Nothing was sacred to “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” — and that is probably why the comedy troupe’s television show became so popular.

The irreverent programme starring  John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman first aired 40 years ago in 1969.

Among Monty Python’s most popular TV skits are those that mock unworkable aspects of Britain’s authoritarian class structure, including its famously intractable rules, monumental political bureaucracy and befuddling misrepresentations.

After several seasons the show stopped airing in Britain, but played on in North American television re-runs.

Python members widened their scope in such Hollywood films as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the controversial “Life of Brian,” considered blasphemous in some circles because of its comedic references to Jesus Christ.

Monty Python will receive a BAFTA at a special ceremony in New York on October 15 as a tribute to their contribution to British comedy.

Do you have a favourite Monty Python sketch?

Watch clips selected from the YouTube Monty Python channel and let us know.

It will be the end of an era. Associated Newspapers has announced that it will shut the analogue Teletext TV service in January next year.

The shutdown was expected to take place in 2012 and the company has also said that it will even close several of its Freeview digital services. The service has been badly hit by a fall in audiences and revenue brought on by the economic downturn.

Teletext services have been running since 1974, providing news and weather reports, football results and film listings. Some commercial services on digital channels will remain, as will the profitable travel websites.

Will you miss Teletext? Do you still use it? What are your memories of the service?

After a monumentally useless performance in last week’s opening task, “The Apprentice” candidates return to our screens tonight to add further ridicule to the claim that they are the “brightest business prospects in Britain.”

This week’s task sees them struggling to… make sandwiches. It is boys versus girls again and team Ignite and team Empire have to set up a catering service in the City of London, pitching for business, sourcing ingredients, creating menus and basically making a pig’s ear of the whole thing.

Yasmina and Rocky, both from catering backgrounds, are team leaders and you would expect them to know what they are doing. Fat chance. After over-spending last week the girls try to make up for it by offering chicken wraps without chicken and adding their own budget ingredient to a salad - hair.

The boys, rather brilliantly, go for an Olympic themed catering service and don togas to serve their food to bewildered city professionals.

A recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

Sir Alan Sugar’s henchman Nick Hewer is not impressed. “The togas haven’t gone down terribly well… the young ones find it rather a turn off.”

Speak for yourself Nick.

– The Apprentice, Wednesday April 1 at 9pm, BBC ONE –

You have to ask yourself, following last night’s opening episode of the fifth series of reality show “The Apprentice”, why lawyers even bother entering the competition. Sir Alan Sugar reportedly has little time for legal eagles and it was pretty clear, once her team had lost the first task, that poor Anita Shah, pictured, was going to be the first one booted out of the competition.

Mind you, she was pretty useless.

The show’s opening claim that the candidates, who are competing for a job with Sir Alan Sugar and a six figure salary, are “Britain’s brightest business prospects” is patently untrue. “The Apprentice” seems to have adopted the Big Brother mantra of selecting candidates not for their worth but because of their oversized egos, unwarranted self-belief and willingness (in some cases eagerness) to stab each other in the back.

Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson did not get to where they are today by saying things like “To me making money is better than sex” (contestant Ben Clarke) and “Business is the new rock ‘n’ roll and I’m Elvis Presley” (Philip Taylor, an estate agent).

Best of all was Business Development Manager Majid Nagra’s assertion that “Business is the backbone to this world, without companies buying and selling there wouldn’t be any economy.” Thanks for that.

Anita said modestly that “I have the rainbow of skills” and “people want to chat with me.”

Wrong! As it turned out, Sir Alan Sugar had heard enough as the girls team Ignite lost the challenge in which they had to go and earn money cleaning cars (or not as it turned out - they couldn’t get the power washer working).

Neither team earned very much money and the boys team, Empire, jet-washed cars with the doors open. Margaret Mountford, Sir Alan’s aide-de-camp, said, Churchill-esque: “Never before in the history of car washing have so few cars been washed by so many people in such a long time.”

Back in the boardroom the show’s producers got what they wanted as the candidates wasted no time savaging each other in an attempt to save themselves from the words, “You’re fired!”

But it was Anita who exited stage right, using her taxi monologue to fire a parting shot at the Big Boss. “I just think that Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers. Let’s see in 10 years if he doesn’t sit and think: maybe I made the wrong decision.”

Then again, maybe he won’t.

One thing is for sure though - it all makes fabulous telly.

What did you think of last night’s “The Apprentice” curtain raiser? Share your thoughts with us below.

For those immune to the charms of the latest gadgets, they are expensive, infuriating and fragile devices that are destined to be lost or stolen or end up languishing in the back of a drawer.

But for gadget-lovers there is nothing better than getting their hands on a covetable new toy that promises to make life easier or more fun.

Readers of Stuff magazine, who are more likely to fall into the second category, are voting for their favourite gadget of the last 12 months.

Here’s the shortlist: Apple’s iPhone, Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Wii Fit, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Asus Eee PC and the B&W Zeppelin.

Nominees in the other categories include the BlackBerry Bold, Nokia N96, Creative Zen X-Fi and TomTom GO 730.

Do you constantly upgrade your mobile/iPod/television in a quest for the latest features? Or are you quite happy still using your basic phone and full-size TV?

What was your favourite gadget of the last year and why do you love it so much?

*Click here for full story*

“The Apprentice” has found its bully, sergeant major and army officer — oh, and its first scapegoat.

So scary was the bully that she was even likened to the villain of the last series Katie Hopkins.

But at least you could watch and learn from Hopkins and admire her lucidity, if not her morals.

This bully — step forward Jenny Celerier — is just, well … brutish.

Admittedly, the two women share the same naff dress sense — white suits for Hopkins and ties and neck scarves pulled just a little too meanly and tightly for Celerier.

But Celerier just alternates between ignoring her team or shouting at them, reducing some to tears in front of others.

“I am the project manager and I have not finished speaking”, must surely become her catchphrase.

Making Shazia Wahab the scapegoat for the laundry exercise was a masterclass in hypocrisy.

While Wahab showed enthusiasm and initiative, Celerier came up with the idea of charging five pounds to launder a pillow case and asking for tips from customers whose clothing had gone missing. 

Was this even more embarrassing than the kiss-o-gram policy adopted by the girls’ team in the last series?

Unlike her comments on “The Apprentice” Web site, Wahab was not a “stubborn cow who wants to have the last word” — she was too much in shock at Celerier’s tactics and criticisms to put up a fight in the boardroom.

Under Celerier’s leadership the girls, who won the first challenge, were reduced to arguing among themselves rather like washerwomen, as Adrian Chiles described it in the post-programme analysis.

The boys on the other hand were transformed under the leadership of Raef Bjayou, who really can’t be that posh AND be on television.

After the first week of the business TV reality show, the candidates are beginning to stand out more than the boys’ haircuts, and possibly even Alan Sugar’s increasingly garish ties.

And an early likely winner is Simon Smith who slipped seamlessly into his former role as an NCO in the Royal Artillery, following the orders of Bjayou and putting in the hard graft.

As he said himself: “I’m the sergeant major and Bjayou is the officer. It’s like the old days.”

Once, kids had to work hard to become famous.

Whatever their chosen route, it would usually involve endless hours of practice — be it in the gym, on the pitch, at the keyboard or on the stage.

Now, with the advent of the reality TV star and the explosion of shows like the X Factor, America’s Next Top Model, Laguna Beach and the like, it seems anyone can do it and earn themselves millions in the process.

In the meantime, the media obsession with celebrities like David Beckham and Paris Hilton reinforces the yearning for stardom.

No wonder then, perhaps, that many children think it’s hardly worth bothering with their studies any more, as a survey of teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

“Celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable,” the Association said.

Are kids becoming dangerously celebrity-obsessed these days or do they still have their heads screwed on? And if it really is a problem, should schools be trying to counter the trend more actively?