Monty Python's Terry Jones RIP

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51209197


Dead at 77

“He’s not the messiah! He’s a very naughty boy!”

RIP Terry Jones.

Gonna watch Life Of Brian later.

Thanks for the laughs Mr Jones. R.I.P.

Poor Terry had been ill for some time. I think for all his stubborness he was kind, generous of spirit and an extremely talented man.

In many ways his later days were like Terry Thomas' - a larger than life man brought down by a debilitating disease. I hope he and Graham Chapman are making merry hell up in heaven!

RIP

Here is a tribute I just penned to Terry : -

The Passing of A Python: A Tribute To Terry Jones.

It was sad to hear of the passing of the Monty Python legend Terry Jones yesterday at the age of 77. As such a warm, enthusiastic force of nature he deserved so much better than the cruel decline of dementia.

        I grew up watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, trying to work out which name related to which actor, other than the Fawlty Towers star John Cleese. Each slowly fitted into place in this mad, unpredictable, intellectual, philosophical, dark and disturbing show: Palin as over-excitable presenters, boring accountants and the 'It's' man, Idle with his cheeky chappies and verbally dextrous characters; Chapman with his indignant, prudish Colonels, Gilliam with his bizarre misfits and then there was Terry Jones. His appearances reminded me a little of Kulvinder Ghir's in the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me - you smiled simply at his appearance. The nude organist, smirking warmly over his shoulder at the camera, was as bizarre as anything the show conjured up but somehow lightened the mood of a show that kept jolting the audience out of complacency. His straight man to Eric Idle's 'Nudge Nudge' man was played to perfection, and of course his 'pepperpot' was the most famous of them all - a screeching yet oddly lovable harridan, cooking revolting dishes and squabbling with either family or the other dragged-up Pythons.

In the writing teams Palin and Jones came as a pair, their passionate 'Oxford-based' work balancing out the 'Cambridge' pair of Cleese and Chapman, whose work tended more toward desk-based confrontation. Jones in particular was a historian, and it was this influence that led to Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Jones' subversive view of the Middle Ages meant that the film could poke fun at the idea of stilted and mannered acting when creating the era onscreen, and the combination of Jones' eye for comic interaction with Gilliams' technical knowhow created a real winner. Palin recounted how on Life Of Brian, helmed by Jones alone, the Welshman created the hilarious spectacle of the director taking charge whilst still naked from having played one of his on-screen characters who clashes with the titular character. The final Monty Python movie, the deliberately offensive The Meaning Of Life, was a more mixed experience both for the gang and the viewer, but Jones' Mr Creosote eating everything in the restaurant but baulking at Cleese's offering him a 'wafer-thin mint' was perhaps the film's highlight.

Whilst Jones' fondness for Python and keeping the team together was pronounced - he memorably felt Cleese had betrayed the group by leaving before the 4th and final season - he went on to a varied career after it. Ripping Yarns, with Palin, was one of his finest achievements, leaning more toward the historical and parodic side of Python, whilst Personal Services (about the celebrated madam Cynthia Payne) remained one of his more famously-directed films. Series about the Crusades in later years again showed Jones' enthusiasm, and the reforming of Python gave him great pleasure in later years, recapturing the sense of fun that characterised their live performances in the early 1970s and at the Hollywood Bowl in the early 1980s.

Stars have talked fondly of Terry, as one would expect, but the indicator of his personality was that the comments made before his passing were largely the same as after. Simon Pegg talked of his gentleness and sweetness on the set of Absolutely Everything, the final film Jones directed, and his generosity as a host was long-talked of too. The Colwyn Bay man was notoriously stubborn - John Cleese amusingly recounted how Jones would clash with him for a whole day of reading out ideas for Python before finally backing down in the face of overwhelming resistance from the others too, only for him to come in the next day equally confident of his original position. Yet such energy and enthusiasm - and productivity - were what made the man. I hope Terry is up there with the late Graham Chapman, reminiscing about the fun times they had... and quietly proud of the fun times they gave us.