In many ways, Jabberwocky seems a clear outthrust of Terry Gilliam’s work as a member of Monty Python – it could almost be a companion piece to the satirical vision of the Middle Ages that the Pythons presented in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But Gilliam takes the farcical absurdism of Holy Grail down to a far blacker level – at times, the film verges on muted hysteria. Gilliam takes inordinate delight in puncturing the romanticized vision of Middle Ages of Prince Valiant et al – and in serving up as many urinatings, defecations, self-flagellations, wenchings, severed limbs and muck dumpings on the hapless hero as he possibly can.

The film’s look is unique – it bustles with packed downbeat texture. The sets are lit so as to be swallowed up in deep gloom – the film a minor masterpiece of lighting and set dressing. The plot seems mostly a series of strung-out happenstances that occur to blithely jolly Michael Palin, but Gilliam launches at it with a remarkably adept slapstick hand – a chain of chaos caused in the background of an armoury as a result of Palin’s helpful hints is superb.

While generally overlooked and not a big success at the time it came out, Jabberwocky is a better film than Terry Gilliam’s subsequently acclaimed but more chaotic Time Bandits. The end credits note that “characters in the film have no connection to persons dead or living except one”.