Terry Jones

For other people named Terry Jones, see Terry Jones (disambiguation).

Terry Jones
Terry Jones, 5 May 2007
Born	Terence Graham Parry Jones (1942-02-01) 1 February 1942 Colwyn Bay, Wales
Alma mater	St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Occupation	Actor comedian film director presenter poet writer historian
Known for	Monty Python
Spouse(s)	Alison Telfer (divorced) Anna Söderström (2012–present)

Terence Graham Parry "Terry" Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, historian and author. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team.

Early life

Jones was born in the seaside town of Colwyn Bay, on the north coast of Wales. The family home was named Bodchwil. His father was stationed with the RAF in India. When Jones was 4½, the family moved to Surrey in England.

Jones attended primary school at Esher COE school and later attended the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was school captain in the 1960-61 academic year. He read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, but "strayed into history". He graduated with a 2:1. While there, he performed comedy with future Monty Python castmate Michael Palin in The Oxford Revue.

Career history

Before Python

Jones appeared in Twice a Fortnight with Michael Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, as well as the television series The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969). He appeared in Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–69) with Palin, Eric Idle and David Jason. He wrote for The Frost Report and several other David Frost programmes on British television. Along with Palin, he wrote lyrics for the 1968 Barry Booth album "Diversions".

Early on, Jones was interested in devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, and it was largely he who developed the stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines and encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch into another, allowing the troupe's conceptual humour the space to “breathe”. Jones took a keen interest in the direction of the show. As demonstrated in many of his sketches with Palin, Jones was interested in making comedy that was visually impressive, feeling that interesting settings augmented, rather than distracted from, the humour. His methods encouraged many future television comedians to break away from conventional studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated by shows such as Green Wing, Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen.

Of Jones' contributions as a performer, his depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. His humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual in nature. A typical Palin/Jones sketch draws its humour from the absurdity of the scenario. For example, in the “Summarise Proust Competition”, Jones plays a cheesy game show host who gives contestants 15 seconds to condense Marcel Proust's lengthy work À la recherche du temps perdu. Jones was also noted for his gifts as a Chaplinesque physical comedian. His performance in the "Undressing in Public" sketch, for instance, is done in total silence.

Directorial work

Jones co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Gilliam, and was sole director on two further Monty Python movies, Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. As a film director, Jones finally gained fuller control of the projects and devised a visual style that complemented the humour. His later films include Erik the Viking (1989) and The Wind in the Willows (1996). In 2008, Jones wrote and directed an opera titled Evil Machines. In 2011, he was commissioned to direct and write the libretto for another opera, entitled The Doctor's Tale.

On the commentary track of the 2004 "2 Disc Special Edition" DVD for the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones stated that to his knowledge Ireland had banned only four movies, three of which he had directed: The Meaning of Life, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Personal Services.

Jones directed the comedy film Absolutely Anything, starring members of Monty Python, about a disillusioned schoolteacher who is given the chance to do anything he wishes from a group of aliens watching from space. The film features Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale and the remaining members of Monty Python and was shot in London during a 6 week shoot.

Animation

He was the creator and co-producer of the animated television program Blazing Dragons, which ran for two seasons. Set in a fantasy medieval setting, the series' protagonists are dragons who are beset by evil humans, reversing a common story convention. When the series was broadcast on US television, several episodes were censored due to minor cursing and the implied sexuality of an overtly effeminate character named "Sir Blaze". It was turned into a game for the Sega Saturn and the original PlayStation in 1996, which starred Jones's voice. Jones provided the voice of a key character in the 2000 animated film Help! I'm a Fish, alongside Alan Rickman and Aaron Paul.

Writer

Jones has written many books and screenplays, including comic works and more serious writing on medieval history.

Comedy

Jones co-wrote Ripping Yarns with Palin. He has also written numerous works for children, including Fantastic Stories, The Beast with a Thousand Teeth, and a collection of Comic Verse called The Curse of the Vampire's Socks.

Screenplays

Jones wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth (1986), although his draft went through several rewrites and several other writers before being filmed; much of the finished film wasn't written by Jones at all.

History

Jones has written books and presented television documentaries on medieval and ancient history and the history of numeral systems.

His first book was Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary (1980), which offers an alternative take on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale. Chaucer's knight is often interpreted as a paragon of Christian virtue, but Jones asserts that if one studies historical accounts of the battles the knight claims he was involved in, he can be interpreted as a typical mercenary and a potentially cold-blooded killer. He also wrote "Who Killed Chaucer?" (2003) in which he argues that Chaucer was close to King Richard the Second and after Richard was deposed Chaucer was persecuted to death by Thomas Arundel.

Jones's TV series also frequently challenge popular views of history. For example, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004) (for which he received a 2004 Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming") argues that the Middle Ages was a more sophisticated period than is popularly thought, and Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006) presents the cultural achievements of peoples conquered by the Roman Empire in a more positive light than Roman historians typically have, while criticising the Romans as the true "barbarians" who exploited and destroyed higher civilisations.

Anti-Iraq war writing

He has written numerous editorials for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer condemning the Iraq war. Many of these editorials were published in a paperback collection titled Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror.

His most recent book, Evil Machines, was launched by the online publishing house Unbound at the Adam Street Club in London on 4 November 2011. Evil Machines is the first book to be published by a crowd funding website dedicated solely to books. Jones provided significant support to Unbound as they developed their publishing concept.

Poetry

He is also a member of the UK Poetry Society, and his poems have appeared in Poetry Review.

Working with musicians

Jones has performed with The Carnival Band and appears on their 2007 CD Ringing the changes (Park Records PRKCD98).

In January 2008, the Teatro São Luiz, in Lisbon, Portugal, premiered Evil Machines – a musical play, written by Jones (based on his book) and with original music by Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco. Jones was invited by the Teatro São Luiz to write and direct the play, after a very successful run of Contos Fantásticos, a short play based on Jones' Fantastic Stories, also with music by Luis Tinoco.

In January 2012, it was announced that Jones is working with songwriter/producer Jim Steinman on a heavy metal version of "The Nutcracker."

As performer

Apart from a cameo in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky and a memorable minor role as a drunken vicar in BBC sitcom The Young Ones, Jones has rarely appeared in work outside of his own projects. Since January 2009, however, he has provided narration for The Legend of Dick and Dom, a CBBC fantasy series set in the Middle Ages. He also appears in two French films by Albert Dupontel: Le Créateur (1999) and Enfermés dehors (2006).

In 2009 Jones took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history.

Personal life

Jones married Alison Telfer in 1970, and they have two children together, Sally (born in 1974), and Bill (born in 1976). Jones left her for Anna Soderstrom, and their daughter Siri was born in early September 2009.

Selected bibliography

Fiction

• Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic (1997), ISBN 0-330-35446-9 – a novel based on the computer game of the same name by Douglas Adams.
• Evil Machines (2011), ISBN 978-1-908717-01-6

Illustrated by Michael Foreman

• Fairy Tales (1981), ISBN 0-907516-03-3
• The Saga of Erik the Viking (1983), ISBN 0-907516-23-8 – Children's Book Award 1984
• Nicobobinus (1985), ISBN 1-85145-000-9
• The Curse of the Vampire's Socks and Other Doggerel (1988), ISBN 1-85145-233-8 – poetry
• Fantastic Stories (1992), ISBN 1-85145-957-X
• The Beast with a Thousand Teeth (1993), ISBN 1-85793-070-3
• A Fish of the World (1993), ISBN 1-85793-075-4
• The Sea Tiger (1994), ISBN 1-85793-085-1
• The Fly-by-Night (1994), ISBN 1-85793-090-8
• The Knight and the Squire (1997), ISBN 1-86205-044-9
• The Lady and the Squire (2000), ISBN 1-86205-417-7 – nominated for a Whitbread Award
• Bedtime Stories (2002), ISBN 1-86205-276-X – with Nanette Newman

Illustrated by Brian Froud

• Goblins of the Labyrinth (1986), ISBN 1-85145-058-0
  • The Goblin Companion: A Field Guide to Goblins (1996), ISBN 1-85793-795-3 – an abridged re-release, in a smaller format, with the colour plates missing
• Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994), ISBN 1-85793-336-2
• Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells: Quentin Cottington's Journal of Faery Research (1996), ISBN 0-684-83206-2
• Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Journal (1998), ISBN 1-86205-024-4
• Lady Cottington's Fairy Album (2002), ISBN 1-86205-559-9

Illustrated by Martin Honeysett and Lolly Honeysett

• Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls with Michael Palin (1974) ISBN 0-413-32740-X

Non-fiction

• Chaucer's Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary (1980), ISBN 0-297-77566-9; rev. ed. (1994), ISBN 0-413-69140-3
• Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery (2003), ISBN 0-413-75910-5 – with Robert Yeager, Terry Dolan, Alan Fletcher and Juliette Dor
• Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror (2005), ISBN 1-56025-653-2

With Alan Ereira

• Crusades (1994), ISBN 0-563-37007-6
• Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004), ISBN 0-563-48793-3
• Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006), ISBN 0-563-49318-6

Screenplays

• And Now for Something Completely Different (1972) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Secrets (1973) – for TV, with Michael Palin
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin
• Labyrinth (1986)
• Erik the Viking (1989) – includes a notice in the credits specifically disclaiming any link with Jones's earlier novel ("although he hopes it will help the sales")
• The Wind in the Willows (1996)
• Absolutely Anything (2015) with Gavin Scott

Documentary series

• Crusades (1995)
• Ancient Inventions – directed by Phil Grabsky and Daniel Percival (1998)[1]
• The Surprising History of Egypt (USA, 2002) a.k.a. The Hidden History of Egypt (UK, 2003) – directed by Phil Grabsky
• The Surprising History of Rome (USA, 2002) a.k.a. The Hidden History of Rome (UK, 2003) – directed by Phil Grabsky
• The Surprising History of Sex and Love (2002) – directed by Alan Ereira and Phil Grabsky
• Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004)
• The Story of 1 (2005)
• Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006)
• Terry Jones' Great Map Mystery (2008)

Political views

Jones has published a number of articles on political and social commentary, principally in newspapers The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Observer. Many of these articles criticised the War on Terror, belittling it as "declaring war on an abstract noun" and comparing it to attempting to "annihilate mockery". In August 2014, Jones was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Collaborations

	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	Monty Python's Life of Brian	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Erik the Viking	The Wind in the Willows	Absolutely Anything
Graham Chapman	Y	Y	Y
John Cleese	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Carol Cleveland	Y	Y	Y
Terry Gilliam	Y	Y	Y			Y
Eric Idle	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y
Neil Innes	Y	Y		Y
Charles McKeown		Y		Y
Michael Palin	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y
Antony Sher				Y	Y
John Young	Y	Y

Miscellany

• An asteroid, 9622 Terryjones, is named in his honour. When asked during a webchat if this were the greatest honour he has received, Jones replied, "I didn't realise it was an honour to have a barren lump of rock named after one."

Further reading

• http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/The-Medieval-Python/?K=9780230112674

References

Notes

External links

• Terry Jones on Twitter
• Terry Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Terry Jones at the BBC Guide to Comedy
• Terry Jones at the Comedy Zone
• MP3 audio interview with Jones from The Sound of Young America public radio program and podcast
• Interview with Terry Jones by Jeff Fleischer in Mother Jones. He talks about his politics columns.
• Text interview with Jones from Wisconsin Public Television. Jones talks about Monty Python's legacy and his more current work.
• Terry Jones interview on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, July 8, 1983