Chris Langham
Birthday: Born in 1949-04-14 in London, England, UK
Deathday: Alive
Christopher Langham is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It, and as 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. Langham subsequently created several spoof adverts in the same vein. He also played similar unseen interviewers in an episode of the television series Happy Families and in the film The Big Tease. He is also known for his roles in the television series Not the Nine O'Clock News, Help, Kiss Me Kate, and as the gatehouse guard in Chelmsford 123. In 2006, he won BAFTA awards for The Thick of It and Help. On 2 August 2007, Langham was found guilty of fifteen charges of downloading and possessing level 5 child sexual abuse images and videos. Langham was jailed for ten months, reduced to six months on appeal. He was made to sign the sex offenders' register and was banned from working with children for 10 years.
TV Credits
Kiss Me Kate
Character:
A look into the everyday life of a counsellor, Kate, who must not only manage her clients' problems, but must also help her neighbours and unsuccessful business partner, Douglas....
Murder Most Horrid
Character: Harry
A comedy that started in 1991 as a pilot, Murder Most Horrid stars Dawn French as various characters, as she embarks on a different mystery every episode. In one way or another she is involved with murder - either committing the crime herself or even getting bumped off herself!...
Alas Smith and Jones
Character:
A British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that ran on BBC One and BBC Two from 31 January 1984 to 14 October 1998. From series 5 in 1989 the 'Alas' title was dropped and became simply Smith and Jones....
People Like Us
Character: Roy Mallard
People Like Us was a British radio and TV comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer. Originally a radio show for BBC Radio 4 in three series from 1995 to 1997, it was made into a television series for BBC Two that aired from September 1999 to June 2000....
The Secret Policeman's Ball
Character: Self
A series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The Secret Policeman's Ball shows are credited by many prominent entertainers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years....
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Character:
Classic sketch comedy show satirising the news and culture of the late 70s and early 80s which introduced Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and Pamela Stephenson....
The Thick of It
Character: Hugh Abbot
Set in the corridors of power and spin, the Minister for Social Affairs is continually harassed by Number 10's policy enforcer and dependent on his not-so-reliable team of civil servants....
The Gaffer
Character: Spencer Moffatt
The Gaffer is an ITV situation comedy series of the early 1980s starring Bill Maynard and written by businessman Graham White. 20 episodes were shown between 1981 and 1983. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television...
The Jim Henson Hour
Character:
The Jim Henson Hour was developed as a showcase for the Jim Henson Company's various puppet creations, including the popular Muppet characters. This hour-long anthology series was hosted by Jim Henson and generally included two segments. The first segment,"Muppetelevision," included comedy skits starring the Muppets, as well as frequent guest appearances by popular entertainers. The second segment often featured rebroadcasts of original, Henson-created productions, such as episodes from Jim Hens...
Help
Character: Peter
Help is a BBC television comedy series first screened on BBC Two in 2005. Written by and starring Paul Whitehouse and Chris Langham, it concerns a psychotherapist and his therapy sessions with a variety of patients almost all played by Whitehouse....
The Muppet Show
Character: Self - Special Guest Star
Go behind the curtains as Kermit the Frog and his muppet friends struggle to put on a weekly variety show....
The Worst Week of My Life
Character: Barry Turner
The Worst Week of My Life is a British comedy television series, first broadcast on BBC One between March and April 2004. A second series was aired between November and December 2005 and a three-part Christmas special, The Worst Christmas of My Life was shown during December 2006. It was written by Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni....
Happy Families
Character: Reporter
Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family. It starred Jennifer Saunders as Granny Fuddle, Dawn French as the Cook and Adrian Edmondson as her imbecilic grandson Guy. The plot centred around Guy's attempts to find his four sisters - also played by Saunders, for a family reunion....
Bergerac
Character: Devas
Bergerac is a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in Le Bureau des Étrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police....
Shrink Rap
Character: Himself
Actress and writer Pamela Stephenson is now a successful therapist – Dr Pamela Connolly – with a private practice in Los Angeles. She draws upon her professional training when interviewing A-list celebrities....
The Comic Strip Presents...
Character: Nigel
The Comic Strip is a group of British comedians, who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents... which was labelled as an example of alternative comedy. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders and Alexei Sayle with frequent appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane and others....
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Character: Himself
An un-scripted comedy show in which four guest performers improvise their way through a series of games, many of which rely on audience suggestions....
Have I Got News for You
Character: Self
Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs....
Have I Got News for You
Character: Self - Host
Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs....
Movie Credits
The Big Tease
Character: BBC Interviewer
Thinking he's competing in Los Angeles' hot Platinum Scissors contest, Scottish hairstylist Crawford leaves Glasgow with a film crew to capture the event. When he learns he's a mere audience member, Crawford must find a way to become the mane event....
Of Muppets & Men
Character: Self
Documentary about the work of puppeteer Jim Henson and his team in creating The Muppet Show....
Black Pond
Character: Tom Thompson
The Thompson family is accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table. Six months later, family friend Tim visits freelance therapist Dr. Eric Sacks and the story finds it's way to the press. The facts are bent and the details spun as the Thompsons become known to the public as 'The Family of Killers'....
The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball
Character: Self
After the criticisms of the 1987 show’s disproportionate focus on music - and the financial disaster of its music-only Festival Of Youth weekend concert in 1988, Amnesty returned to the original formula that had been so successful in the 1976-1981 era with a primary focus on comedy. Pat Duffy was dropped from organising any further benefit events for Amnesty and for the 1989 show, Amnesty hired producer Judith Holder....
Private Enterprise
Character: Nigel
Whilst delivering toilet rolls to a recording studio, small-time crook Keith pockets a demo tape by the newly disbanded group Toy Department, which he takes to a promoter, Brian. Together they have a chart hit with the 'mystery' group but complications arise when Brian wants a live tour....
Not Again: Not the Nine O'Clock News
Character: Various Roles (archive footage)
A look behind the scenes of satirical sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News....
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
Character: Self - Various Roles
Following the success of the 1979 show and the financial benefits accruing to Amnesty from the spin-off movie, TV special and record albums – Cleese, Lewis and Walker planned the next show to be a more spectacular event. Cleese focused on broadening the comedic talent to be presented at the show. In addition to the Amnesty show stalwarts drawn from the Oxbridge/Monty Python/Beyond The Fringe orbit, he invited newcomers such as Rowan Atkinson’s colleagues from the BBC TV show Not the Nine O'Clock...
The McGuffin
Character: Detective
Paul Hatcher has a habit of spying on the neighbors across the way, something that gets him into deep trouble. Hatcher is a movie critic, and for awhile it looks like his main problem is keeping reality and the silver screen separate. But then a double murder occurs across the street after some mobsters cannot find an incriminating negative. After Hatcher discovers where the negative is hidden, he is bumped to the top on the assassins' hit list....
Carry On Columbus
Character: Hubba
Christopher Columbus believes he can find an alternative route to the far East and persuades the King and Queen of Spain to finance his expedition......
Life of Brian
Character: Alfonso / Giggling Guard
Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs....
My Family and Other Animals
Character: Theodore Stephanides
An English family relocates to sunny Greece in the months before WWII....
Bejewelled
Character: Cop
An American's family jewels are stolen during her trip to London and she reluctantly teams up with a private investigator-in-training to try and recover them....
The Darkest Universe
Character: Alan
A romantic comedy set in space, or - to be more specific - planet Earth which follows world-weary banker Zac on his search for his eccentric sister, Alice, who goes missing while on a narrowboat trip with her new boyfriend....
Soft Targets
Character: Drinkwater
Stephen Poliakoff's parody of the spy-thriller genre. A Russian diplomat becomes convinced that he is at the centre of a Foreign Office plot....
Silas Marner
Character: Keating
Adaption of George Eliot's novel. When a respectable weaver is wrongfully accused of theft, he becomes a virtual hermit until his own fortune is stolen and an orphaned child is found on his doorstep....
The Best of Not The Nine O'Clock News
Character:
Attention, comedy fans: NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is the real thing. This is scathing, no-holds-barred Brit humor at its best. Rapid-fire skits starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) are as politically incorrect as they are side-bustingly funny, sparing no one as they take on the British Royal Family, Margaret Thatcher, Scotland Yard, country music, Christianity, devil worship, punk rock and bathroom etiquette. NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS is so irreverent that when the pilot was due to air in April 19...
George Orwell: A Life In Pictures
Character: George Orwell
Dramatised biography of writer George Orwell....
Vengeance
Character: Danny
Eric Williams has been on the run for 27 years for a murder he didn't commit. When his estranged daughter is brutally attacked in London, the police are reluctant to act, so Eric must return to a city he no longer recognises to deal with the culprits himself, relying on help from his last remaining friends....
The Factory
Character: Doctor
Gene has the world - he's a successful entrepreneur, beautiful home, beautiful car, everything he could ask for except for one thing. Then he meets Gilda and the two fall in love and marry. They travel the world and live a life of pure happiness until tragedy strikes......
The Emperor's New Clothes
Character: Maurice
Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well; first, the journey proves more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food....
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Character: Police Driver
Charles Dreyfus, who has finally cracked over inspector Clouseau's antics, escapes from a mental institution and launches an elaborate plan to get rid of Clouseau once and for all....
John Wyndham: The Invisible Man of Science Fiction
Character: John Wyndham
Endeavors to reveal who the reclusive writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was, through interviews with colleagues, flatmates, family friends and scientists. His life, as can best be constructed, is revealed and his body of work, once settling on the name John Wyndham, is analyzed and discussed. An actor portrays him by quoting things he wrote that have survived, and the only piece of footage ever recorded of him is examined. The emphasis is on what his personality may have been, the s...
The Legend of the Tamworth Two
Character: Jack
Based on a true story, the movie tells the story of two pigs, named Butch and Sundance, who staged a dramatic escape from an abattoir in January 1998 and remained at large for a week ......
I Love Muppets
Character: Self
Gonzo the Great talks about the Muppets creator Jim Henson and what he did before the television show was made in 1976....
The Story of Pantomime
Character: Self
This 1976 BBC documentary sees Ken Campbell (and his Roadshow) investigate the origins and the development of the traditional British Christmas pantomime....
Phoelix
Character:
An aged art connoisseur (Beaumont) and his young female neighbour (Coles), who has a job posing naked in a club, meet and exist in fantasy and reality. Although this raises certain much-discussed questions about the nature of representation, and about the construction of narrative and daydreams in films, 'Phoelix' tends to treat these as just pretty and pertinent issues, opting instead for a mannered concentration on detail....
Spin by David Shrigley
Character: Self as Narrator
Shrigley puts his personal spin on news stories and big events every day for a week by creating seven pieces of thought-provoking and entertaining artwork which offer an alternative, very personal interpretation on a topical news story. In the week-long public art project he expresses his idiosyncratic, wry humour in a variety of surprising media. Among his creations, there's been a cartoon on a building banner for Manchester about bullying, saying: "The bully has a brain the size of a pea"; a...