Chris Langham
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Chris Langham (born 14 April 1949) is a British writer and comedian. He is most famous for playing presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost entirely an unseen character. He subsequently created several spoof adverts in the same vein. He also played the similar unseen interviewer Martin Samuels in the film The Big Tease. He is also well known for his roles in the TV series Help, Kiss Me Kate and The Thick of It.
Career
Langham read English and Drama at Bristol University before moving into a career in comedy. He had a small part in Monty Python's Life of Brian as a centurion. One of his earliest breaks was as the sole British writer for The Muppet Show. He also appeared as the "special guest star" in the thirteenth episode of the final season (1980-81), when scheduled guest Richard Pryor was unable to make it to the recording; a script was hastily written in which "Chris the Delivery Boy" stood in for an absent celebrity. The Writer's Guild of America twice awarded him for his work on The Muppet Show.Langham was part of the original team for Not The Nine O'clock News in 1979, and even after the original pilot was pulled from the schedules he was retained for the first full series, billed equally with the then unknown Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson. The first series did not rate as well as hoped, however, and it was felt that Langham was "too independent a spirit" so he was replaced by support player Griff Rhys Jones. Langham did not learn of the switch until the last day of filming when he heard the crew discussing the second series. The show only achieved cult status during its later series, and in subsequent compilation repeats most of Langham's contributions have been cut, giving the impression that he was never a main cast member. This impression was not helped by the fact that the first series of the show has not been repeated, due to a belief in the BBC that the material was of a topical nature and would therefore not be suitable for transmission so long after the event. Langham already had problems with addiction to cocaine and alcohol and his sacking worsened this situation. However, he has since overcome these problems.
Langham went on to appear on Smith and Jones' own programme, Alas Smith and Jones, playing an ineffectual panel show host; this character apparently inspired John Morton to create the character of Roy Mallard. Langham also played a fly-on-the-wall documentary interviewer very similar to Roy Mallard in Happy Families in 1985.
Also in 1979, Langham played Arthur Dent in the first professional stage version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, directed by Ken Campbell. (He later returned to Hitchhiker's, appearing as Prak in Dirk Maggs' Tertiary Phase radio series in 2004.)
Langham narrated the 1984 radio series The History of Rock with Chris Langham, in which Langham took a comedic (and somewhat fictitious) retrospective at the progression of rock music. On Radio 4, he narrated the series The Rapid Eye Movement, which starred Martin Freeman as Chester Bennington, in whose head the entire series took place. He also appeared in the magazine satire The Sunday Format. On November 141985 Langham appeared as the narrator/reporter in Roxanne, episode five of the BBC situation comedy Happy Families, written by Ben Elton.
In 1992 he appeared in the film Carry On Columbus.
Langham wrote the BBC One sitcom Kiss Me Kate, in which he also appeared along with Caroline Quentin and Amanda Holden. In 2003 he played George Orwell in a BBC docudrama entitled George Orwell - A Life In Pictures and directed the comedy series Posh Nosh. In addition he has starred alongside co-writer Paul Whitehouse in Help on BBC2, where he also appeared in the Armando Iannucci comedy The Thick of It. Langham was named Best Comedy Actor in the 2005 British Comedy Awards and won the 2006 BAFTA Best Comedy Performance award for his role in The Thick Of It.
He is a regular guest on The Heaven and Earth Show and part of Bremner, Bird and Fortune writing team - in this series he has occasionally appeared on the show as a civil servant discussing things with Bremner's Tony Blair. On radio Langham has appeared as a panellist on the Radio 4 show Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive.
Arrest
On 29 November 2005, Langham was arrested by Kent Police in connection with an ongoing investigation into internet child pornography, and was released on bail. The arrest was reported in the press on 16 December 2005, in response to which Langham's lawyer read a statement in which he said that he was innocent, and pointed out that had not been charged. However, on 11 May 2006 he was charged with 15 counts of making indecent images of children (which equates to a charge of downloading pictures from the internet). He made a statement in which he said he was "anxious to clear his name". On 17 May he appeared before Sevenoaks Magistrates where he was bailed until the next hearing on 28 June 2006. The case was then adjourned again till 26 July 2006. Langham did not attend this hearing.Trivia
He told actor Ken Campbell that all one needed to do to have an object named after them was to find something without a name and give their name to it. Some time later Langham announced to Campbell that he had named the stalk on top of berets the langham, after himself. He supports Gillingham F.C..References
External links
- [BBC Interview]
- [Profile] on BBC Comedy Guide
- [Help] in BBC Comedy Guide
- ''[Interview - The Guardian] - 18 May 2006
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