British Comedy Guide
Perspectives: In Charlie Chaplin's Footsteps With Terry Jones. Terry Jones. Copyright: Wild Pictures
Terry Jones

Terry Jones

  • Welsh
  • Actor, writer and director

Press clippings Page 14

All-time best Python sketches. Vote early and often.

You may have heard, recently, that the Pythons will lend their voices to the upcoming film, A Liar's Autobiography, an animated 3D movie based on the memoir of the late Python member, Graham Chapman, who died in 1989. Chapman's own voice will be pulled from his original reading of his autobiography of the same name. Interestingly, the movie, set for a 2012 premiere, will be directed by Bill Jones, son of former Python member, Terry Jones.

Bill Young, Tellyspotting, 30th June 2011

Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus! (Radio 4, 10.30am) is a tale of fan power. Forty years ago Alfred Biolek persuaded the Monty Python team to make two 45-minute specials for German TV. Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Biolek himself tell Henning Wehn (the German comedian who's always on Radio 4 shows) how it happened. From independents All Out.

Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 7th May 2011

Terry Jones: Monty Python was 'only occasionally' funny

Terry Jones, one of the key members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, has admitted that he "only occasionally" found the comedy sketches funny.

Caroline Gammell, The Telegraph, 11th April 2011

Audio: Terry Jones reads from his children's book

Monty Python's Terry Jones has written a new volume of his children's stories Animal Tales.

The book includes tales about a dog who can't understand why he is not allowed to be a doctor, a fox who runs a circus of trained chickens and a skunk who falls madly in love with a bear.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Phil Williams, he reads out a passage from his book.

Phil Williams, BBC News, 31st March 2011

Terry Jones: It's... Monty Python's flying opera house

Writing a libretto for a telephone, a remote control and two parking meters was a hoot - until I realised that I actually had to direct the opera, writes ex-Python Terry Jones.

Terry Jones, The Independent, 25th March 2011

ITV1's Unforgettable strand, in which friends, family and peers pay tribute to great entertainers, celebrates the life of Spike Milligan, the writer, musician, poet, artist and Goon who died in 2002. Milligan, considered a genius and madman in equal measure, had an absurd and subversive humour that fuelled The Goons, the Fifties comedy troupe which made his name and was so influential it's led to him being called the godfather of alternative comedy. In a sense, the show owes a debt to the War: Milligan met fellow Goon Harry Secombe when both were serving with the Royal Artillery in Tunisia. Post-war, they teamed up with Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine to launch the most popular comedy show of the Fifties, remembered fondly for its surreal humour and ludicrous plots.

Away from performing, Milligan was a successful author, too, producing dozens of books for children and adults, most memorably his hilarious series of war memoirs, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. His success was tempered by depression and melancholy, however, making Milligan the archetypal sad clown. This intimate tribute features photos from Milligan's personal collection as well as previously unseen home movies, and contributions come from Milligan's children, including the first interview with his daughter Romany, one of two of his children born out of wedlock. Eric Sykes, Paul Merton and Terry Jones also pay tribute.

Vicki Power, The Telegraph, 23rd December 2010

Video: Monty Python team caught on early home video

In the early days of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the team had no idea how big the show would become, so Terry Jones wanted to capture the moment on film.

He tells Kirsty Wark he was keen to find out just what the camera could do, an early indication of his eventual role directing the Monty Python films.

This and many other home videos will be featured in the Great British Home Movie Roadshow which begins on Friday 6 August at 2100 BST on BBC Two.

Kirsty Wark, BBC News, 6th August 2010

How Monty Python was formed

Terry Jones recounts the absurdist playwrights who shaped unique Monty Python humour.

Benji Wilson, The Telegraph, 4th August 2010

BBC nearly killed off Monty Python, says Terry Jones

Monty Python was nearly killed off by BBC executives who feared it would never make money, according to Terry Jones.

Anita Singh, The Telegraph, 3rd August 2010

Thirty years after the release of the heretical masterpiece Monty Python's Life of Brian - and a few weeks since RT readers voted it the best comedy film ever - Sanjeev Bhaskar investigates how and why the Pythons did it. The movie was conceived when Eric Idle announced, for a laugh, that the follow-up to Monty Python and the Holy Grail would be called Jesus Christ - Lust for Glory. That throwaway gag ended up as a heartfelt, intelligent, rationalist satire where every scene is a quotable moment. As Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, producer John Goldstone and others reminisce, it's a chance for fans to celebrate - and for those who dismiss the film as blasphemy to discover what it's really about.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 1st December 2009

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