Ian MacNaughton

Edward Ian Macnaughton (30 December 1925 – 10 December 2002) was a Scottish actor-turned-television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team. MacNaughton was director and producer for all but four of the forty five episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus from 1969 to 1974, director of the group's first feature film And Now for Something Completely Different in 1971 and director of their two German episodes, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus in 1971 and 1972. In 1973 the production team shared the BAFTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Programme for Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Ian MacNaughton was born in Glasgow and educated at Strathallan School in Perthshire. He studied medicine at university before abandoning his plans to become a doctor and joining the Royal Marines for a year in 1945. While serving with the Royal Marines in an officers' training squad at Deal, Kent, he was offered the chance to act with the Globe Players which was the Royal Marines amateur dramatics group. After he was demobilised in 1946, he returned to Glasgow, where his father hoped he would join the family firm. However, he decided to apply for a one-year pre-RADA course in London, which he completed, though he did not enter the Academy itself.

On his return to Scotland, MacNaughton spent several years acting on stage, regularly appearing in productions at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh. Most notably in 1948 he appeared in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Sir David Lindsay's 16th century political satire The Three Estates at the Edinburgh Festival.

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