Early breakthrough and career
Langham began performing comedy and writing for Spike Milligan. At the suggestion of John Cleese, Jerry Juhl, the head writer of The Muppet Show, contacted Langham and asked if he would be interested in writing some sample segments for the show. Langham wrote three short segments—an "At The Dance" bit, a monologue for Fozzie Bear, and a backstage story for an episode. He further contributed to an episode featuring Petula Clark before he was hired a full-time member of the writing staff for the third and fourth seasons of The Muppet Show.
Langham also appeared as the "special guest star" in the 19th episode of the final season, when the scheduled guest, Richard Pryor, was unable to attend after he had incurred injuries during a freebasing binge. He was awarded a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the Carol Burnett episode, along with Juhl and David Odell. Langham next co-wrote the script for the 1981 television special The Muppets Go to the Movies. He also made a brief appearance as a police driver in The Pink Panther Strikes Again in 1976, opposite Peter Sellers.
Also in 1976 was the inception, at the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, of the nine-hour stage play Illuminatus, which Langham co-wrote with Ken Campbell. In 1977, the production transferred to the Cottesloe Theatre, London, where he took the part of George Dorn, giving a performance which Peter Hall found "extremely impressive".
He was part of the original cast for the pilot for Not the Nine O'Clock News in 1979, written by Richard Curtis. Even after the original pilot was pulled from the schedules, Langham 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 Langham was felt to be "too independent a spirit".
Langham went on to appear on Smith and Jones's own programme, Alas Smith and Jones, playing an ineffectual host in a spoof of the then well known live TV discussion programme After Dark. This character apparently inspired John Morton to create the character of Roy Mallard, who was later to feature in his show People Like Us; Mallard was played both on radio and (off-screen) on television by Langham. 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 and staged at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He later returned to Hitchhiker's, appearing as Prak in Above The Title Productions' Tertiary Phase radio series in 2004.
Langham appeared in the 1979 film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, as one of the Roman soldiers unable to keep a straight face in the 'Biggus Dickus' scene. He appears in the cast list as "Alfonso, Giggling Guard".
He narrated the 1984 radio series The History of Rock with Chris Langham, in which Langham gave a comedic and somewhat fictitious account of the history of rock music. On 14 November 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.
In addition to several one-man shows, Langham's stage credits includes Les Misérables, in which he played Thénardier in 1996; Crazy for You, for which he received an Olivier nomination; The Way of the World, The Nerd and The Pirates of Penzance. He created the comic role of the assassin in Blondel (co-starring Paul Nicholas; by Tim Rice and Stephen Oliver), and appears on the original cast album.
