Fagburn: Silly Season

Despite the POLITICAL EARTHQUAKES!!! that have struck our leading parties we've now hit peak Silly Season, so Fagburn will be posting less for for a bit.

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Graham Chapman: Coming Out Again

For someone so shy, Graham was always “coming out”: first about his homosexuality and then his alcoholism. He was essentially a generous man, and I think he wanted people to benefit from his experiences. He was generally silent but given to the odd flash of genius. He was an enigma, and I miss him. 

Lovely piece in The Times* by Terry Jones about his fellow Python Graham Chapman.
The fillum - A Liar's Autobiography - comes out Friday.

PS One thing that's rarely said - and he was too modest to mention it himself - is he was basically bankrolling Gay News back in the day.

* And again, if you're a member of a local library they'll most likely give you a code so you can get behind the Murdoch paywall.

A Liar's Autobiography: The Life Of Graham

"I gave up medicine and became a raging poof. But no mincing, a butch one with a pipe.” 

Graham Chapman is the cover star of this week's Sunday Times, and the lovable old soak and letch gets a lengthy, affectionate profile inside with contributions from various Pythons.
It's tied-in with the UK release next month of the (mainly animated) documentary/biopic, A Liar’s Autobiography: the Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman.
As the above line may suggest, the fillum's apparently a bit of a mess - though that's probably quite apt - but his racy unreliable memoirs are most entertaining. 

PS I know the article is behind the Murdoch paywall - most libraries let members access this from home for free etc.
Fight da power and support your local library!

Graham Chapman: The Life Of Graham

"Graham Chapman was often perceived as the straightest member of the Monty Python team. On the outside at least everything appeared stoutly conventional: he smoked a pipe, loved Gilbert and Sullivan and qualified as a doctor. In fact, as his fellow comedy scriptwriter Jonathan Lynn put it, he was the only true anarchist among them..."

Just noticed that the Telegraph website is running this rather touching 2005 profile of Graham Chapman by John Preston - to mark the reunion of the living Monty Python team (bar Eric Idle*) to provide voices in an animated 3D film based on Mr Chapman's racy memoirs, A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI.
Graham was a major league chap who - among many other good gay deeds - helped bankroll Gay News.

* Who once quipped; "We would only do a [Monty Python] reunion if Chapman came back from the dead. So we're negotiating with his agent."

(I have a feeling 'The Life Of Graham' is a hopelessly unoriginal title, and would like to apologise unreservedly...)