<P> At the end of the version in Flying Circus, a letter written by an enraged viewer (voiced by John Cleese) is shown to complain about the portrayal of lumberjacks in the sketch . The letter reads: "Dear Sir, I wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about the song which you have just broadcast about the lumberjack who wears women's clothes . Many of my best friends are lumberjacks, and only a few of them are transvestites . Yours faithfully, Brigadier Sir Charles Arthur Strong (Mrs .) P.S. I have never kissed the editor of the Radio Times ." It then cuts to a vox pop of a screeching Pepperpot (Graham Chapman) voicing her objection of "all this sex on the television", exclaiming, "I keep falling off!" This is followed by an image of an award as text reading "That joke was nominated for this years Rubber Mac of Zurich Award . It came last" scrolls past . It then cuts to a Gumby (Chapman) in front of the forest set, who says, "Well, I think television's killed real entertainment . In the old days we used to make our own fun at Christmas parties . I used to strike myself on the head repeatedly with blunt instruments while crooning ." He then proceeds to croon while striking himself in the head with bricks . </P> <P> The music is similar to "Là ci darem la mano", Don Giovanni's and Zerlina's duet in Act 1, Scene 2, of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni . The music has also been compared to the English folk song "The Foggy Dew", this is particularly apparent in the verses (' I cut down trees ...'). </P> <P> A German version of "The Lumberjack Song" was performed for the 1972 special Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, produced for German and Austrian television, for which Palin learned the German text phonetically and the group of Mounties was replaced by a group of Austrian border guards . Instead of one of his parents, the German version credits the lumberjack's "Uncle Walter" as inspiring his passion for cross-dressing; this change was likely done simply for a rhyme with "Büstenhalter", the German translation for "bra", which caps the phrase preceding the "I wish I'd been a girlies ..." line . (The subtitles on the A&E DVD release of this special quote the original English lyrics .) A German translation of the angry letter featured at the conclusion of the BBC TV version ends the sketch . </P> <P> Another German translation is used in the German dub of the film And now for something completely different where the Lumberjack Song also appears . For example, whereas the Fliegender Zirkus version has the German chorus "Ich bin Holzfäller und fühl' mich stark, ich schlaf' des Nachts und hack' am Tag ..." ("I'm a lumberjack and I feel strong, I sleep at night and I chop throughout the day ...", which is the version still remembered by Palin today), the chorus in the German dub in And now for something completely different goes "Ich bin Holzfäller und mir geht's gut, am Tag packt mich die Arbeitswut ..." ("I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, I'm a workaholic throughout the day ..."). </P>

Who sang the original version of the old rugged cross