Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam in Colwyn Bay. Photo: BBC

Terry Jones, the former original Python member, director of Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, co-director of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, creator of a number of television documentaries specializing in medieval history and writer of 20 children’s books and long-time friend to PBS, passed away in January 2020 at the age of 77 after being diagnosed with a rare primary progressive aphasia, which affected his ability to communicate, back in 2015.

Monty Python stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam recently appeared in the town of Colwyn Bay to raise funds for a statue of late member and “great friend” Terry Jones…the Welsh one in Monty Python. Palin and Gilliam are taking part in the ‘A Python on the prom‘ campaign to raise £120,000 for a statue of Jones, who was born in the North Wales town in February 1942 before his family moved to Surrey in England.

With hopes of regenerating Colwyn Bay by attracting fans of the iconic comedy troupe from around the world, the statue campaign is being run by Jones’ children, Sally and Bill Jones, in partnership with the Conwy Arts Trust, who have launched a GoFundMe campaign. To contribute to the fund, click here.

Made by Llandudno-based sculptor Nick Elphick, organizers say it will celebrate Jones as a “comedy genius” as well as his role as a “historian, writer and film director”. Paying tribute to their long-time friend, Palin said Jones had “…wonderful ideas about life and how things should be done. When I first met him at Oxford, he was a very good actor, he was a very funny man, he played the guitar… he would have a go at absolutely everything“, while Gilliam added: “Terry was a great romantic, always seemed to be looking for a new kind of holy grail and would invariably convince all of us to follow him in these quests. His dream of Wales always intrigued me. It was a very romantic dream“.

One of our earliest PBS interviews with Jones dates back in 1999 at the Gore Hotel in Kensington where he talked about his writing style and how he partnered with fellow Python, Michael Palin, on some of Monty Python’s greatest sketches.

Over the past couple of decades, several of us had the great good fortune of spending time interviewing Jones at his London home in Hampstead Heath for a number of PBS specials, Funny Ladies of British Comedy, Funny Blokes of British Comedy and Fawlty Towers Revisited. During one interview, Jones brilliantly recounted, in spectacular detail, the Pythons stay at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, which later became the basis for fellow Python, John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers series.

Terry Jones at home in Hampstead Heath. Photo: Bill Young

In later years, we had another opportunity to spend time with Terry Jones when PBS broadcast the Monty Python’s Personal Best series and we were able to catch up with Jones at the MTV Europe studios in London to talk about comedy, Pythons and life in general.

Terry Jones at MTV Europe studios. Photo: Bill Young

Terry Jones, while your comic genius is missed every day, the laughs you provide will live on forever. Hopefully, a visit to the Promenade in Colwyn Bay to see the statue is in my future.