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 similar unseen interviewers in an episode of the television series Happy Families and in the film The Big Tease (Martin Samuels). He is also well known for his roles in the TV series Not The Nine O'clock News, Help, Kiss Me Kate and The Thick of It.

1 Career
2 Arrest
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] 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 14, 1985 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 2002 he wrote and starred in Bradford In My Dreams, an adaptation of a short story by Lawrence Block for the BBC. In 2003 he directed the comedy series Posh Nosh

In 2003 and 2005, respectively, he portrayed the authors George Orwell and John Wyndham – in the BBC docudrama George Orwell - A Life In Pictures and the BBC4 documentary John Wyndham: the Invisible Man of Science Fiction.

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. In November of 2005 Langham penned and starred in ITV pilot "Seven Second Delay".

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.

[edit] 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 he had not been charged.^[1]^[2] However, on 11 May 2006 he was charged with 15 counts of making indecent images of children.^[3]^[4] He made a statement in which he said he was "anxious to clear his name".

The charge 'making an indecent images of a child' can result from a number of actions. These include viewing Internet pages or opening e-mails containing indecent images (which are automatically stored on a computer in the temporary internet files cache),^[5] downloading and saving images from the Internet; storing images from any source on a computer; editing an image to make it indecent; editing an image of an adult to make it appear to be of a child. Some of these actions can result in a different charge of making an indecent pseudo-photograph. Indecent images are classified by the British police into five categories - the least serious include any images of naked children from outside the family and images of family members in provocative, but otherwise non-sexual, poses. The middle categories feature escalating indecency and child sexual abuse. The most serious feature violence, rape and bestiality. An image may be a photograph or a video. Each image can result in a separate charge. If the alleged offences took place before 2003, 'child' includes any boy or girl preceived to be under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged offence. Since the Sexual Offences Act of 2003, which came into force on the 1st May 2004, indecent photographs of persons aged 16 or 17 are included.^[6]

On 17 May he appeared before Sevenoaks Magistrates where he was bailed until the next hearing on 28 June 2006.^[7] The case was then adjourned again till 26 July 2006 when it was once again adjourned until 30 August 2006.

On 13 September 2006 Kent Police announced that Langham was charged with eight counts of indecent assault and one other sexual offence (in addition to the previous charges) and was bailed to appear at Sevenoaks magistrates the following day. ^[8] It was reported that the charges all relate to assaulting the same girl between 1996 (when she was 14) and 1998. The girl is not a relative. ^[9]

The charge of indecent assault implies physical contact of a sexual nature. A matter of law, a boy or girl under the age of 16 cannot consent to an act which would otherwise be an assault.^[10]

At the appearance on 14 September he was placed on conditional bail to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on 6 October for the nine most recent charges. A condition of his bail is that he is to not contact three specific people and must have no unsupervised access to anyone under 16 years old. He appeared at the same court on 2 October in relation to the 15 original charges for child pornography and was bailed to appear again for a plea and case management hearing on the 22 November. ^[11]^[12] On 6 October he appeared for a brief preliminary hearing in relation to the indecent assault charges when he was released on conditional bail until his next appearance on the 22 November.^[13]

On 22 November Langham appeared at Maidstone Crown Court for a short hearing in which he did not enter pleas and was bailed again to appear at the same court on 15 February 2007.^[14] It was reported that he is charged with eight counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery against a child between April 1996 and April 1998 whilst giving the girl acting lessons.^[15]

Langham is still determined to clear his name but will withdraw from all BBC projects pending the outcome of the case.^[16] On 5 December 2006 it was reported that he has been banned from the 2006 British Comedy Awards despite his current show, The Thick of It, being a contender for an award at the show.^[17]

[edit] 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.