A limited-edition Spam with Stinky French Garlic variant is celebrating the canned meat brand's associations with comedy phenomenon Monty Python.

Launched to coincide with next month's West End opening of the musical Spamalot, which is based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail and features several flatulent Frenchmen among other colourful characters, the new line marks a change in approach from Spam.

It has previously been reluctant to play upon its links with the TV show, epitomised by the cult song Spam, Wonderful Spam.

Besides its tongue-in-cheek name, the collectable can has a Pythonesque look, and proclaims the flavour to be "wickedly smelly". Ex-Monty Python star Eric Idle was involved in the design.

Swen Neufeldt, general manager of brand owner Hormel Foods Europe, said that the new line would "help to attract a whole new audience to the brand".