News you may have missed: 30 year ban on Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ finally lifted in Welsh town

In case you missed it, a thirty-year ban on public viewing of the hilarious comedy “Life of Brian” made by the English comedy team, Monty Python, was finally lifted in a Welsh town.  The town is Aberystwyth – which I have no idea of how to pronounce. But the movie had been considered “blasphemous” by some Christians who perceived it as a mockery of Jesus Christ.  Most of the rest of the planet considered it one of the funniest films ever produced.  Check out this article from the Telegraph:

Aberystwyth embraces Monty Python’s Life of Brian

By Ian Johnston / The Telegraph /

Three decades after it banned Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the Welsh town of Aberystwyth was finally reconciled with ‘blasphemers’ Michael Palin and Terry Jones as they attended a special showing of the film.

The historic event at Aberystwyth Arts Centre was organised by Sue Jones-Davies, the town’s mayor, who played Brian’s girlfriend Judith Iscariot in the film.

In contrast to the reaction in 1979, when the town banned the film, a sell-out crowd turned up to see the two Pythons and the film that outraged many Christians.

Jones, who said he was a frequent visitor to the town as he owns a cottage around 30 miles away, said: “This is the first time publicly that Life of Brian has been shown so we thought we had to celebrate that wonderful fact.

“I think it is going to be dangerous on the streets of Aberystwyth tonight (following the screening) with such loose living.”

Jones said the film was never about mocking religious belief.

“It is about religious dissension,” he said. “The fact that you have somebody like Jesus Christ who preaches peace and love but for the next two thousand years you have people killing each other because they can’t agree on how he said it or what they are wearing on their heads.”

Palin said he had been attracted by “the fact that the mayor of this fun city is in the film in all manner of wonderful costumes”.

“The part she played was a political firebrand and she is the only one in the Python team that went into politics,” he said.

Palin later said he was quite worried about the “unbanning” of The Life of Brian in Aberystwyth as the restrictions on its screenings over the years had only made it more popular as people clamoured to see what the fuss was over.

He added: “Sue! Sue! Unless you ban it we are going home!”

Proceeds from the evening will be split between the British Heart Foundation, nominated by Ms Jones-Davies’ and Truthout, the news agency dedicated to establishing a powerful, stable voice for independent journalism, which was nominated by Jones.

Ms Jones-Davies said: “They (Palin and Jones) look exactly the same. The screening seemed a fitting way to end my reign as mayor and to show a film that had been banned. I was not shocked by the ban. It was what was happening in the 70s.”

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Go here for our earlier post on this – from August 2008.