Marion Mould jumps The Sound of Music on Monty Python

The other day I used Bluesky to pass on some of Lord Bonkers' table talk:

Lord Bonkers writes: What all this nonsense about Katy Perry and "the first all-female space crew"? I well recall that a British rocket took off from Woomera 56 years ago almost to the day. Its crew? Marguerite Patten Helen Shapiro Pat Coombs Marion Mould on Stroller

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— Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers.bsky.social) 14 April 2025 at 17:13

Think of this as a sort of free extra from the old boy - a Patreon you don't have to pay for. (That is unless I'm short of inspiration for his next diary, when it will appear there too.)

But who, I hear you ask, were Marion Mould and Stroller?

Marion Mould won the silver medal in the individual show jumping at the Mexico Oympics of 1968. I remember her as Marion Mould, though she must have been Marion Coakes at the time, as she did not marry until the following year.

And Stroller was her horse, or rather her pony. It was rare for ponies to compete in top-level show jumping, but he and Marion won 61 international competitions together.

Oddly, I don't remember hearing much of Marion Mould in the early Seventies, when show jumping (it seems so unlikely now) was a huge television sport. My memory may be at fault, or perhaps she did fade from the scene.

But you can see her above in the third episode of the fourth and final season of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

My memory of that fourth series (the one made without John Cleese) is of watching it each week, willing it to be funny, but being disappointed every time.

Watching this episode today it doesn't seem so bad to me - if you like Python then you will like this. Perhaps the individual sketches are allowed to run on too long, but it's not as weak as I remember it.

And this little selection featuring Marion Mould is certainly funny. Show jumping obstacles did get overblown like this when the sport was at the height of its popularity.