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Article: Beyond deceased parrots; Graham Chapman was Monty Python's most extreme and anarchic absurdist, writes John Preston
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- August 21, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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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.
Some small indication of his peculiar nature can be gleaned from
the following story: in the early 1980s Chapman decided to go down a
black ski run in the Alps in a 15-foot long wooden gondola that he'd
borrowed from a local Italian restaurant. "By the second bump we were
airborne," he recalled. Shortly afterwards, he found himself flying
over his companion's ...