 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Chris Langham" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Chris Langham | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Langham (1949-04-14)14 April 1949 (age 75)[citation needed] London, England |
| Education | St Paul's School |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian, writer |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Spouse(s) | Sue Jones-Davies (divorced) Christine Cartwright |
| Children | 5 |
| Parents |
|
Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcomThe Thick of It, and as presenter Roy Mallard inPeople Like Us, first onBBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television onBBC Two, where Mallard is almost entirely anunseen character. He subsequently created several spoof advertisements in the same vein. He also played similar unseen interviewers in an episode of the television seriesHappy Families and in the filmThe Big Tease. He is also known for his roles in the television seriesNot the Nine O'Clock News,Help, andKiss Me Kate, and as the gatehouse guard inChelmsford 123. In 2006, he wonBAFTA awards forThe Thick of It andHelp.
On 2 August 2007, Langham was found guilty of 15 charges of downloading and possessinglevel 5 child sexual abuse images and videos.[1][2] Langham was jailed for ten months, which was later reduced to six months on appeal. He was made to sign thesex offenders' register and was banned from working with children for ten years.[3]
Langham is the son of theatre directorMichael Langham and actressHelen Burns. He was born in London and educated atSt Paul's School,[4] anindependent school for boys inBarnes in West London, followed by theUniversity of Bristol, where he studied English and Drama, before dropping out, after suffering anervous breakdown when his parents split up.[5]
Langham began performing comedy and writing forSpike Milligan. One of his earliest breaks was as the sole British writer forThe Muppet Show. He also appeared as the "special guest star" in the 19th episode of the final season, when the 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. He received two awards from theWriters Guild of America for his work onThe Muppet Show. He also made a brief appearance as a police driver inThe Pink Panther Strikes Again in 1976, oppositePeter Sellers. In 1976 also was the inception, at the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, of the nine-hour stage playIlluminatus, which Langham co-wrote withKen Campbell. In 1977, the production transferred to theCottesloe Theatre, London, where he took the part of George Dorn, giving a performance whichPeter Hall found "extremely impressive".[6][7]
Langham was part of the original cast for the pilot forNot the Nine O'Clock News in 1979, written byRichard Curtis. Even after the original pilot was pulled from the schedules, Langham was retained for the first full series, billed equally with the then-unknownMel Smith,Pamela Stephenson, andRowan Atkinson. The first series did not rate as well as hoped, however, and Langham was felt to be "too independent a spirit." Langham took a part inMonty Python's Life of Brian as acenturion, a film which generated controversy for its satire of Christianity, resulting in a televised debate betweenJohn Cleese,Michael Palin,Malcolm Muggeridge, andMervyn Stockwood over whether the film is blasphemous. Curtis had written a skit that parodied this debate itself. Langham was upset at the inclusion of the sketch, which gave the team and producerJohn Lloyd the excuse for his replacement by support playerGriff 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.
Langham went on to appear on Smith and Jones' own programme,Alas Smith and Jones, playing an ineffectual panel-show host. This character apparently inspiredJohn Morton to create the character of Roy Mallard, who was later to feature in his showPeople Like Us; Mallard was played both on radio and (offscreen) on television by Langham. Langham also played a fly-on-the-wall documentary interviewer very similar to Roy Mallard inHappy Families in 1985.
Also in 1979, Langham playedArthur Dent in the first professional stage version ofThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, directed byKen Campbell. He later returned toHitchhiker's, appearing asPrak in Above The Title Productions'Tertiary Phase radio series in 2004.
Langham narrated the 1984 radio seriesThe History of Rock with Chris Langham, in which Langham gave a comedic and somewhat fictitious account of the history of rock music. On 14 November 1985, Langham appeared as the narrator/reporter in "Roxanne", episode five of the BBC situation comedyHappy Families, written byBen Elton. In 1992, he appeared in the filmCarry On Columbus.
In addition to several one-man shows, Langham counts among his stage creditsLes Misérables, in which he played Thénardier in 1996;Crazy for You, for which he received anOlivier nomination;The Way of the World,The Nerd andThe Pirates of Penzance. He created the comic role of the Assassin inBlondel (co-starringPaul Nicholas; byTim Rice andStephen Oliver), and appears on the original cast album.
Langham wrote theBBC One sitcomKiss Me Kate, in which he appeared alongsideCaroline Quentin andAmanda Holden. In 2002, he wrote and starred inBradford in My Dreams, an adaptation of a short story byLawrence Block for theBBC Three seriesSpine Chillers. On Radio 4, he narrated the seriesThe Rapid Eye Movement, which starredMartin Freeman as Chester Beatty, in whose head the entire series took place. In 2003, he directed the BBC TV comedy seriesPosh Nosh.
In 2003 and 2005, respectively, he portrayed authorsGeorge Orwell andJohn Wyndham in the BBCdocudramaGeorge Orwell – A Life in Pictures and theBBC Four documentaryJohn Wyndham: the Invisible Man of Science Fiction. He also appeared in the radio magazine satireThe Sunday Format.
He starred alongside co-writerPaul Whitehouse inHelp on BBC Two in 2005, where he also appeared in theArmando Iannucci comedyThe Thick of It in the same year. Langham was named Best Comedy Actor in the2005 British Comedy Awards and won the2006 BAFTA Best Comedy Performance award for his role inThe Thick of It. In November 2005, Langham wrote and starred in ITV pilotSeven Second Delay.
He was a frequent guest onThe Heaven and Earth Show. He was part of the writing team forBremner, Bird and Fortune, in which he occasionally appeared as a civil servant discussing things with Bremner'sTony Blair. Langham has appeared as a panelist on the Radio 4 showArmando Iannucci's Charm Offensive.
 | This sectionrelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this section by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Chris Langham" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
On 29 November 2005, Langham was arrested byKent Police in connection withOperation Ore, a British police operation into credit-card customers paying to access indecent and abusive images of children on the internet. The arrest was first 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 he had not been charged.[8] On 11 May 2006, he was charged with 15 counts ofdownloading indecent images of children.[9]: 137
The trial took place atMaidstone Crown Court during July and August 2007. Part of Langham's defence to these charges in court was that they were research on apeeping tom character "Pedro" for a television comedy.[10] Langham's formerHelp co-star/writer Paul Whitehouse confirmed that the character was referred to as a "peeping tom" who was prone to highly dubious sexual behaviour. Whitehouse stated that the character was not intended to be apaedophile, nor was he personally aware of Langham obtaining such material for the development of the programme's script.[11][10] The prosecutor, Richard Barraclough QC, asked Whitehouse, "Did Mr Langham ever discuss with you that he was undertaking any research for the shows?" "Not to my knowledge, no," Whitehouse replied. Langham also said in court that he was the victim ofchild sexual abuse and this caused him to look for images; Barraclough called this "pseudo-psychobabble" and the judge dismissed its legality as a defence.[12]Langham had paid with his credit card for access to a site entitled "EuropeanLolita Sex" in 1999. On the evening that the public was made aware of the scope of Operation Ore, Langham had contacted police to report his "concern" about spam emails, with links to paedophile sites, which he said he was receiving. The prosecution said that he had contacted police because he had "panicked" and "wanted to give the impression of being a good citizen".[13]
During his trial, he was also accused of having sex with anunder-age girl in upmarket hotels, hisWest End dressing room, his car, and his home. The accuser claimed this had started when she was 14 years old. Langham denied the charges and claimed he had only had sex with her when she was 18. He was found not guilty of six counts of indecent assault and two counts ofbuggery between January 1996 and April 2000.[14]
On 2 August 2007, Langham was convicted on charges of downloading child sexual abuse images and videos. He was sentenced to ten months in prison and was placed on thesexual offenders register for ten years.[3] Before sentencing, the judge said that "some of the children viewed are clearly prepubescent... The worst video was 15 minutes long and it showed in quite graphic detail the sadistic brutalisation of an eight-year-old girl in the UK, with some serious sexual offences against her".[15]
He was released on 14 November 2007, after his sentence was reduced to six months on appeal.Dame Heather Steel, who gave thedecision, said that the court viewed Langham's explanation that he viewed the child sexual abuse images for research as "highly improbable", but could not reject it, although he was still guilty of encouraging "despicable acts" through downloading the images of child sexual abuse. On his release, Langham stated, "My life has been ruined, but my conscience is clear" and complained that the media "completely ignored" the court's "acceptance based upon all the evidence and expert opinion that I have no sexual interest in children".[16] After the trial Detective Superintendent Paul Fotheringham of Kent Police told journalists, "Langham doesn’t like the label, but I am satisfied that he is a paedophile".[11]
A few days after his release from prison in 2008, Langham was interviewed by celebrity psychologistPamela Connolly, with whom he had worked onNot the Nine O'Clock News, for her UK television seriesShrink Rap,[9]: 129–143 where he claimed being abused as an eight-year-old child, events which he said led to his trial and conviction. The interview was broadcast onMore4 on 15 January 2008. Langham was also invited to make a speech in front of theOxford Union on 29 May 2008, but the invitation was then withdrawn.[17]
Following his arrest, Langham said his life had "completely fallen apart". "Offers of work have almost entirely disappeared, at a time when I was looking forward to something of a golden year". In a later interview withThe Guardian in September 2011, Langham stated that many people had suggested to him that he should work again, but no one wanted to employ him.[18]
In 2011, in his first screen appearance after his release, he was cast as the lead inBlack Pond, a low-budget British film directed byTom Kingsley andWill Sharpe.[19] The Kino Digital cinema inHawkhurst had a screening of the film on 11 December 2011. Afterwards, Langham, who lived nearby, held a brief question-and-answer session to help promote the film.[20]
In 2012, he appeared withBilly Murray,Leslie Grantham, andCrissy Rock inRichard John Taylor's drama filmAcceptance.[21]
Langham'sThe Muppet Show episode was not made available onDisney+ when the series was added to the streaming service in 2021. Disney stated that most missing episodes and segments were due to music-rights issues, but refused to comment on Langham in particular.[22]
Langham's first marriage, to actress/singerSue Jones-Davies, produced three children, but broke up on his own admission due to his alcoholism. Langham had two children by his second wife, director Christine Cartwright.[23] As of 2011, Langham lived with his wife and two children inCranbrook, Kent.[24]
Langham sought counselling for alcohol and cocaine addiction, and was still undergoing therapy once a week as of 2006. He used his experiences to co-write the BBC2 seriesHelp, in which he portrayed apsychotherapist, with friendPaul Whitehouse, and played a counsellor in sitcomKiss Me Kate.[9]: 129–143
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
