Monty Python stars' fitting final tribute at funeral of Terry Jones
‘He’s not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy’: Monty Python stars’ fitting final tribute at funeral of Terry Jones who lost dementia battle at 77
- Jones uttered famous line in 1979 film Life of Brian while playing Mandy Cohen
- Tweet was posted a day after funeral for Python in Golders Green, North London
- Actor and comedian who directed Life of Brian died last month at the age of 77
The stars of Monty Python today paid a fitting tribute to comedian Terry Jones following his death, saying he was ‘not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy’.
Jones uttered the famous line in the 1979 film Life of Brian while playing Mandy Cohen as she spoke to the followers of her son, who was mistaken for Jesus Christ.
The tweet was posted one day after John Cleese, Sir Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam have said farewell to their fellow Python at the comedy giant’s funeral in London.
The message from Monty Python team, which has been liked or retweeted 6,000 times, said: ‘Yesterday we bid a final farewell to our dear Terry J… Not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy.’
The tweet was accompanied with a photograph of the order of service, which featured a portrait of Jones as a young man along with the dates of his life and the funeral
The tweet was also accompanied by a photograph of flowers, with a card saying: ‘Terry, not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy! Love from all your followers, John, Terry G, Eric & Michael’
The message, which has been liked or retweeted 6,000 times, said: ‘Yesterday we bid a final farewell to our dear Terry J… Not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy.’
It was accompanied with a photograph of the order of service, which featured a portrait of Jones as a young man along with the dates of his life and the funeral.
There was also a photograph of flowers, with a card saying: ‘Terry, not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy! Love from all your followers, John, Terry G, Eric & Michael.’
Actor and comedian Jones, who also directed some of the comedy troupe’s most-loved works including Life of Brian, died last month at the age of 77.
‘He’s not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy’: Terry Jones uttered the famous line in the 1979 film Life of Brian while playing Mandy Cohen as she spoke to the followers of her son, Brian
Michael Palin, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Jones in Life of Brian
A ceremony was held at Golders Green Crematorium West Chapel to pay tribute to a ‘bold, brilliant and beautiful man’, followed by a small wake in a Highgate pub.
The comedy star’s coffin entered the private, humanist service to How Sweet To Be An Idiot, by the late Monty Python songwriter Neil Innes.
Friends and family were told that ‘Terry’, whose much-quoted comedy lines included ‘He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!’, had ‘no airs and graces’.
‘The only prerequisite Terry had, was that you had to not be boring,’ the service was told.
The funeral service took place at Golders Green Crematorium West Chapel in North London
(From left) Idle, Palin, Cleese, Gilliam, Palin and Jones at the London Palladium in June 2014
His ‘final breaths’, which came after suffering from a form of dementia which affects the ability to communicate, ‘were gentle and untroubled’.
Terry Jones and his wife Anna Soderstrom in are pictured in London in December 2013
Tributes were given by his wife Anna Soderstrom, older children Bill and Sally and the Monty Python star’s ex-wife Alison Telfer.
Sir Michael, whose relationship with the late star and Life Of Brian director was described by Jones’s family as ‘more like a marriage’, also paid tribute.
And an extract of The Diary Of Samuel Pepys was read by another of Jones’s friends, actor Richard Ridings.
Ms Soderstrom told how Jones approached his dementia ‘with his usual good humour’.
‘As his speech faded, the layers of social convention disappeared too. But what was left was the real Terry,’ she said.
‘And it was just as nice, just as naughty – maybe naughtier – and just as good-natured and generous as the Terry we have always known.’
The private funeral was also attended by Carol Cleveland, who also worked on Monty Python, as well as comedy TV producer John Lloyd and screen stars Sanjeev Bhaskar and Jon Culshaw.
Terry Jones: The North Wales boy who went to Oxford and turned the world of comedy upside down
The comedian was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, in 1942, moving to Claygate, Surrey, at the age of five.
At Oxford University he became involved in the theatre scene and met fellow Python-to-be Michael Palin, with whom he went on to write TV series Ripping Yarns.
The pair wrote and performed revues for the university’s theatre club.
Later, Jones worked on TV shows like The Frost Report, Do Not Adjust Your Set, Broaden Your Mind and The Complete And Utter History of Britain.
TV history was created after Jones sat down at a tandoori restaurant in north London, in 1969, with Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and US animator Terry Gilliam to discuss working together on a new BBC comedy.
The six members of the Monty Python team in 1969. Left to right: Terry Jones, Graham Chapman (who died in 1989), John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin
They wanted to move away from the punchlines and structure of traditional sketch comedy.
Irreverent TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus was born, making its debut late on a Sunday night on BBC One on October 5, 1969, just before the weather bulletin.
Some 45 episodes of the show, with its surreal, stream-of-consciousness style, aired until 1974, and it snapped up Bafta awards and even led to a German spin-off.
Jones often appeared in drag, sometimes as a ‘haggard housewife,’ or nude, while his other characters included Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson, Cardinal Biggles of the Spanish Inquisition and Mr Creosote, the monstrously obese restaurant patron.
He made his directorial debut, alongside Gilliam, with Monty Python And The Holy Grail in 1975.
Jones introduces his wife Anna Soderstrom and their daughter Siri to Cleese in 2010
Jones later directed Life Of Brian (1979), about a hapless man mistaken for Jesus.
The film was attacked as blasphemous but has since been voted the funniest of all time.
Jones also went on to direct The Meaning Of Life (1983), the Pythons’ last film together.
It featured loosely linked sketches and the unforgettable song, Every Sperm Is Sacred.
Less than a year after the Pythons called time in 1983, Jim Henson, the puppeteer creator of the Muppets, was in talks with Jones to pen the script for his new fantasy film.
Bowie was eventually cast as Jareth the Goblin King in the adventure fantasy film Labyrinth, while Jones was brought in to pen the words.
But, by the time the feature was released in 1986, the script had gone through several rewrites and much of Jones’ work had been removed.
Jones also directed Personal Services (1987), a fictional biopic starring Julie Walters and inspired by real-life madam Cynthia Payne.
He also went behind the camera for Erik The Viking (1989), based on his own children’s book.
His other credits include The Wind In The Willows (1996), with performances from Idle, Palin, and Cleese.
He further explored his surrealist comedy in 2015’s Absolutely Anything, an absurdist tale about a downtrodden schoolteacher given the chance to do anything he wants by aliens.
Jones (pictured in 2012) died at the age of 77 on January 21 after a battle with dementia
Despite a stellar cast of Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale and Robin Williams, the film was a critical failure.
Aside from a cameo in Gilliam’s Jabberwocky in 1977 and a memorable turn as a drunken vicar in The Young Ones, Jones rarely acted outside of his own projects.
He appeared in two French films by Albert Dupontel – Le Createur (1999) and Enfermes Dehors (2006).
And between 2009 and 2011 he narrated the CBBC programme The Legend Of Dick And Dom, which starred the well-loved children’s presenting duo as two young princes on a quest.
In 2014, Jones took part in a reunion of remaining Monty Python members – Graham Chapman died of cancer in 1989.
The live stage show, which featured an extended cast of dancers, a full orchestra and special effects, delighted thousands of fans.
But in 2016 it was announced that Jones had been diagnosed with dementia.
He suffered from primary progressive aphasia, which affects the ability to communicate.
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