Terry Jones

Could the prolific John Lloyd be about to come up with yet another long-running programme idea? His one-off celebration The Meaning of Liff at 30, in the company of Sanjeev Bhaskar, Terry Jones and Helen Fielding, was such good fun you felt it was a panel game waiting to happen.

The simple premise of The Meaning of Liff, the bestseller Lloyd wrote with Douglas Adams in the 1980s, was to impose silly meanings on British place names - for instance, Pontybodkin became the stance adopted by a seaside comedian that tells you the punchline is imminent, and Plymouth was to relate an amusing story to someone without realising it was they who told it to you in the first place.

For this anniversary show, Lloyd invited listeners to submit their own reinventions, some of which were every bit as witty as the originals. Helen Fielding - or "Helly", as Lloyd insisted on calling her - was especially taken with Tildonk (a village in Belgium, so not strictly within the rules of the original Liff) to define the wedge-shaped object on a supermarket conveyer belt used to separate one person's shopping from another's. How brilliant was that?

There was also Badgers Mount, describing the sexual position you knew wouldn't work despite your partner's eagerness to try it, and Norwich - any snack where the filling drops out as you take a bite.

John Lloyd marks the 30th anniversary of the book he co-wrote with the late Douglas Adams. It's a strange dictionary, as you'd expect from the inventor of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and his radio producer. In The Meaning of Liff you'll find definitions in a new dimension, as place names become definitions for experiences we recognise but don't really have a word for. It started as a game for Adams and Lloyd but Stephen Fry and Matt Lucas now tell Lloyd why they love it. Fellow devotee Professor Steven Pinker talks about the psychological relief and sense of bonding that comes from realising you're not alone in having the thoughts and feelings that Liff captures. And the studio audience throw in their own suggestions, too, to be judged, accepted or rejected by Lloyd and his distinguished judges Helen Fielding (creator of Bridget Jones), ex-Python (and Chaucer scholar) Terry Jones and actor/writer Sanjeev Bhaskar.

Monty Python's Terry Jones on Graham Chapman's biopic

We talked to original Python Terry Jones about Graham Chapman's drinking, his mum's influence, and Terry Gilliam's bossiness.

Video: Graham Chapman's life story told in 3D animation

A new 3D animation chronicles the life of Graham Chapman, one of the stars of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

It is an ambitious work involving three directors and 14 different animation studios.

Talking Movies' Tom Brook sat down with former Monty Python member Terry Jones who voices an animated version of himself in the film.

It's been more than 40 years since the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC One and we never looked at comedy - let alone spam, parrots or lumberjacks - in the same way again. This documentary marks the first time the surviving Pythons have come together for a project since 1983's The Meaning of Life]. Directed by Alan Parker, it features interviews with Terry Jones, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, as well as archive chat from late Graham Chapman. All tell the story of how they met at Oxbridge and The Frost Report, created trail-blazing television, made the transition into movies and ultimately became a British institution. Which, like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expected.

Video: Terry Jones writes libretto for new opera

Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat is a favourite of many adults and children alike - and now ex-Monty Python Terry Jones has written the libretto for a new operatic version of the poem.

But the work is being performed in a more appropriate setting than an opera house: It is being staged on the water as part of the London 2012 Festival.

The ROH2 production also features a newly-commissioned score from Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley and includes performances by local community choirs from Hounslow, Ealing, Westminster, Islington and Tower Hamlets.

Produced by the BBC's Claudia Redmond and Dan Curtis

Your next box set: Ripping Yarns

Charming, insightful and very silly tales of Englishness, empire-building and high adventure from Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

Terry Jones: 'Douglas Adams loved ideas but hated writing'

Monty Python star Terry Jones remembers his friend Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, who would have been 60 this weekend.

Terry Jones talks about writing Python sketches

Just how did they come up with the classic sketches such as the Dead Parrot sketch, the Lumberjack Song or the Spanish Inquisition?

Video: Monty Python star Terry Jones on reunion rumours

Former Monty Python star, Terry Jones, has denied that the cast are reforming - despite most of them lending their voices to his new film.