A PYTHON BOWS OUT
Sir Michael Palin pays tribute to his comic partner who had been diagnosed with dementia four years ago
Tributes were paid last night to Terry Jones, who has died aged 77. Sheffield’s Sir Michael Palin said he was “one of my closest, most valued friends”. Jones died four years after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of dementia.
THEIR FRIENDSHIP had spanned 56 years, since the long-forgotten Oxford University Revue they had taken to the Edinburgh Festival together.
Last night, Sir Michael Palin paid tribute to “one of my closest, most valued friends” – Terry Jones.
He had met Jones not long after arriving at Oxford from Sheffield, and the bond they formed helped to forge one of the century’s great comic institutions.
Jones’s death, at 77, four years after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of dementia, finally brought down the curtain on the Pythons.
“Two down, four to go,” said costar John Cleese in characteristic fashion, referring to the death in 1989 of the group’s sixth member and his own writing partner, Graham Chapman.
“It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm, should have faded so gently away,” Cleese added of Jones.
Sir Michael, who worked in partnership with Jones before, during and after the Monty Python films and TV shows such as Ripping Yarns, described his friend as “kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full”.
He said: “He was far more than one of the funniest writerperformers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian – writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children’s author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have.”
“I feel very fortunate to have shared so much of my life with him.”
Jones’ creative influence on the Pythons had extended fat beyond funny voices and women’s costumes. He directed their 1979 film, Life of Brian – a religious satire accused by some at the time of blasphemy but since voted the funniest comedy ever – and its sequel, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. He also codirected Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with fellow performer Terry Gilliam.
A statement on behalf of his family said they were “deeply saddened” to announce the death of a “beloved husband and father”, who had “given pleasure to countless millions across six decades”.
Quoting a line from early Python, they spoke of an “extraordinarily talented, playful and happy man living a truly authentic life, in his words ‘lovingly frosted with glucose’.”
Jones had died with his wife Anna Soderstrom by his side after a “long, extremely brave but always good-humoured” battle with his illness, the statement said.
His family said his work would “live on forever, a fitting legacy to a true polymath”.
Jones’s dementia had affected his ability to communicate, but he had been joined at home in north London by many close friends during his last days, his family added.
Sir Michael had given a bleak prognosis when asked about his friend by the radio presenter Zoe Ball, six weeks ago.
“The kind of dementia he
has is not something that can be cured particularly. It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “I go and see him, but he can’t speak much, which is a terrible thing.”
Palin said he had taken along a copy of Dr Fegg’s Encyclopeadia of All World Knowledge, a book they had written together in the 1980s, and that Jones laughed only at the passages he had written himself. “I thought, ‘That shows that something is ticking over’,” Palin said.
The two of them had resumed their working relationship after leaving Oxford, with Jones having landed a script editor’s job at the BBC and able to procure writing jobs for Ken Dodd and Billy Cotton, amongst others.
Along with Eric Idle and David Jason, they then gained prePython TV exposure on the ITV children’s series, Do Not Adjust Your Set.
I feel very fortunate to have shared so much of my life with him.
Sir Michael Palin pays tribute to his friend and comic partner Terry Jones.