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She is immortalised on celluloid for her role in what is referred to as one of the funniest films of all time. But these days Sue Jones-Davies, who starred as Judith Iscariot, fiery revolutionary and Brian's girlfriend in Monty Python's Life of Brian, has a more sedate political role - as the new mayor of Aberystwyth, in mid-Wales.
Four weeks into the job, the first thing she is looking to do is to repeal her town's near 30-year ban on the film. Jones-Davies, who teaches yoga and drama in the town, said it was time for the matter to be reconsidered. "I think times have moved on a bit and I can't imagine people would still want it banned, although there may be a few who would."
Like many towns in Wales in the 1970s, Aberystwyth was dominated by the church and its civic leaders took a dim view of anything that mocked established religion.
Jones-Davies, who has lived in Aberystwyth for 20 years, was astonished to learn upon becoming mayor that the ban was still in place but understood that it was a product of its time. "We used to be a town with many, many chapels - it used to be a town that took religion very seriously," she said. "So I can imagine that, at the time, the town's elders weren't very sympathetic to the themes and messages in it."
Indeed. The film's plot tells how a Jewish man is mistaken for the messiah and then crucified at the order of the lisping Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin). It was so controversial that, even before it was made, stars including George Harrison and Spike Milligan had to finance its production because the major studios were afraid of antagonising religious groups. Later, several religious groups picketed the cinemas showing the film.
Jones-Davies featured in one of the film's most controversial scenes, which was seemingly designed to send conservatives into apoplexy. Judith (founding member of the People's Front of Judea, not to be confused with the Popular People's Front or, indeed, the Judean Popular People's Front) is shown lying naked with Brian, played by the late Graham Chapman. In a memorable scene, a naked Brian later throws back the shutters of his house to be greeted by hundreds of supporters proclaiming him the new messiah.
These days Jones-Davies said many students in the town still came up to her and recited passages from the film - chiefly those concerning the internecine feuding between the various egos that comprised the People's Front of Judea. At one stage, one of the group's members, Stan, wants the Front to fight for his right to have babies, even though he is not a woman.
Judith, with the sort of composed response that may one day help her survive the maelstrom of small-town Welsh politics, hits upon an ingenious solution, telling fellow members of the People's Front: "Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb - which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans - but that he can have the 'right' to have babies."
The hilarious compromise is one of the film's most famous lines, but Jones-Davies nearly didn't get to utter it at all.
"I didn't audition for the film," she said. "I was sent by my agent. The Pythons were looking for somebody who had lots of curly black hair and looked vaguely Middle Eastern and my agent was John Cleese's agent and he said, 'Turn up here'."
She read the script on the bus and knew it was a winner. "I was just howling," she said.
Since her appearance, in what internet fans have dubbed one of the 10 funniest nude performances of all time, Jones-Davies has appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar, television's French and Saunders and Brideshead Revisited.
Not that she has any desire to go back to the cinema.
"I am enjoying my new role immensely," she said. "Aber is a wonderfully diverse town. It is one of the most popular towns because people feel very safe here. Lots of people who come here never want to move."
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