I figure Ultimo will be the only one who will know the answer to this, but we've got some trivia buffs, so maybe someone else will know. Who is Michael Ellis? Anyone?

We don't get regular TV stations (only PBS), so we get a lot of shows from NetFlix. We just got done with Monty Python's Flying Circus, who has an episode called Michael Ellis (and is all about a guy who is mistaken for Michael Ellis). Now, we're watching Red Dwarf. (What can I say, we like British humour.) In one of the episodes, they mentioned Michael Ellis.

Is Michael Ellis some British gag I don't know about, or was someone from Red Dwarf a Monty Python fan (which is very likely)?