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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
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London,
Bruce Dessau's rating
Reader rating
Description: In memory of the late actor and raconteur, The Sticking Place and Cracking Night Out host an evening of theatre, performance, improvisation and comedy, featuring artists who collaborated with and were inspired by Ken Campbell.
Would it ever be possible to laugh at Chris Langham again? This is a question I asked myself when the acclaimed comedian was convicted of possessing child pornography last year.
The answer, I discovered at the weekend, is yes. But there will always be something uncomfortable about watching this talented, troubled performer.
On Friday the Bafta-winning 59-year-old made an unpublicised appearance at a tribute to Ken Campbell, the anarchic actor-director who died suddenly in August.
Langham had written and worked regularly with Campbell, starring as Arthur Dent in Campbell’s stage version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
Appearing without fanfare there were no gasps, though this may have been because he had been visible at the side of the stage. Performing with actor Josh Darcy, however, there were numerous laughs at Langham’s deadpan delivery. The talent was still there in his Campbell-penned pieces that felt like missing links between Monty Python’s absurdism and Ronnie Barker’s wordplay.
The opening sketch saw Langham, in casual jumper and jacket — resembling a passing schoolteacher — announcing: “I forget everything I’ve said as soon as I’ve said it.” He was in character, but there must be things he really wishes he could forget.
If he looked nervous that may have been because this was his first live appearance since being released from prison in December 2007. But nervousness is also part of Langham’s comedic armoury. It was what made Hugh Abbot, his dithering politician in the BBC’s The Thick Of It, such a hit.
After gags from others inspired by Campbell, Langham returned twice. First playing a hapless spy and then, in the strongest skit, taking the lead opposite a dress-wearing Darcy as a man who could not stop acting.
Everything he said had to sound like a dramatic pronouncement or he could not speak at all or, ultimately, exist.
The performance was a reminder that Langham’s actions robbed comedy of one of its finest exponents. This was not a comeback, merely a chance to honour a close colleague publicly. The skill clearly remains, but stardom may be gone forever.
Langham overshadowed striking turns by John Sessions and ventriloquist Nina Conti, who both spoke movingly of Campbell’s influence.
The late renaissance man was clearly someone who loved surprises. The only thing that could have been more surprising than Langham’s performance would have been if Campbell had turned up himself.
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