John Walker's Electronic House

Like any sentient human, I’m an enormous fan of Monty Python. But more than that, I adore Terry Gilliam’s films. Brazil is, in my correct opinion, the greatest film ever made. And Labyrinth, written by Terry Jones, is probably the best children’s film ever. So the opportunity to interview Jones and Gilliam was a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me.

I was there for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, as they’re promoting a forthcoming Facebook game called The Ministry Of Silly Games. On the train on the way there I was trying to work out what questions to ask. I was determined that I not ask the most obvious questions, but the situation made that pretty awkward. It’s fairly obvious that everyone would ask them if they played games, what they thought of games, etc. And that seemed the right thing to ask on a site about games, at an event to promote games.

Then of course there’s Python. I recently watched a six hour documentary in which all five of them were interviewed at great length, and I cannot imagine another question about the series or films that ever needs to be asked. Either you ask the most repeated and obvious questions, or you ask about something incredibly obscure that they’ve likely forgotten in the 40 years (erk) since.

But then it occurred to me. If I had the chance to meet Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, what questions would I want to ask them? So I wrote some of those questions down. Clearly I was tempered not only by only having ten minutes, but also by there being both of them there. It would have been inappropriate to ask Gilliam specifics about his films, or ask Jones about which area of history he intended to explore in his next book/series. They needed to be questions both could answer. And who on the planet knows more about imagination and silliness? So it was on those subjects I chose to focus. I’m really pleased that I did.

You can watch the interview on RPS, or below.

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