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Eric Idle has spoken about his close friendship with the late George Harrison.

The comedian has praised the former Beatle for financing Monty Python film Life of Brian and helping him through a difficult period of his life.

“George paid for The Life Of Brian the entire film, he paid for it,” Eric reveals on Parkinson tonight. “What was great about George is he had a really great sense of humour, he was really funny. And as well as being a spiritually nice person he was always very encouraging to me in a dark time in my life when I was very sad, my marriage was breaking up, my fault!”

Speaking about the support he received from the singer, Idle added: “He knew what it was like to go through fame in a group and how strange and alienating it is. How to be on top of the world in one way and yet feel your life is not meaning anything. And so he was always very keen on encouraging people just to say ‘well we’re all alive and we’re all going to die.’”

Parkinson airs at 10.40pm tonight on ITV1.