokes than Handel.” The composer’s most famous work, first performed in 1742, took its text from the King James Bible.

The spoof oratorio, which has been half completed, is to receive its premiere next June in Toronto, Canada, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a full choir playing the crowd. There will be four main soloists.

Idle and John Du Prez, the composer, have created several new songs, including I Want to be a Girl (rather than a baby Jesus) and Hail to the Shoe (rather than the Lord). “It’s all about there not being a messiah or Christ,” said Idle.

It will include old favourites. “I’m pretty sure that I’ll be putting Always Look on the Bright Side of Life in too,” said Idle. He also intends to include the Lumberjack Song. “It’s virtually been adopted by the Canadians as their national anthem so I’ve really got to put it in.”

The 1979 movie told the story of a child (Graham Chapman) born in the stable next to Jesus, who lives in obscurity for 33 years before being mistaken for a messiah and sentenced to crucifixion by the Roman governor, played by Michael Palin.

John Cleese played a pedantic Roman centurion as well as an equally pedantic Judean terrorist leader, while Terry Jones, the director, played Brian’s mother.

In America the Catholic Conference called it “morally objectionable” while the Rabbinical Alliance claimed it was “an incitement to possible violence”.

The film’s financiers, EMI, withdrew fearing it was blasphemous, and shooting went ahead only because George Harrison, the late Beatle, intervened with funding.

Idle and Harrison struck up a close friendship and together set up Handmade Films, which after its success with Life of Brian went on to rescue other British projects including The Long Good Friday.

The idea for Spamalot crystallised when Idle worked with the other Pythons on a memorial concert for Harrison. He reportedly won them over to clear the copyright by sending them tapes of the songs.

The recent publication of Michael Palin’s diaries has made public the tensions and petty rivalries that undermined the Pythons, and Idle received particular criticism for his alleged obsession with making money.

He left to live in America 12 years ago after suffering a critical mauling for his film Splitting Heirs, which featured a young Catherine Zeta-Jones. He also remarried in America and lives in Los Angeles where he has a daughter at school.

By contrast, the other Pythons broke away from the ensemble to achieve solo success. Cleese had Fawlty Towers and starred in A Fish Called Wanda; Terry Gilliam directed the movies Brazil and The Fisher King, while Palin built a career on television travelogues and Jones made history documentaries.

This weekend Idle conceded that a dose of financial pragmatism had been essential in securing the Python revival. “We all get on okay now, even if we’re not best friends. There was sibling rivalry but it’s better now that we’re not working together,” he said.

“When I asked the other Pythons if I could use the Holy Grail for Spamalot I think they said yes only because they thought it would fail,” he added only half-joking.

In fact he paid the other Pythons for the rights and now, because of the continuing success on Broadway and the expected triumph in the West End, they have all benefited significantly.

Palin, Gilliam and Jones will attend Spamalot’s opening at London’s Palace theatre on Tuesday, but Cleese cannot as he is in Australia.

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