Terry Jones talks shifting Monty Python dynamics, new doc

TORONTO – Forty years after the premiere of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” troupe member Terry Jones says few things have changed within the group, save one: “John is nicer to me.”

The Brit comic was in Toronto this week to premiere the troupe’s latest film, “Monty Python: The Meaning of Live,” and reminisce over an enduring legacy of silly walks, provocative songs and biting social commentary.

The appearance followed a special screening in New York of their 1975 skewering of Arthurian legend, where Jones, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Michael Palin reunited onstage for a question-and-answer session.

In Toronto, a jovial Jones spoke of a “mellowed” Cleese while longtime friend and “Meaning of Live” co-director Roger Graef described seeing them all together as “a bit like going to a school reunion where the person you were scared of at school you still feel scared of.”

“Terry and Mike were a pair, they were always pals, schoolboy pals,” says Graef.

“Graham (Chapman) and John were another pair, the tall guys. Very tall —and being short myself I can tell you it makes a difference if they use their height. Graham didn’t, John does. Still does. So in that sense they were the tall pair.

“And then Eric was the outsider. And then Terry (Gilliam) comes along and was the other outsider. Eric was having to write on his own and actually even at the question-and-answer the other night … the other four were looking (at each other) and Eric was looking (at) the outside of the stage. I really felt for him. It was played out, the relationships, physically. It was really interesting.”

Those dynamics also emerge in “Monty Python: The Meaning of Live.” The doc revisits their 10-show reunion at London’s O2 Arena in 2013, and is rounded out by candid interviews and a look back at their history of stage performances.

Jones admits his memory is not what it used to be, and it failed him onstage during the Four Yorkshiremen sketch. Luckily he had a prompt card with him, which Cleese ended up needing himself, he chuckles.

If anyone has changed, it really is Cleese, says Graef, recalling how strict he could be when they first worked together on the film “The Mermaid Frolics” back in 1976.

“John came into my cutting room and said, ‘There’s a cut here that’s a quarter of a second too long.’ A quarter of a second. Now you just try and time that,” he says.

“And I thought, ‘This guy is so anal, he’s so obsessive,’ and I was both impressed by it but I also didn’t know what to do with it. Now, when we watched him and filmed him, he’s the one who goes off the script. He’s the one who winds everyone else up. It’s completely different.”

“Monty Python: The Meaning of Live” screens at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday.