Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian and writer, film director and popular historian. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team.

Jones was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was head boy; he graduated in English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

He appeared in Twice a Fortnight with Michael Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn. He also appeared in Do Not Adjust Your Set with Michael Palin, Eric Idle and David Jason. (Jones speaks about this series during an interview which appears on both Do Not Adjust Your Set DVD, and At Last the 1948 Show DVD). He wrote for The Frost Report and several of David Frost's programmes on British television.

He was a member of Monty Python, the team of writers and performers that made Monty Python's Flying Circus. As a Python, Jones is remembered for his roles as middle-aged women and the bowler-hatted "man in the street". His character, Mr. Creosote from The Meaning of Life, has become practically iconic. One of Jones' major concerns was devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, devising a stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines and instead encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch to another and the cross-referencing of jokes. This allowed the team's conceptual humour and one-line ideas room to realise their full potential which conventional formulas would arguably compromise. Jones also objected to TV directors use of speeded-up film, over-emphatic music, and static camera style.

Jones co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail and directed two further Monty Python moves, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life As a film director, Jones finally gained fuller control of the projects and devised a visual style that complemented the humour and, once again, concentrated on allowing the performers room to breathe, for instance, in the use of wide shots for long exchanges of dialogue, and more economical use of music. His methods encouraged many future television comedians to break away from slapstick or studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated by Green Wing, Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen. He directed further films, including Erik the Viking (1989) and The Wind in the Willows (1996).

He co-wrote Ripping Yarns with Michael Palin, and wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth (1986). He has also written numerous works for children.

He has written books and presented television documentaries on mediæval and ancient history and the history of numeral systems. His series often challenge popularly-held views of history: for example, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004) argues that the Middle Ages was a more sophisticated period than is popularly thought, and Terry Jones' Barbarians (2006) presents the cultural achievements of peoples conquered by the Roman Empire in a more positive light than Roman historians typically did.

He has written numerous anti-war editorials for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Observer. Jones has two children.

• Biography courtesy of Wikipedia.
• Photo courtesy of Monty Python's Completely Useless Website.