25 thoughts on “Remembering Terry Jones

  1. Gotta be Life of Brian. With the Roman soldier correcting the Roman’s Go Home the rebel wrote on statue and had him correctly write it 1000 times. Simply priceless.

    And the Flying Circus Atila the Hun sketch.

    1. As a kid, Life of Brian was my least favorite of the movies, but as an adult, it is so obviously the better, funnier, more scathing of the three. And just as quotable as Holy Grail…

      “He’s NOT the Messiah! He’s a VERY NAUGHTY BOY.”

          1. It was cheese makers, they misunderstood peacemakers which came towards the end of the sermon.

      1. ‘Brian’ is definitely more mature & subtle comedy — I didn’t get it as a kid either. It also works better once you have some religious background to understand the levels of what they’re skewering ;)

      2. I was 13 and a very involved in the church and I saw it three days in a row, taking various friends along. It pretty much said everything I’d been thinking for a long time only SO WELL!!!!! Love it, love them all, loved his history programmes, LIVE for the Oscar Wilde sketch. Where would our lives be without him? It’s inconceivable.

  2. As usual, many thanks for bringing to my attention movies and series I wasn’t aware of. Absurdists rule!! BTW, he looks a lot like Richard lll in that photo, not ll. I think you meant Dick lll, right?

  3. I remember being quite fascinated (and a little disturbed) by the eyes painted on people’s eyelids in Crusades.

  4. Fantastic post! Huge thanks – Mr Jones will forever by sadly missed. I particularly loved the Oscar Wilde sketch and who can forget him as Brian’s Mum??? “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”… genius! I will now have to dig out Medieval Lives again. Massive thanks again!

  5. I have always loved his documentaries. I don’t think I’ve seen the Crusades, I will have to look for it..

  6. Terry Jones left an indelible mark on the world. I wasn’t introduced to Monty Python until I was in college. I made sure to rectify that with my own children. Now I need to find those other series.

  7. My favorite T.J. moment was his stint as an Edwardian gentleman at the seaside who can’t locate a place to change into his bathing costume until he finds himself in a music hall, and there executes a really fine strip-tease routine. (Have been trying to get hold of a YouTube video; so far, no luck.)

  8. It’s a three-way split.

    Prince Herbert! “What, the curtains?” That was magnificent.
    I also adored him as Sir Bedevere. Specifically, the way he opened the visor every time he needed to speak, which was often (even though the visor wasn’t remotely an obstacle to speech), and how it squeaked every. Single. Time.
    And not forgetting Ken Ewing and his musical mice! The mouse organ! dies

  9. As a tangential note, I remember actually seeing him live at the International Medieval Conference at Kalamazoo around 2008ish. He was doing the Society of the White Hart lecture and his topic was about Richard II and his court rolls. I was there as an observer (not giving talks or anything) and my interest lay in the Renaissance (and of course anything to do with DISTAFF talks) so I typically wouldn’t have been interested in judicial history of the time of Richard II. But since it was him speaking, everyone went, and I found myself so amused and entertained by the topic. It was fascinating letting him make something that would have been so dry and arid so funny. I learned a valuable lesson that day to make all of my lessons (I am a librarian with instructional duties as part of my job) just slightly fun to make it all worth it. Thank you Mr. Jones.

  10. So wonderful. His book on Chaucer’s Knight really made me think.

    But you forgot to mention him as Cardnal Biggles. Didn’t you expect the Spanish Inquisition?

  11. I loved his documentaries about the Middle Ages, because he could show his personal Passion for the period in such a entertaining way.

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