HOW I GOT THE PYTHONS BACK TOGETHER...!

Comedy historian Robert Ross on achieving the impossible in his warm and colourful new biography of the late actor, director and author Terry Jones

- Fram Winston

COMEDY historian Robert Ross is reflecting on how he achieved the impossible - getting the Pythons back together. At least for his new biography of the late, great Terry Jones. But given their much-publicised fallings-out, it was no mean feat.

Jones, an acclaimed actor, director, children's author, historian and writer as well as one of the founding members of the iconic comedy troupe, died in January 2020 aged 77 following a battle with dementia.

"Maybe six months before he got really ill, Terry was sharing another brilliantly funny anecdote about something and I said, 'Terry, you've really got to sit down and write your memoirs one of these days'," Robert, a friend and collaborator of Jones for two decades, tells the Daily Express.

There was plenty of material, after all.

Jones' portrayal in Monty Python's Life Of Brian of the Virgin Mandy - seeing off the gathering crowds by saying of her son (Brian): "He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy", remains one of the team's bestloved moments.

As one-sixth of the Pythons, Jones also created the Spam sketch with Michael Palin and played Mr Creosote, the monstrously obese and vulgar restaurant diner who literally explodes after being persuaded to eat a "wafer-thin" after-dinner mint!

Robert continues: "Before I could say, 'Millions of people would want to read it', he said, 'Actually, I haven't got enough time'. He took my hand and said, 'When I'm dead, you can write it for me. So that's what I've done, which is a privilege and a huge responsibility."

The result is Seriously Silly: The Life of Terry Jones, and it provides an extraordinary glimpse into not only Terry's life but the early days of the Pythons, with contributions from all four surviving members (Graham Chapman died aged 48 in 1989).