'They'd never make a Python today'
Jones says modern TV is scared of risk
Terry Jones says Monty Python would never make it to the screen, had they tried to make it today.He said that TV executives wouldn’t take a risk on six young comics making comedy for themselves, without passing it through focus groups for approval.
Speaking of the reasons for group’s enduring success, the 64-year-old said: ‘I think one reason was that with Python we purely wrote for the six of us. Our message was: don't believe anything people say.’
‘Nowadays it would be impossible to do that. You really have to satisfy the needs of television stations which carry out audience surveys before they commission shows.’
Jones was speaking in Lisbon, where his new musical Evil Machines is about to premiere.
He said: ‘We have come into an age of a throw-away culture and it has reached machines. Evil Machines is about machines realising this and deciding to take matters into their own hands.
‘The music is great. The show is quite original and the sound is very particular.’
He hopes to take the show to London and New York, following its run in Portugal.
Published: 11 Jan 2008
