The amazing Life Of Brian's girlfriend: From her naked film roles and the jailing of her ex-husband to becoming Mayor of Aberystwyth
By Emily Hill
Last updated at 11:31 PM on 27th August 2011
The clock ticks as Aberystwyth town councillor Sue Jones-Davies flicks through a list of concerns from local residents.
There are complaints about the lack of parking spaces, calls to upgrade the local skateboard park and worries that the seaside town’s seagulls are beginning to rival the aggression of Daphne Du Maurier’s Birds on bin day.
Sue’s furrowed brow reveals how seriously she takes her civic duties – and as an ex-mayor of the town, it is only to be expected – but she has not always portrayed such a studious demeanour.
Thirty years ago Sue appeared stark naked in one of the most controversial films in British movie history – Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.
In her big scene, with arms splayed she leaps in front of Graham Chapman – who plays Brian – as his mother, played by Terry Jones, bellows the unforgettable line: ‘Brian, leave that Welsh tart alone!’
Released in 1979, Monty Python’s Life Of Brian is now a comedy classic. And Sue’s star turn as Brian’s feisty girlfriend, Judith Iscariot, was the most significant role the Pythons ever gave to a woman.
This autumn, the BBC is to screen a new 90-minute comedy drama, Holy Flying Circus, which will focus attention, once again, on the furore created by Life Of Brian.
‘The film is phenomenal,’ says Sue, in a rare interview. ‘But when we were making it I don’t think many people thought it was going to do very well. It was very left-field.
‘When the money man, Bernard Delfont, finally read the script he pulled all the money out, just days before we started filming. The Pythons were very worried about getting distribution.’
They were right to fret. Their tale of Brian Cohen, who is mistaken for the Messiah and ends the film being crucified as Eric Idle sings Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, caused a riot of religious controversy. Banned in Ireland, Norway and in large parts of Sue’s native Wales, it enraged churchgoers from Mary Whitehouse to the Bishop of Southwark.
And of course audiences flocked to see it where they could. Billed as ‘the film so funny they banned it in Norway’, it made more than £15 million at the box office – a fortune in those days. Today it is still widely considered one of the funniest movies ever made.
‘I had no idea the film was going to create such a fuss,’ says Sue. ‘Or that 30 years on, all these blokes would still be quoting the dialogue at me – particularly “Brian, leave that Welsh tart alone” and “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.”
‘You want to say, “Oh get a life.” ’
She adds: ‘I’ve never been a Python fan. I never even had a television. But the film is still so popular.
‘People often tell me that if I’d had a penny for every time the video went out, I’d be rich. But back then I was paid £300 a week, which seemed like masses of money.’
As a 62-year-old local councillor, yoga teacher and grandmother who likes nothing better than to hike up a mountain and recite poetry, Sue’s life is now wholly different from the one she led in the late Seventies.
Back then she was married to fellow actor Chris Langham and would regularly perform alongside comedy legends, including French & Saunders and Victoria Wood.
Sue’s past often intrudes now, sometimes very painfully. Four years ago, Langham was sent to prison for downloading child pornography.
Sue had split from him acrimoniously in the mid-Eighties, due to his spiralling drink and drug problems.
She moved back to Wales to raise their three sons, Siencyn, now 33, Dafydd, 28, and Glyn, 25. When, after two decades of separation, the child pornography scandal broke, Sue and her boys were in for a nasty shock.
‘It was hysterical,’ she recalls. ‘The Press were camped outside, offering me money to tell “my side” of the story. I used to have to climb in and out of the back window.
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In 2009, Sue played her own role in reviving interest in Life Of Brian – when as mayor of Aberystwyth she overturned a 30-year ban on the film in the small Welsh town.
‘Soon after I was elected, somebody at the BBC called me up and asked me if I knew that The Life Of Brian had been banned in Aber.’
A story about the ban was then put up on the BBC website and Sue’s phone began to ring off the hook. ‘It was very hard to say I couldn’t give a monkey’s if it was banned or not. Suddenly my stint as mayor was obviously to un-ban this film.’
When the town clerk had a heart attack, Sue had a brainwave. She would screen the film at the local arts centre to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
‘I rang Terry Jones and asked if he wanted to come, and he asked if he could bring Michael Palin. They didn’t want a fee, they didn’t take expenses. They were just delightful, witty, and everyone adored them. Photographers came from all over the world.’
She may not give a monkey’s but after 32 years, Sue Jones-Davies remains the valiant ‘Welsh tart’ who took a naked leap into Brian’s heart and British comedy history – however hard she tries to bury herself under the humdrum concerns of the residents of Aberystwyth.
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