Monty Python star Terry Jones's dementia is the 'cruellest' thing
MONTY Python star Terry Jones’s progressive dementia has been “painful to watch”, friend and fellow actor Michael Palin said last night.
Monty Python star Terry Jones’s dementia has been 'painful to watch', said Michael Palin
Jones, 74, who directed some of their best loved films, including Life Of Brian and The Meaning Of Life, is suffering from primary progressive aphasia.
It affects the part of the brain that controls language and he could end up unable to speak.
Terry doesn’t say very much but he smiles, laughs, recognises and responds. Long may that last
Sufferers often use the wrong sounds in a word, choose the wrong word, or put words together incorrectly.
Their writing is similarly affected with many people with the condition finding it difficult to understand words and sentences they hear or read.
It means Jones is now unable to give an interview. The actor, from Colwyn Bay in north Wales, was a member of Monty Python with Palin, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle and the late Graham Chapman.
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The condition affects the part of the brain controlling language, so Terry might no longer speak
In an emotional post on Facebook Palin described the illness’s effect on Jones’s ability to speak as the “cruellest thing that could befall someone to whom words, ideas, arguments, jokes and stories were once the stuff of life”.
The 73-year-old actor and TV presenter added: “Terry J has been my close friend and workmate for over 50 years.
Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were all party of Monty
"The progress of his dementia has been painful to watch.
“Terry doesn’t say very much but he smiles, laughs, recognises and responds. Long may that last.”
Michael Palin said that dementia was the 'cruellest' think that could happen to someone like Terry
His illness was announced on Tuesday as Bafta Cymru revealed he has been given a special award for his contribution to film and TV.