WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we are attempting 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:06.719 something truly ambitious. We're trying to unpack 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:10.679 a career so contradictory, so vast, that it often 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:12.599 feels like we're talking about half a dozen different 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.980 people. It really does. We're diving into the 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:16.899 life and work of Terrence Graham Perry Jones, 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.940 the Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian. 00:00:21.309 --> 00:00:24.250 The list just goes on. He really was a true polymath. 00:00:24.449 --> 00:00:27.789 I mean, born in 1942, lived to 2020. And in that 00:00:27.789 --> 00:00:30.149 time, he just filled so many different roles. 00:00:30.309 --> 00:00:32.450 And most people, you know, they know him as one 00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:34.090 of the six founding members of Monty Python. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:36.450 Oh, absolutely. He's that guy. The man who loved 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:38.369 playing those screeching middle -aged women. 00:00:38.469 --> 00:00:40.780 Right. The Pepper Potts. But the whole mission 00:00:40.780 --> 00:00:44.159 of this deep dive is to synthesize all those 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:46.899 wildly different roles. Exactly. We need to understand 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:48.799 the intellectual architecture of the man who 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:50.979 on one hand pioneered this completely surreal 00:00:50.979 --> 00:00:53.479 non sequitur comedy. Yeah, the silliest of the 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:55.759 silly. And on the other was a highly respected, 00:00:55.939 --> 00:00:59.619 meticulous medieval scholar and an innovative 00:00:59.619 --> 00:01:02.299 film director on top of it all. That initial 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:04.719 snapshot everyone has is so specific, though. 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:07.700 It's Terry Jones in a dress as one of those. 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:10.319 Rat bag old women, as the BBC called them. Or 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.439 the grannies from hell. Grannies from hell. I 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:15.439 love that. It's just anarchy. But he was active 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:18.939 across all these fields for five decades, from 00:01:18.939 --> 00:01:22.599 1966 all the way to 2016. That length of time 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:25.439 alone, it just speaks to this relentless intellectual 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:28.359 engine, doesn't it? It does. And he earned respect 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.400 far beyond just comedy. Oh, for sure. You see 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.359 that benchmark right at the end of his active 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:36.819 career. In 2016, he got a Lifetime Achievement 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:39.319 Award at the BAFTA Simru Awards. And that wasn't 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:41.359 just a Python award, was it? No, not at all. 00:01:41.379 --> 00:01:43.819 It was specifically for his outstanding contribution 00:01:43.819 --> 00:01:46.859 to television and film. It recognized the full 00:01:46.859 --> 00:01:49.459 scope, directing, writing, performing. It was 00:01:49.459 --> 00:01:51.900 clear he transcended the label of just a comedian 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.799 decades before. Okay, so let's unpack that, the 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:56.819 intellectual foundation. Because I think once 00:01:56.819 --> 00:01:59.260 you get that, the way Python was structured starts 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:00.840 to make a whole lot more sense. We absolutely 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:02.879 have to start with his formative years. Terry 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.359 Jones was born on February 1st, 1942 in Colon 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:08.840 Bay, Wales. And his father was in the service. 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:12.520 Yes. His father, Alec George Perry Jones, was 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:15.080 a bank clerk who served in the Royal Air Force 00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:17.960 during World War II. And that really defined 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:21.270 his early childhood. How so? Well, his dad was 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:23.849 posted to India as a flight lieutenant just a 00:02:23.849 --> 00:02:26.789 week after Terry was born. So that whole early 00:02:26.789 --> 00:02:29.409 period was marked by separation. So his first 00:02:29.409 --> 00:02:31.669 real memories of his father would have been after 00:02:31.669 --> 00:02:34.750 the war, after years apart. Exactly. The family 00:02:34.750 --> 00:02:37.169 reunited when the war was over and they moved 00:02:37.169 --> 00:02:40.389 to Claygate in Surrey when Jones was about four 00:02:40.389 --> 00:02:42.870 and a half. And he was a good student. Oh, he 00:02:42.870 --> 00:02:47.009 excelled. He went to Escher COE primary and then 00:02:47.009 --> 00:02:49.550 the Royal Grammar School in Guildford. He was 00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:51.889 highly regarded there. He was even school captain 00:02:51.889 --> 00:02:55.349 in his final year, 1960 -61. Which leads him 00:02:55.349 --> 00:02:57.729 to Oxford. And this is where it all seems to 00:02:57.729 --> 00:03:00.330 come together. English, history, and comedy. 00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:02.930 It's the perfect nexus. He went to St. Edmund 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:05.229 Hall, Oxford, and he was officially there to 00:03:05.229 --> 00:03:08.069 read English. But as he put it, he strayed into 00:03:08.069 --> 00:03:09.930 history. And that's where the medieval fascination 00:03:09.930 --> 00:03:13.060 started. That's it. It began right there from 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:15.460 reading Chaucer for his English course. That 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:18.199 deep fascination just took hold and never let 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:21.120 go. And it wasn't just a hobby. He graduated 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.159 with a very solid 2 .1. And of course, crucially, 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:26.740 Oxford is where he meets Michael Palin. The most 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:28.879 important collaboration of his life, without 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:31.500 a doubt. They met and started doing comedy together 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:34.319 in the Oxford Review. Jones was a year ahead, 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:37.219 but they just clicked. What was it that made 00:03:37.219 --> 00:03:39.550 them work so well together? palin recalled that 00:03:39.550 --> 00:03:42.189 jones was just you know a nice bloke no airs 00:03:42.189 --> 00:03:44.870 and graces But the key was their shared vision. 00:03:45.069 --> 00:03:47.610 They both wanted to do character -driven comedy, 00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:50.810 not just simple set -up punchline jokes. They 00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:52.189 were already thinking about a different kind 00:03:52.189 --> 00:03:55.030 of structure. A more absurd, narrative -breaking 00:03:55.030 --> 00:03:58.250 style. And that vision immediately got them work 00:03:58.250 --> 00:04:00.330 on the professional circuit that was defining 00:04:00.330 --> 00:04:02.550 British comedy in the late 60s. Right, they were 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:04.569 part of that whole scene. Absolutely. Their pre 00:04:04.569 --> 00:04:06.930 -Python work is so foundational. They wrote for 00:04:06.930 --> 00:04:09.349 shows like Twice a Fortnight, The Frost Report. 00:04:09.629 --> 00:04:11.750 They even co -created the complete and utter 00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:14.969 history of Britain. in 1969. And Do Not Adjust 00:04:14.969 --> 00:04:17.129 Your Set was a big one, right? Huge. It ran from 00:04:17.129 --> 00:04:19.930 67 to 69. And that's where they worked with Eric 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:22.389 Idle and David Jason. You can see all the pieces 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:24.730 of Python coming together. So by the time the 00:04:24.730 --> 00:04:28.449 whole group, Jones, Palin, Chapman, Cleese, Idle, 00:04:28.550 --> 00:04:30.949 Gilliam formed Monty Python's Flying Circus, 00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:35.009 Jones's ideas about structure were already fully 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:38.029 formed. And this is the key insight. His biggest 00:04:38.029 --> 00:04:40.089 contribution wasn't playing the pepper pots. 00:04:40.250 --> 00:04:42.579 It was structural. When you look at what made 00:04:42.579 --> 00:04:45.079 Python so radical, it was Jones who insisted 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:47.860 on dismantling the whole idea of a sketch show. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.220 We really need to spend a moment on this because 00:04:50.220 --> 00:04:52.639 it's probably the single biggest leap forward 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:55.579 in sketch comedy history. It really is. Most 00:04:55.579 --> 00:04:58.379 comedy back then was so rigid. You had a setup, 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:00.220 you had the sketch, and then you had the big 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:03.019 punchline at the end. And Jones just said, no. 00:05:03.180 --> 00:05:05.540 He actively shunned the punchline. It was an 00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:08.660 act of really intellectual anarchy applied to 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:10.779 format. Why, though? What was the thinking behind 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:13.449 it? Jones understood that the punchline gives 00:05:13.449 --> 00:05:16.430 the audience a sense of closure, of comfort. 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:19.269 It's predictable by taking it away by having 00:05:19.269 --> 00:05:23.029 a stop or morph into a Terry Gilliam cartoon. 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:26.129 Or have a giant foot come down. Exactly. The 00:05:26.129 --> 00:05:28.550 humor becomes more unsettling, more surreal, 00:05:28.649 --> 00:05:31.189 and crucially, you never knew what was coming 00:05:31.189 --> 00:05:34.480 next. He ensured the sketches just flowed from 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:37.319 one absurdity to another by completely defying 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.839 your expectation of a neat ending. You know, 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:41.759 it's so compelling when you think of him as the 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.759 historian he was becoming. How do you mean? Well... 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:47.439 A historian who loves Chaucer and medieval texts 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:50.420 is used to fragmented narratives, to stories 00:05:50.420 --> 00:05:53.379 that don't have neat conclusions. He basically 00:05:53.379 --> 00:05:55.600 applied the structure of historical manuscripts 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:58.639 to television comedy. That is a brilliant connection. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:00.339 I'd never thought of it that way, but it's perfect. 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:02.620 He was demanding that the audience work a bit, 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.240 whether it was to understand why a sketch ended 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.560 a certain way or why the Middle Ages were actually 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:09.959 sophisticated. The transition itself became the 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:12.529 joke. The non sequitur was elevated from just 00:06:12.529 --> 00:06:15.689 a random line to a formal artistic device. It 00:06:15.689 --> 00:06:18.110 turned the very structure of the show into a 00:06:18.110 --> 00:06:20.939 statement about the absurdity of Well, everything. 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:23.699 And that desire for control over the structure, 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:26.420 that naturally leads him to want to control the 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:28.779 visuals, too. It leads him behind the camera. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:31.040 Absolutely. He had to translate that structural 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:33.899 anarchy into a visual language. And that brought 00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:37.199 him to his directorial debut, co -directing Monty 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:39.819 Python and the Holy Grail in 1975 with Terry 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:43.120 Gilliam. A legendary film, but also... famously 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:45.360 chaotic to make, right? That co -direction was 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.920 a source of tension. It was. And you can see 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:49.519 it in the film. You have this incredible mix 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:52.339 of Gilliam's highly stylized, almost grotesque 00:06:52.339 --> 00:06:54.959 visual sense. The look of the Black Knight, the 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:57.579 castle interiors. Mixed with Jones's focus on 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:00.360 character and narrative. It's an explosive combination, 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:02.899 but it's not purely a Terry Jones film. It was 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:05.959 The Next Ones, where he had sole control that 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:08.819 his own style really emerged. So he was the sole 00:07:08.819 --> 00:07:10.779 director on Life of Brian and The Meaning of 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:13.439 Life. What changes when Jones is the only one 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:16.079 in charge? He took the reins for Life of Brian 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:19.920 in 79 and The Meaning of Life in 83. As a sole 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:22.180 director, he really got the command he needed 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:26.360 to create his own visual style. It was less fantastical 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:28.879 than Gilliam's, more grounded in a kind of absurd 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:31.259 reality. So if the structural innovation was 00:07:31.259 --> 00:07:33.699 dropping the punchline, what was his visual signature? 00:07:34.189 --> 00:07:37.329 It was this real focus on performance and using 00:07:37.329 --> 00:07:40.389 the camera to enhance the visual comedy. He used 00:07:40.389 --> 00:07:42.709 a lot of wide shots to capture the full scope 00:07:42.709 --> 00:07:45.209 of the absurdity happening on screen. Like the 00:07:45.209 --> 00:07:47.750 every sperm is sacred number and meaning of life. 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:51.230 A perfect example. It's this huge elaborate musical 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:54.209 number, but he frames it with this almost documentary 00:07:54.209 --> 00:07:56.449 style detachment, which just makes the whole 00:07:56.449 --> 00:07:59.089 thing even funnier. He lets the deadpan humor 00:07:59.089 --> 00:08:01.470 come from the visuals and the performances. And 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:03.050 he certainly didn't shy away from controversy 00:08:03.050 --> 00:08:05.579 with it. choices he ran towards it i mean it's 00:08:05.579 --> 00:08:07.920 a fascinating bit of history that three films 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.339 he directed were all famously banned in ireland 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:13.199 for years three i knew about life of brian obviously 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:17.079 yep the meaning of life life of brian and a non 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:19.959 -python film he did later personal services all 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.399 banned the humor was challenging enough that 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:24.860 authorities literally felt it was a danger so 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:28.480 moving past python he had this really solid if 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.370 a bit eclectic directing career Very eclectic. 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:33.690 He did the black comedy Personal Services in 00:08:33.690 --> 00:08:36.509 1987, the adventure comedy Eric the Viking in 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:39.389 89, and then a real passion project, The Wind 00:08:39.389 --> 00:08:41.929 in the Willows in 1996. Which he also starred 00:08:41.929 --> 00:08:45.429 in as Mr. Toad. He was a fantastic Mr. Toad. 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:48.049 But all those films share that Jernesian trait 00:08:48.049 --> 00:08:51.289 of taking a grand concept, a Norse myth, a beloved 00:08:51.289 --> 00:08:54.149 classic, and filtering it through his very specific 00:08:54.149 --> 00:08:56.990 lens of absurd character -driven comedy. And 00:08:56.990 --> 00:08:58.769 his final film credit brought him right back 00:08:58.769 --> 00:09:00.799 to the pythons in a way. It did, absolutely. 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:03.539 Anything in 2015, it was a very nostalgic project, 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:06.299 really. It starred Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:07.919 And Robin Williams in one of his last roles. 00:09:08.059 --> 00:09:10.500 A voice role from Robin Williams, yes. And crucially, 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.620 it featured the voices of the five remaining 00:09:12.620 --> 00:09:15.559 pythons as a group of aliens. It felt like a 00:09:15.559 --> 00:09:17.820 tribute to that kind of high -concept comedy 00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:20.379 he'd mastered. His very last directing job wasn't 00:09:20.379 --> 00:09:22.759 a film, though. It was on stage. That's right. 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:27.100 In 2016, a West End play called Jeepers Creepers, 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:29.860 all about the life of the comic Marty Feldman. 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:32.899 It's so fitting, isn't it? His final directing 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:35.840 effort was a tribute to another master of visual 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:39.149 absurdity. And he was always writing. even when 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:41.570 not directing. He was often the guy who laid 00:09:41.570 --> 00:09:43.950 the groundwork for other creators. The most famous 00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:46.909 example is probably Jim Henson's Labyrinth. I 00:09:46.909 --> 00:09:48.970 had no idea he worked on that. He wrote an early 00:09:48.970 --> 00:09:51.409 draft of the screenplay. Now, the final film 00:09:51.409 --> 00:09:53.610 had a lot of rewrites from other people, but 00:09:53.610 --> 00:09:56.409 you can feel his DNA in there. That strange, 00:09:56.549 --> 00:10:00.289 dark, funny, imaginative world. It's just incredible 00:10:00.289 --> 00:10:02.149 to think he was also jumping into the world of 00:10:02.149 --> 00:10:05.490 opera. Moving from writing for Muppets to writing 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:07.970 librettos. It's that intellectual curiosity again. 00:10:08.090 --> 00:10:10.490 In 2008, he wrote the libretto for and directed 00:10:10.490 --> 00:10:13.230 an opera called Evil Machines. It premiered in 00:10:13.230 --> 00:10:15.490 Lisbon. And he was commissioned for another one 00:10:15.490 --> 00:10:17.570 after that, The Doctor's Tale. It wasn't just 00:10:17.570 --> 00:10:20.190 that he did it, it's the sheer variety. I mean, 00:10:20.190 --> 00:10:21.850 at one point he announced he was working on a 00:10:21.850 --> 00:10:24.309 heavy metal version of the Nutcracker. With Jim 00:10:24.309 --> 00:10:27.169 Steinman, the man behind Meatloaf. Yes. And that's 00:10:27.169 --> 00:10:29.850 the perfect encapsulation of Terry Dodds, taking 00:10:29.850 --> 00:10:32.889 something so classical and rigid like the Nutcracker 00:10:32.889 --> 00:10:35.269 Ballet and smashing it together with something 00:10:35.269 --> 00:10:38.610 so over the top and anarchic. He was always looking 00:10:38.610 --> 00:10:40.830 for that conceptual challenge. Okay, this is 00:10:40.830 --> 00:10:43.409 where the deep dive gets really deep. We have 00:10:43.409 --> 00:10:45.470 to talk about the part of his life that seems 00:10:45.470 --> 00:10:48.029 to fundamentally contradict the silly comedian. 00:10:48.909 --> 00:10:52.590 Kerry Jones, the serious, meticulous, and often 00:10:52.590 --> 00:10:55.330 fiercely revisionist scholar. Python biographer 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.769 George Perry summed it up perfectly. He said 00:10:57.769 --> 00:10:59.970 if you tried to talk to Jones about anything... 00:11:00.139 --> 00:11:02.639 From fossil fuels to Rupert Bear. Or medieval 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:05.019 mercenaries. You'd quickly find yourself hopelessly 00:11:05.019 --> 00:11:06.779 out of your depth, floored by his knowledge. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:09.220 His curiosity wasn't just superficial, it was 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:12.039 rigorous. And his reputation as a medieval historian 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:15.259 wasn't just a quirky side project. He was genuinely 00:11:15.259 --> 00:11:18.460 respected. He used his academic mind to actively 00:11:18.460 --> 00:11:21.200 dismantle popular misconceptions about the era. 00:11:21.379 --> 00:11:24.539 He was a revisionist by nature. His scholarship 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:27.179 often involved these radical reinterpretations. 00:11:27.179 --> 00:11:30.860 His first major academic book from 1980 was hugely 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:34.139 influential, Chaucer's Night, The Portrait of 00:11:34.139 --> 00:11:36.440 a Medieval Mercenary. Now, this book really made 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:38.679 waves in academic circles, didn't it? What was 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:41.980 the core argument? Well, for centuries, the accepted 00:11:41.980 --> 00:11:44.039 interpretation of the knight in the Canterbury 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.919 Tales was that he was this paragon of Christian 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:50.519 chivalric virtue, the ideal knight. Jones just 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:53.340 didn't buy it. He went back and, almost like 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:56.299 a detective, forensically examined the historical 00:11:56.299 --> 00:11:59.240 records of the 15 battles the knight claims to 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:01.500 have fought in. And what did that reveal? Jones 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:03.659 argued that if you actually look at where he 00:12:03.659 --> 00:12:05.779 fought, the portrait that emerges is much darker. 00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:08.480 He argued the knight was basically a professional 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.480 mercenary. a killer for hire driven by profit, 00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:14.179 not piety. It completely upended the romantic 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:17.419 view by applying cold, hard historical rigor 00:12:17.419 --> 00:12:20.500 to a literary text. That is the essence of his 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:22.700 disruptive impulse, isn't it? Taking an established, 00:12:22.820 --> 00:12:24.639 beloved narrative and just flipping it on his 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.419 head by examining the fine print. It's the unifying 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:30.659 theme of his entire life. He did it again in 00:12:30.659 --> 00:12:33.419 2003 with a book called Who Murdered Chaucer? 00:12:33.850 --> 00:12:36.190 He and his co -authors argue that Chaucer didn't 00:12:36.190 --> 00:12:38.970 just die peacefully, but was actually persecuted 00:12:38.970 --> 00:12:42.330 to death by Thomas Arundel after Richard II was 00:12:42.330 --> 00:12:44.350 deposed. Treating his death like a political 00:12:44.350 --> 00:12:47.809 assassination. Exactly. Demanding a more complex, 00:12:48.070 --> 00:12:50.570 politically charged reading of the period. And 00:12:50.570 --> 00:12:52.549 he knew this stuff was too important to just 00:12:52.549 --> 00:12:54.929 keep in academic books. He brought it to a massive 00:12:54.929 --> 00:12:57.049 audience through his TV documentaries. His TV 00:12:57.049 --> 00:12:59.129 work was central to that mission, right? Yeah. 00:12:59.169 --> 00:13:01.649 To overturn those lazy historical stereotypes. 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:05.340 Absolutely. famous one was Terry Jones's Medieval 00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:08.940 Lives from 2004. In that series, he argued so 00:13:08.940 --> 00:13:11.059 forcefully against the whole idea of the Dark 00:13:11.059 --> 00:13:13.519 Ages. So how did he counter that idea? He showed 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:15.480 that the Middle Ages were incredibly dynamic 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:17.860 and sophisticated. He talked about achievements 00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:20.799 in science, architecture. He challenged the myth 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.159 of everyone being dirty by pointing to the existence 00:13:23.159 --> 00:13:26.080 of public baths. He was so passionate about showing 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.340 the period was driven by curiosity and invention, 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:31.580 not just superstition. And that work was recognized 00:13:31.580 --> 00:13:34.700 as Serious historical writing, not just entertainment. 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:37.600 Oh, definitely. He got an Emmy nomination in 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.159 the U .S. for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:42.419 Programming for that series. Think about that 00:13:42.419 --> 00:13:44.899 for a second. The man famous for the Nudge Nudge 00:13:44.899 --> 00:13:48.240 sketch is getting Emmy nominations for Serious 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.149 Historical Writing. It's the duality. He continued 00:13:51.149 --> 00:13:53.049 that mission with Terry Jones's Barbarians in 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:55.509 2006. Right, where he flipped the script on the 00:13:55.509 --> 00:13:57.809 Roman Empire. He did. He presented the cultural 00:13:57.809 --> 00:14:00.250 achievements of the so -called barbarian peoples 00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:03.470 in a really positive light and argued that the 00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:05.750 traditional Roman accounts were basically propaganda. 00:14:05.909 --> 00:14:08.149 So he was treating Roman history the same way 00:14:08.149 --> 00:14:11.080 he treated Chaucer's Night. precisely he argued 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.799 the sack of rome in 410 wasn't just savagery 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:16.799 it was a consequence of roman imperial policy 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:20.919 he showed these groups goths vandals had complex 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:23.899 societies that were just erased by the dominant 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:25.940 roman story and the list of his documentaries 00:14:25.940 --> 00:14:29.179 is just immense crusades ancient inventions the 00:14:29.179 --> 00:14:31.659 surprising history of sex and love the hidden 00:14:31.659 --> 00:14:34.799 history of egypt the hidden history of rome He 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:37.879 was just relentlessly curious. He even did documentaries 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.740 on math and technology like The Story of One. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:44.440 So we have the serious historian, but the comedy 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:46.340 writer was still going strong, especially with 00:14:46.340 --> 00:14:48.879 Michael Palin. That bond never broke. They wrote 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:51.000 the anthology series Ripping Yarns together, 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:53.419 which was a brilliant parody of old -fashioned 00:14:53.419 --> 00:14:56.039 boys' adventure stories. And they wrote a play 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:58.320 together, too. They did, a one -act play called 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:01.240 Underwood's Finest Hour. The premise of that 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:04.320 play is so... Perfectly British and absurd. It's 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.980 the definition of it. It's about an obstetrician 00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:10.120 who's trying to deliver a baby, but he's completely 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.220 distracted because he's listening to a crucial 00:15:12.220 --> 00:15:14.740 test match on the radio. The juxtaposition of 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:17.149 life and death. with the slow pace of cricket, 00:15:17.330 --> 00:15:20.350 that's pure Jones and Palin. It's their genius. 00:15:20.730 --> 00:15:23.370 And he also translated that wit for a younger 00:15:23.370 --> 00:15:25.549 audience. He was a very successful children's 00:15:25.549 --> 00:15:28.129 author. With titles like Fantastic Stories and 00:15:28.129 --> 00:15:30.309 The Beast with a Thousand Teeth. And my personal 00:15:30.309 --> 00:15:33.029 favorite, a poetry collection called The Curse 00:15:33.029 --> 00:15:35.009 of the Vampire Socks. It just sounds like a Python 00:15:35.009 --> 00:15:37.549 sketch. He even brought that medieval parody 00:15:37.549 --> 00:15:40.370 into children's animation. with Blazing Dragons, 00:15:40.490 --> 00:15:43.429 which ran in the late 90s. And again, a classic 00:15:43.429 --> 00:15:47.250 Jones twist. It parodied Arthurian legends, but 00:15:47.250 --> 00:15:49.730 the dragons were the sophisticated, civilized 00:15:49.730 --> 00:15:52.549 heroes. And the humans were the villains. Exactly. 00:15:52.789 --> 00:15:55.169 Always challenging the archetype. We also have 00:15:55.169 --> 00:15:57.450 to mention his work in the Douglas Adams universe. 00:15:57.909 --> 00:16:01.889 Yes, he wrote the novel Douglas Adams' Starship 00:16:01.889 --> 00:16:05.269 Titanic. Based on the computer game, it was a 00:16:05.269 --> 00:16:08.269 perfect match of styles, that cosmic absurdity. 00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:10.470 And a really interesting detail about his publishing 00:16:10.470 --> 00:16:13.090 life. He was actually fundamental to a whole 00:16:13.090 --> 00:16:16.259 new publishing model. This is crucial. It shows 00:16:16.259 --> 00:16:19.759 how forward -thinking he was. In 2011, his book 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:22.539 Evil Machines was the very first book published 00:16:22.539 --> 00:16:25.000 by Unbound. The crowdfunding publisher. Right. 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:27.480 He provided so much support for that model as 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:29.440 it was getting started. He wasn't just disrupting 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:31.440 art. He was willing to disrupt the business of 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.860 art, too. So whether it's tearing down punchlines 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:37.259 or historical propaganda, he was always the intellectual 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:39.679 disruptor. And that translated directly into 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:41.899 his political voice. He did not shy away from 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:44.610 using his platform, that's for sure. In a 1984 00:16:44.610 --> 00:16:47.549 interview, he was asked about his politics and 00:16:47.549 --> 00:16:50.230 he said, if I had any political convictions, 00:16:50.330 --> 00:16:53.090 I would say that I am an anarchist. Anarchism. 00:16:53.529 --> 00:16:56.409 That seems to fly in the face of the rigorous 00:16:56.409 --> 00:16:58.850 structure he applied to his historical work. 00:16:59.190 --> 00:17:02.649 How did he define it? He clarified it. For him, 00:17:02.830 --> 00:17:05.690 anarchism wasn't chaos. It was a belief in government 00:17:05.690 --> 00:17:08.549 from the bottom up. fundamentally anti -authoritarian. 00:17:08.730 --> 00:17:10.750 Which links directly back to his historical work. 00:17:10.869 --> 00:17:13.210 It does. He was challenging the top -down narratives 00:17:13.210 --> 00:17:15.549 of the Romans, the authoritarian interpretations. 00:17:16.190 --> 00:17:19.349 His history, like his politics, demanded autonomy 00:17:19.349 --> 00:17:21.730 for the individual. And he used his writing to 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:23.890 campaign against geopolitical decisions he saw 00:17:23.890 --> 00:17:26.230 as flawed. He was one of the most visible public 00:17:26.230 --> 00:17:29.210 opponents of the Iraq War. He wrote these scathing 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:31.630 columns for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The 00:17:31.630 --> 00:17:34.650 Observer, just condemning the war. And he particularly 00:17:34.650 --> 00:17:37.630 mocked the war on terror. His quote on that is 00:17:37.630 --> 00:17:39.829 a perfect piece of intellectual satire. It is. 00:17:39.910 --> 00:17:42.009 He said declaring a war on terror was like declaring 00:17:42.009 --> 00:17:45.109 war on an abstract noun. A classic Jones critique. 00:17:46.549 --> 00:17:48.769 exposing the absurdity of the language itself. 00:17:49.089 --> 00:17:52.349 He saw the language of politics as just as deserving 00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:55.289 of satirical dismantling as anything else. And 00:17:55.289 --> 00:17:57.930 those columns were collected in a book, Terry 00:17:57.930 --> 00:18:00.509 Jones's War on the War on Terror. He also weighed 00:18:00.509 --> 00:18:02.289 in on the Scottish independence referendum in 00:18:02.289 --> 00:18:05.490 2014. He did. He was one of 200 public figures 00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:08.470 who signed a letter to the Guardian hoping Scotland 00:18:08.470 --> 00:18:11.630 would vote to remain part of the UK. He was always 00:18:11.630 --> 00:18:14.329 engaged. Now, before we get to his final years, 00:18:14.430 --> 00:18:17.170 we have to touch on some of the wonderful niche 00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:20.410 details, like his surprising connection to beer. 00:18:20.630 --> 00:18:23.150 This is a great one. He was a member of CAMRA, 00:18:23.230 --> 00:18:26.289 the campaign for real ale. And to prove his commitment, 00:18:26.410 --> 00:18:29.069 he co -founded his own microbrewery in Herpertshire, 00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:31.089 the Penrose Brewery. And the building is still 00:18:31.089 --> 00:18:33.750 a pub, right? It is. It's now called the Python's 00:18:33.750 --> 00:18:36.210 Arms, a perfect little footnote to his life. 00:18:36.390 --> 00:18:38.549 And despite being this huge international talent, 00:18:38.890 --> 00:18:41.190 he actually didn't appear in that many projects 00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:44.230 outside of his own. No, he rarely did. There 00:18:44.230 --> 00:18:46.769 were a few exceptions, like a cameo in Terry 00:18:46.769 --> 00:18:49.009 Gilliam's Jabberwocky and a great little role 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:51.490 as a drunken vicar in The Young Ones. Which was 00:18:51.490 --> 00:18:53.190 the perfect show for him, really. Absolutely. 00:18:53.269 --> 00:18:56.170 The same anarchic structural absurdity. He also 00:18:56.170 --> 00:18:59.049 did narration for a CBBC series called The Legend 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:01.210 of Dick and Dom. And he even performed music. 00:19:01.450 --> 00:19:03.950 He did. He performed with the Carnival Band and 00:19:03.950 --> 00:19:07.410 is on one of their CDs. The spectrum of his artistic 00:19:07.410 --> 00:19:10.089 endeavors was just boundless. Okay, let's turn 00:19:10.089 --> 00:19:12.869 to his personal life. health struggles that sadly 00:19:12.869 --> 00:19:15.430 defined his final years. He was married twice. 00:19:15.710 --> 00:19:19.430 He married Alison Telfer in 1970, and they had 00:19:19.430 --> 00:19:22.470 two children. They were known to have an open 00:19:22.470 --> 00:19:24.730 marriage, which was quite unconventional for 00:19:24.730 --> 00:19:27.690 the time, but very reflective of his free -thinking 00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:31.200 nature. But that marriage ended. It did. In 2009, 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:34.279 he left Telfer for Anna Soderstrom, who was 41 00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:36.880 years his junior. And they started a new family. 00:19:37.019 --> 00:19:39.079 They did. They had a daughter together in 2009 00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:42.140 and got married in 2012. And before his final 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:44.500 struggle with dementia, he'd already had a major 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:47.420 health scare. In 2006, he was diagnosed with 00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:50.000 colon cancer. He underwent surgery and chemo 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.559 and was declared cancer -free. And his public 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:55.619 comment on it was just pure, dark, python humor. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:57.869 What did he say? He commented that his illness 00:19:57.869 --> 00:20:00.789 was not nearly bad enough to sell many newspapers, 00:20:01.150 --> 00:20:03.130 and the prognosis is even more disappointing. 00:20:03.470 --> 00:20:06.390 He found the humor even in his own mortality. 00:20:06.730 --> 00:20:09.049 But the last few years of his life were tragically 00:20:09.049 --> 00:20:11.930 marked by a disease that attacked the very core 00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:15.069 of his identity. In 2015, he was diagnosed with 00:20:15.069 --> 00:20:17.769 primary progressive aphasia. It's a specific 00:20:17.769 --> 00:20:21.230 form of frontotemporal dementia. And the tragic 00:20:21.230 --> 00:20:23.930 irony is that it specifically impairs the ability 00:20:23.930 --> 00:20:26.819 to speak, write, and communicate. the very skills 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:29.359 that defined his entire career. Everything he 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:31.619 relied on, whether it was arguing a historical 00:20:31.619 --> 00:20:34.500 point, or delivering a line in a sketch. And 00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:36.660 the first public signs of this were during the 00:20:36.660 --> 00:20:39.240 Big Python reunion tour in 2014. That's right. 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:42.059 During the Monty Python Live, mostly, shows at 00:20:42.059 --> 00:20:44.220 the O2 Arena, his colleagues in the audience 00:20:44.220 --> 00:20:46.579 noticed he was having real trouble learning and 00:20:46.579 --> 00:20:48.279 remembering his lines. And that was his last 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:50.500 performance with them. Tragically, yes. His last 00:20:50.500 --> 00:20:52.420 public performance with the group. What's so 00:20:52.420 --> 00:20:55.680 moving is how he faced that diagnosis. With incredible 00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:58.400 bravery. He became a high profile campaigner 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:00.799 for dementia research. He went public to raise 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:04.180 awareness. And in a final selfless act of scholarship, 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:07.059 he donated his brain to dementia research. And 00:21:07.059 --> 00:21:10.099 that profound ability to communicate, it just 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:13.380 deteriorated so quickly. By September 2016, he 00:21:13.380 --> 00:21:16.049 couldn't give interviews anymore. By April 2017, 00:21:16.549 --> 00:21:18.930 the loss was almost total. He could only say 00:21:18.930 --> 00:21:21.609 a few words. He passed away in January 2020. 00:21:21.950 --> 00:21:24.789 At the age of 77, from complications of dementia, 00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:28.029 he was remembered with a humanist funeral ceremony. 00:21:28.369 --> 00:21:30.609 It's an incredibly poignant end to the story. 00:21:30.710 --> 00:21:33.930 A master of complex language and absurdity, losing 00:21:33.930 --> 00:21:36.730 the very tool he used to organize and express 00:21:36.730 --> 00:21:39.059 his brilliant thoughts. It really underscores 00:21:39.059 --> 00:21:40.819 that central duality we've been talking about. 00:21:41.019 --> 00:21:43.700 He was the genius behind the anarchy of Python, 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:46.240 the man who broke narrative. Who then spent his 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:49.480 other life applying rigorous critical thinking 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:52.240 to history, arguing for the complexity of periods 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:54.940 others just dismissed as dark. And his recognition 00:21:54.940 --> 00:21:57.720 wasn't just in film or academia. He got three 00:21:57.720 --> 00:22:00.160 Grammy nominations for Python albums. And he 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.099 even has an asteroid named after him. He does. 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:06.559 9622 Terry Jones. A cosmic nod to a man whose 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:09.180 humor was often literally out of this world. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.700 So the final takeaway here as we connect all 00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:14.380 these threads, it has to be that shared impulse 00:22:14.380 --> 00:22:17.140 to challenge everything. He built his comedy 00:22:17.140 --> 00:22:20.250 career on... tearing down conventions rejecting 00:22:20.250 --> 00:22:22.950 the easy punch line and then he spent his serious 00:22:22.950 --> 00:22:25.950 career using that same intellectual energy to 00:22:25.950 --> 00:22:28.089 repair and re -examine historical propaganda 00:22:28.089 --> 00:22:30.809 whether it was about chaucer or the barbarians 00:22:30.809 --> 00:22:33.430 he used comedy to disrupt our immediate expectations 00:22:33.430 --> 00:22:35.930 and he used history to disrupt our long -held 00:22:35.930 --> 00:22:38.049 beliefs exactly so what does it tell us about 00:22:38.049 --> 00:22:39.970 the human mind then that one of the greatest 00:22:39.970 --> 00:22:43.009 absurdists a master of the non sequitur, was 00:22:43.009 --> 00:22:44.730 also one of the most dedicated truth seekers, 00:22:44.990 --> 00:22:47.569 challenging popular views with such rigor, whether 00:22:47.569 --> 00:22:49.829 the result was a scholarly book or a man in a 00:22:49.829 --> 00:22:52.049 dress yelling about spam. It suggests that the 00:22:52.049 --> 00:22:54.089 true engine of curiosity, the deepest intellectual 00:22:54.089 --> 00:22:56.769 impulse, isn't about conforming. It's about questioning. 00:22:57.009 --> 00:22:59.529 It's about rejecting the easy conclusion, the 00:22:59.529 --> 00:23:01.789 punchline, and demanding complexity instead. 00:23:02.380 --> 00:23:04.980 Terry Jones showed us that the same brain that 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:07.380 dreams up the most chaotic, wonderful nonsense 00:23:07.380 --> 00:23:10.059 is often the one most dedicated to finding structure 00:23:10.059 --> 00:23:12.259 and revealing hidden truths. And that, I think, 00:23:12.259 --> 00:23:14.279 is the most profound lesson of his exceptional, 00:23:14.539 --> 00:23:16.599 complex and ultimately tragic life.