Monty Python at 50: a half-century of silly walks, edible props and dead parrots

In this rare glimpse inside the BBC archives, we reveal the exasperated internal memos, the furious letters from wing commanders - and David Frost's bid to bring them down

In a memo sent in 1969, the BBC head of comedy seems to have lost his sense of humour. "Please will you have a word with the writers?" said Michael Mills. "I haven't reacted to the funny titles that have appeared on the scripts so far. I hoped that they would cease of their own accord."

The titles that irritated him included "Bunn Wackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot", apparently a spoof legal firm, which came to be shortened to Bunwackett. The show, meanwhile, had the working title The Circus. Now, though, Mills had had enough: "The time has come when we must stop having peculiar titles and settle on one overall title " Please would you have words with them and try to produce something palatable?"