Stars of classic comedy group Monty Python will announce plans to reunite on stage for the first time in 30 years today – and it’s all thanks to the creators of world-famous animated sitcom South Park.

Monty Python member Terry Jones, 71, has exclusively revealed to the Ham&High that it is American comedians Matt Stone and Trey Parker, more recently famed for their smash-hit musical The Book of Mormon, who are responsible for reuniting the Pythons.

Speaking from his Highgate home on Tuesday, he said: “The South Park people brought us together, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

“They approached us and suggested we should get together and do something together. That’s what triggered the interest in the show.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Monty Python fans around the world received the news all five surviving members of the original troupe will be reuniting for their first performance together since 1983 film The Meaning of Life.

Over the years, the group have repeatedly quashed rumours and speculation about any reunion and the death of sixth Python Graham Chapman in 1989 was believed to have ended any future hopes.

But today, Gospel Oak resident Michael Palin, 70, is expected to join Mr Jones and the three remaining Pythons – John Cleese, 74, Terry Gilliam, 72, and Eric Idle, 70 – for a press conference at The Playhouse Theatre in the West End to reveal more about their stage show plans.

Mr Jones told the Ham&High he was “hoping against hope” the reunion would help him to pay off his mortgage, adding: “It’s a curious thing, I think everyone needs the money and we all get on together.”

South Park duo Mr Stone and Mr Parker are well-known Monty Python fans and have noted the influence of Python sketches on their own work.

In 1999, they produced a South Park sketch in tribute to Monty Python to mark 30 years since the beginning of the group’s Flying Circus television series.

The pair have written 244 South Park episodes over 17 seasons since 1997 and received enormous popular and critical acclaim for The Book of Mormon, a religious satire musical written by the duo and American composer Robert Lopez, which opened on Broadway in 2011.