Terry Jones

Born: 1 February 1942
Where: Colwyn Bay, Wales, UK

John Cleese had Fawlty Towers, Terry Gilliam moved to Hollywood, Eric Idle had a pop career mixed with cameo roles aplenty and Michael Palin went around the world a couple of times.

But unlike his TV colleagues, Terry Jones has not achieved the same level of fame since the Monty Python team disbanded - though he has kept just as busy.

Jones has found himself involved heavily in politics thanks to a regular column in The Guardian, which originated in the early 80¿s and allowed Jones to voice his opinion on the Poll tax, the Ozone layer and most recently in The Observer, the war in Iraq.

Originally born in Wales, Jones was actually raised in Surrey and, at school in Guildford, became a self-described ¿Goody two shoes.¿

He attended Oxford University where he became caught up in the college theatre scene. After several years working on plays, Jones got together with writing partners Michael Palin and Robert Hewison to pen the play Hang Down Your Head And Die.

The play ran at the Oxford Playhouse and the Comedy Theatre in London after which Palin and Jones collaborated on The Oxford Revue. This took them to the Edinburgh Festival where they would meet Idle Chapman and Cleese.

His first job in TV was as a copywriter for Anglia Television though it wouldn¿t be long before he moved on to the BBC as a script editor.

He would have completed a course on directing had he not come down with a sever case of peritonitis.

In time, Jones and Palin found themselves working on various BBC shows including The Frost Report and The Late Show.

Idle and Gilliam joined the pair on the LWT show Do Not Adjust Your Set and Cleese and Chapman worked with the group on the BBC production Marty.

After this producer Barry Took advised the group to work on a show of their own and Monty Python was born.

The comedy sketch show ran for years and when the group moved onto the big screen, they were unsettled with their first effort And Now For Something Completely Different, largely because they were forced to work with an outsider director.

So for the next effort, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, the team chose to have Jones and Gilliam working as co-directors. And form here Terry Jones found a new calling.

He went on to direct Erik The Viking, Personal Services and the most recent version of The Wind In The Willows.

Of all the surviving members of the Python team, it's Terry Jones that does the most to keep the Python fire burning - he was the one behind their last get together in Aspen.