John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam say farewell to Monty Python's Terry Jones

John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam paid tribute to their late friend Terry Jones at his funeral yesterday.

The Monty Python stars attended a private humanist ceremony at the Golders Green Crematorium West Chapel in London, with other close friends and family.

A wake was then held at a pub in Highgate, north London.

Read more: Tributes flood in for Monty Python icon Terry Jones

Jones, who died at the age of 77 last month, was brought into the crematorium to the song How Sweet To Be An Idiot, penned by Neil Innes, the Python collaborator who died in December last year.

He had suffered dementia in his final years, after being diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia in 2015.

It was said during the ceremony that his “final breaths... were gentle and untroubled”.

His wife, Anna Soderstrom, said: “As his speech faded, the layers of social convention disappeared too. But what was left was the real Terry.

“And it was just as nice, just as naughty – maybe naughtier – and just as good-natured and generous as the Terry we have always known.”

He was also described as a “bold, brilliant and beautiful man”, while actor and friend Richard Ridings read a passage from The Diary Of Samuel Pepys.

Comedian Jon Culshaw and actor Sanjeev Bhaskar were among those who attended the funeral, along with producer John Lloyd and fellow Python actress Carol Cleveland.

Jones met Palin while studying at Oxford University in the early 60s, and performed with him in the Oxford Revue.

After working on comedy shows including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, he formed the absurdist comedy group Monty Python's Flying Circus with Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Cleese, Palin and Gilliam. The series first aired on the BBC in 1969.