The actor and writer Chris Langham, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 77, starred as the inept government minister Hugh Abbot in The Thick of It, the BBC television political satire created by Armando Iannucci. During its first two series, he was at the centre of chaos as the secretary of state in the fictional Department of Social Affairs, finding himself outmanoeuvred by his own political advisers and civil servants. It seemed that Langham had put past demons behind him, but his time in the spotlight was abruptly cut short when he was arrested and then in 2007 jailed for downloading child pornography.
A quarter of a century earlier, alcoholism and cocaine addiction had led to Langham being sacked from Not the Nine O’Clock News, at the end of its first series in 1979 (and replaced by Griff Rhys Jones). Time in rehab was followed by writing for Alas Smith & Jones, which paired Jones with Mel Smith (1984-88). Langham later appeared in sketches alongside them in Smith & Jones (from 1989 to 1992).
But his rehabilitation – and the satire – continued when he wrote Look at the State We’re In! (1995), a BBC series of six 10-minute skits confronting the laws and state powers governing modern life, with appearances from stars such as John Cleese, Hugh Laurie, Dawn French and Rik Mayall. Hot on its heels, Langham was performing again, in John Morton’s award-winning BBC Radio 4 mockumentary People Like Us (1995-97), playing Roy Mallard, a bumbling journalist meeting people in different walks of life. The show then switched to television (1999-2001).
His big TV breakthrough in front of the camera was by then already under way, with him and Morton scripting the BBC sitcom Kiss Me Kate (1998-2001). He fed his own experience into the series, which starred Caroline Quentin as Kate Salinger, a counsellor, and Langham as her constantly depressed business partner, Douglas Fielding. As this new-found fame made him in demand for press interviews, which inevitably brought up his troubled past, Langham reflected: “I could say I wish I wasn’t an alcoholic, but I am.
It’s like being a diabetic. It’s not a moral failing on my part – it’s just the hand I’ve been dealt.” He remained on an upward path. The BBC asked him to star as a psychotherapist in a sitcom, with his patients played by celebrities.
He suggested: “Perhaps all the clients should be played by the same actor, in a Kind Hearts and Coronets sort of way.” So, in Alec Guinness mode, Paul Whitehouse stepped in, co-scripted Help (2005) with Langham (as Peter Strong) and not only took the roles of all the grotesque patients, with different wigs, prosthetic noses and accents, but also that of Peter’s own therapist. The Thick of It then cemented Langham’s reputation as a naturalistic performer in satirical comedy and the honours rained on him at the 2006 Bafta awards, where he took the best comedy performance title for that programme and best comedy programme or series award for Help. But Langham’s world had already started falling apart – he was arrested in 2005 on charges of downloading images and videos of child abuse.
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