Rival Documentaries is a sketch that appears in "A Book at Bedtime," the thirty-eighth episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Synopsis[]
A reporter (John Cleese) stands in a field, asking a question regarding the "Spot the Looney" presenter's view that Sir Walter Scott is a loony and starts to document him until another reporter (Michael Palin) asks for his microphone, which he complies, only for him to start a documentary on trees. The first reporter confusedly trails him, until they start fighting for the microphone, talking between the documentaries of Sir Walter Scott and trees. The first reporter has the camera cut to Scott's friend, Angus Tinker (Graham Chapman), who talks about what he had been working on until a forestry expert (Terry Jones) steals the microphone to talk about timber. The first reporter arrives in a car, swiping the microphone, and resumes talking about Scott until the second reporter arrives, and they resume their rivalry about their documentaries until they end up crashing into something.
The 'Book At Bedtime' presenter (Palin) has got to the end, reading 'The End' and the credits roll. Footage of Edward Heath and members of Parliament plays and a 'Spot the Loony' buzzer is heard.