Eric Idle feels "lucky" to be alive
The 82-year-old actor-and-comedian has had a "reprieve" since he survived pancreatic cancer in 2019, and the star thinks people should appreciate being in good health and not worry about ageing, because "there's not much you can do about it"
16 July 2025
Eric told the new issue of The Big Issue magazine: "Ageing - there's not much you can do about it.
"I think the thing is that you know you can get better at things like relationships. You can get better at marriages. You can get better about people and friends because in the end, that's all that matters.
"And as you get older, sadly, you lose more and more friends. The older you get, the less you think, 'Oh gosh, I hope this never ends.'
"You've got physical problems, and all these things happen. You've just got to feel lucky that you're alive.
"I miss a lot of people. Great people like Mike Nichols. I will find myself thinking of a funny line and thinking, 'You must tell Mike that.'
"Or Jonathan Miller. So many of my heroes have gone, like Robin Williams. I still kind of occasionally speak to Billy Connolly, but I really miss him.
"You've got to find other people, you know, because there are still other funny people you can have dinner with or play guitar with.
"I got lucky, because I had to, I survived pancreatic cancer. So I feel that since 2019 I've had a reprieve.
"So I don't know or care what people say about me, I'm lucky every single day."
Elsewhere, the Monty Python star admitetd he would love to relive the moment his wife Tanya Kosevich asked him to dance in 1977.
Eric explained: "If I could live one more time in my life again it would be when my wife, Tanya, asked me to dance.
"I think I'd like to be right in that moment again.
"She asked me to dance, and I said to her, 'I'm never going to leave you.'
"That was 48 years ago. I can't explain that, I just knew. I just knew, never let this one go, and we must dance on."
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