Author(s): Bob McCabe

Biography & Memoir

Graham Chapman was the quiet, pipe-smoking Python who qualified as a doctor. He was the policeman's son whose tweed-jacketed demeanour belied his true anarchic nature. More than any other Python, he lived the complete lunacy of the show. Chapman was John Cleese's writing partner from their early days at Cambridge Footlights right through the Monty Python years. But it was Chapman's off-screen antics that are closest to the surreal qualities of a Python sketch. Terry Gilliam remembers how he would go into a restaurant and suddenly disappear: "He'd be under somebody's table licking the girl's feet while her date was there!" Chapman was a founder member of an infamous drinking club with "The Who's" drummer, Keith Moon. Chapman had a wine cellar stuffed full with bottles of gin and at the height of his drinking, which started out as a nerve-calmer for performances, he would consume eight pints of gin a day. He fearlessly flaunted his homosexuality at a time when it was certainly not the done thing. To add further mix to his personal life, Chapman and his partner David Sherlock adopted a 14-year-old boy.