Sunday 30th May

You could never say that Terry Jones lacks enthusiasm. As soon as he bounds on to the stage it's like a little pink ball of energy has burst into the room, and the hundreds of people who are gathered to listen to a conscise history of Medieval Britain in the Channel 4 tent at Hay-On-Wye can't help but be caught up in it all.

With the use of a trusty laptop on set (no snazzy remote control here!), Terry demonstrates a conspiracy theory that was surprisingly overlooked at the time it happened - The fact that Geoffrey Chaucer disappeared of the face of the Earth with no will, no grave, and no death certificate. The question today isn't "If", but "Who" murdered Chaucer?

The fact that Terry Jones is confident enough to question events that happened around 700 years ago, with the conviction of somebody looking into last week's Police Reports, underlines his vast knowledge and the sheer research that has gone into this subject.

It's a highly entertaining hours worth of talk with Jones's personal touch creeping in all over the place, from his impressions of characters in classic Medieval paintings to his little asides to the audience throughout.

Recent television documentaries written and presented by Jones give a good indicator of what awaits you at one of these talks, without actually being as good. There's no spur of the moment swearing on prime time BBC2, nor are their personal snaps depicting relevantly named road signs, or the sound of a room full of people laughing at Medieval jokes. And there's definitely not the highly entertaining sight of seeing Terry Jones, caught up in gesticulating at the screen behind him, constantly 'reversing' into the pointy cubist set-pieces, designed at the perfect height to catch where it really hurts..

From the outset, Terry oozes charm and charisma, striding around the stage like he owns it. And let's face it, today he does.

 

Many thanks to Terry and Alison for making what turned out to be a crazy, and somewhat hectic day, very enjoyable! And thanks to all staff at the festival for being so nice and helpful.