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This week on One on One, meet director, illustrator and comedic genius, Terry Gilliam.

He was the only non-British member of the UK-based Monty Python comedy troupe, but seemed totally in tune with the group's whacky sense of humour.

In fact, his illustrations created the look of the Python brand. It was Monty Python's distinctly off-the-wall humour that brought him fame, especially through his unique and instantly recognisable animation style - a hallmark of the show's opening sequence.

For Terry Gilliam, it has been a colourful and sometimes challenging life, but this American-born, turned British citizen remains wonderfully optimistic even when his attempt in 1999 to make the movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote turned into a disaster.

The director struggled through a sequence of freak incidents covering everything from injured actors to a sudden flood that damaged the set.

For Gilliam a minor compensation came from making a documentary film, called Lost in La Mancha, about the failure.

But Gilliam's films have not been short of critical success – from a screenwriting Oscar nomination for his 1985 film Brazil, to a Golden Globe nomination for directing The Fisher King and festival nominations for the Palme D'Or in Cannes for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Berlin's Golden Bear for Twelve Monkeys and the Golden Lion at Venice for The Brothers Grimm.

Gilliam's vision and imagination has been rewarded in recent years with a lifetime achievement award in Dubai and this year as a fellow of the British Film Academy.

But one unfulfilled achievement may yet happen in his lifetime as Gilliam considers the prospect of another attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

This episode of One on One airs from Saturday, April 25, 2009 at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0130 and 1630; Sunday: 0430 and 2330; Monday: 0300 and 1230.