Terry Jones

Born 1 February 1942 in Colwyn Bay, Wales
Education: Royal Grammar School, Guildford and Oxford
Utterly useless fact: Director of the Python film canon and historian.

The son of a bank clerk, Jones showed intense interest in modern poetry from the age of five. Until he was 15 he yearned for an academic career, but ultimately realized he didn't want to spend his life writing words about other people's words. Notwithstanding this, he grabbed the chance of a university education at Oxford, where he met fellow Oxford history student Michael Palin and joined The Experimental Theatre Company. He began his professional career in television, writing comedy and learning production.

Jones and Palin became a successful television writing team, with hits including "Do Not Adjust Your Set" and "The Complete and Utter History of Britain." These achievements immediately led to Python. Jones the performer was sometimes underestimated in Python, but his work is perhaps the most fascinating, brilliantly personifying the bowler-hatted man in the street. Above all else, Jones was superb when playing the everyman surrounded by madmen, or the maddest madman of them all. His love for eccentric visual sketches, balanced with the Cleese/Chapman/Idle love for dialogue, helped give Python its unique style.

Besides the Python films, Jones' notable directorial ventures include "Personal Services", "Erik the Viking" and "The Wind in the Willows." He wrote the screenplay to the Jim Henson film Labyrinth. On television, he created the stylish comedy/adventure series Ripping Yarns with Michael Palin, which is, as I write this (May 2004), about to be rereleased on special edition DVD.

More than any other Python, Jones kept the Python spirit alive after the Flying Circus series ended, directing the great Python films ... co-directing Holy Grail with Terry Gilliam, and directing Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. While other Python members, like John Cleese, were happy to move on after Python, Jones understood the importance the Python team had, and was always most instrumental in getting the group back together for future film projects, even reuniting most of the Python team for his film "The Wind in the Willows." He has also played an instrumental hand in creating the special edition DVDs for the Python films, and for the TV series he created with Michael Palin, Ripping Yarns.

Jones' passion for history is apparent in his work. He often hosts historial documentaries on cable television, such as The Crusades and Ancient Inventions. He also clearly loves children ... he has written several children's books including Fairy Tales and The Saga of Erik the Viking, as well as the children's films Labyrinth and The Wind in the Willows. Some of Terry's children's books were adapted by Neil Innes into a tv series, East of the Moon, in which Jones' original fairy tales were retold in live action, animation and song.

Jones lives in London with his wife, biochemist Alison Telfer. They have a son and daughter.

The following article was written by Mr. Cleese around the time of the Life of Brian shoot.

JOHN CLEESE WRITES:

THE CREATIVE ENERGY behind 'Life of Brian' belongs to vital, teeming, Welsh expatriate TERRY JONES III. Jones, a rookie brewery owner, has risen quickly to the top of the motion picture- directing tree. Brilliantly gifted at school, he was a child by the time he was five and won a place at Britain's Oxford University while still in his late teens, where he holds a Master's in Applied Paranoia. Volatile, dominant, highly energized, svelte, acerbic and coruscating are all words that he uses with uncertainty. Nevertheless, his dedication, boundless energy and passionate commitment make it a waste of time to try and change his mind on anything. Terry Jones III is the kind of man who knows what he wants and woe betide the man who tries to understand what he's talking about. Invited to direct 'Life of Brian,' Jones III was forcibly attracted by the script. 'Wow," he says. "It was just so neatly typed out in great big pretty orange covers with punctuation, and the pages numbered in the right order and everything. I just flipped." Jones, who threw up a promising academic career only on the advice of his teachers, now devotes his life to motion pictures. He eats, sleeps and talks film. "I prefer it to life," he confides, his anthracite-coloured eyes flashing. "The editing facilities are better." So much so that he has been shooting a film of his own life for the last seven years. "When I have time to edit it," he claims, "it should make an interesting cigarette commercial." Jones III is married and has two children that he knows about.

I Like Traffic Lights: A MIDI by Jason Linett (SASEizME@aol.com)

Erik the Viking (by Terry Jones - film script)

Labyrinth (Screenplay by Terry Jones, for Jim Henson)

Monty Python's Tour of Canada: Punch article by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, 1972.



Terry Jones: "I think my favourite comedy is like poetry in a way. Browning said a metaphor is if you take two completely disparate ideas and you put them together and instead of getting a third idea you get a star. And that is what humour can be -- you get ideas together and you make not a star but a laugh."

Terry Jones: "It was at that moment that I realised comedy is a dangerous business. If people find something funny you're OK. But the moment you do something that's meant to be funny and someone doesn't find it funny, they become angry. It's almost as if they resent the fact that you tried to make them laugh and failed. Nobody comes out of a mediocre performance of Hamlet seething with rage because it didn't make them cry. But just listen to people coming out of a comedy that didn't make them laugh."

Terry Jones: "I think Python must be of its time. We weren't lampooning, we weren't actually tying it to people of the moment or events of the moment, so it was hopefully kind of zoning in on human nature more, but it was still defined by the society that we found ourselves in and rebelled against."

Terry Jones: "I'd never really been interested in television really."

Terry Jones: "[Life of Brian] was banned in Norway, so the Swedes advertised it as 'The film that was so funny it was banned in Norway!'"

Terry Jones: "People talk about us doing parodies or doing travesties of things or lampooning things, but we never have really. A lampoon or parody involves making fun of a specific film of that style and I don't think we were ever making fun of the style, we were always just using the style to do funny things within that context."

The Wind in the Willows
Messing About on the River
(14.4MB)
A clip from Terry Jones' lovely film adaptation of the classic children's book The Wind in the Willows. The film stars the Pythons (Eric Idle, Terry Jones, with Michael Palin and John Cleese), and Steve Coogan. In this clip, Ratty (Idle) sings, and takes Mole (Coogan) for a relaxing boat ride along the river. They then meet up with Mr. Toad (Jones) at Toad Hall. This clip is edited slightly for online viewing. The film was released in America under the title "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

The Wind in the Willows
Very Nasty World
(13.2MB)
Another clip from Terry Jones' lovely film adaptation of the classic children's book The Wind in the Willows. The film stars the Pythons (Eric Idle, Terry Jones, with Michael Palin and John Cleese), and Steve Coogan. In this clip, the weasels frighten Mole by singing "Very Nasty World," and bring the unsuspecting Toad further into their clutches. Lots of nice special effects in this clip. The film was released in America under the title "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

Life of Brian deleted scene: Sheep
(17.8 MB, Quicktime)

A deleted scene from the beginning of "Life of Brian." And lo, there were shepherds watching their flock by night. And they were visited by an angel. But this isn't their story. This is the story of the shepherds over the next hill, who didn't get visited by an angel, and missed out on the entire birth of Christ. I like this sketch because it's so low-key. It's available on the Criterion Life of Brian DVD, along with many other deleted scenes and goodies, so buy it ...

Back to the Cast

This essay is taken from the Meaning of Life game site at 7thLevel.com, and is the property of John Cleese, 7th Level, and Python Productions, and used with the greatest of respect for all concerned.