RIP John Sessions

[editor]

Shame

Actor and comedian John Sessions has died at the age of 67.

He passed away yesterday (Monday 2nd November), after having a heart attack. In a statement issued at noon today, his agent Alex Irwin said that Sessions had "died at his home in South London from a heart condition".

Sessions has a long comedy CV. He provided voices for Spitting Image in the 1980s, and appeared as a performer on Channel 4's popular improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, having previously acted as a team captain on the radio version of the format.

He also co-wrote and starred in cult hit impressions-based sitcom Stella Street, which ran for four series on BBC Two between 1997 and 2001.

Other notable appearances include featuring on Have I Got News For You and QI as a panellist a number of times, and in recent years he enjoyed guest roles in sitcoms such as Outnumbered, Rab C. Nesbitt and Friday Night Dinner.

A regular on Radio 4, in 2018 he presented his own sketch show, Six Degrees Of John Sessions. More recently he has also starred in the station's sci-fi sitcom Quanderhorn as characters including Churchill, and played DH Lollipop in the long-running series Gloomsbury.

Sessions was born in Largs, Ayrshire in 1953, and moved to Bedford with his family at the age of three. Studying alongside Kenneth Branagh at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in the late 1970s, he originally performed under his birth name of John Marshall, but adopted the 'Sessions' moniker when joining Equity as another actor was already using his name.

Sessions was also openly gay, having been outed in 1994 by the Evening Standard. At the time he was appearing in the Royal Court Theatre's My Night With Reg, a comedy about gay life in London.

He has a twin sister, Maggie, and an older brother.

John Sessions dies aged 67 - British Comedy Guide

Comic actor and comedian John Sessions has died at the age of 67.

www.comedy.co.uk

*shame he was a UKIPer too

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Strange he was happy to hang with Farage yes but i'll forgive him for Stella Street.

 

[Sprocket.]

I saw him years ago doing a one man show, then suddenly he was in everything on TV. Porterhouse Blue and such. Though I think he seemed to have walked away from comedy into full time acting.
Politics were iffy to say the least.
RIP

 

[WouldBe]

RIP John

 

[UrbaneFox]

I was mad about him in Porterhouse Blue, and his Napoleon show.

Didn't know he was a UKipper.

 

[seeformiles]

Sorry he’s dead but can’t say I was really a fan. He did the odd decent thing but always seemed a bit too pleased with himself for my liking. Got the impression he would have wrestled Stephen Fry for the title of chief luvvie.

 

[8ball]

Sad. Had no idea about his politics or sexuality (it seems there was an 'outing' by the press many years back) or whatever.
Something about his manner suggested lefty, but seems I was wrong there. Maybe the cultural eclecticsm or just the 'luvvieness'.

Remember him doing funny stuff in the 90's, and later being more a background presence.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Actually this part 1 of Stella St shows his character breadth

 

[maomao]

He was always rubbish on Whose Line Is It Anyway? I mean they were all rubbish but he was the rubbishest. Wasn't there some really terrible sitcom at that time too? I've consciously avoided him ever since.

 

[Elpenor]

“If you were to ask me to name three geniuses, I probably wouldn't say Einstein, Newton.... I'd go Milligan, Cleese, Everett. Sessions.”

 

[tim]

Too good at being other people to be successful in his own right

 

[nogojones]

I vaguely remember him being on telly, so it must have been around the time I threw the telly out. He can't have been that good in that case and the clips on here don't inspire me much.

And he was a kipper! Fuck him

 

[Reno]

As a comedian he always struck me more as someone out to convince you that he was brilliant, rather than someone who actually made me laugh.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

RIP
When I was a student at Ealing Studios he was in the cafe once mad pissed out of his face at lunchtime (maybe earlier) swinging a snooker cue and being shouty and metal.

 

[krtek a houby]

Porterhouse Blue was fab, even if very much of its time, but aside from Sessions it had career bests from David Jason and Ian Richardson plus a magnificent soundtrack from The Flying Pickets.

 

[krtek a houby]

RIP
When I was a student at Ealing Studios he was in the cafe once mad pissed out of his face at lunchtime (maybe earlier) swinging a snooker cue and being shouty and metal.

Didn't know there was a college at the studios!

 

[UrbaneFox]

More Stella Street, as Marlon Brando

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Didn't know there was a college at the studios!

There wasn't, well not really. Officially I was at Ealing college across the road but did music technology. All my classes were at facilities in Ealing studios.

 

[albionism]

Really enjoyed him on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Only found out about his shitty politics today
after reading an obituary.

 

[8ball]

As a comedian he always struck me more as someone out to convince you that he was brilliant, rather than someone who actually made me laugh.

You are more confident than me - when he first came on the scene he mostly just convinced me that I was a sub-literate knuckle-dragger.

<leaves goal open...>

 

[Reno]

You are more confident than me - when he first came on the scene he mostly just convinced me that I was a sub-literate knuckle-dragger.

<leaves goal open...>

"Brilliant" in his field, as in a brilliant impressionist and comedian.

 

[8ball]

"Brilliant" in his field, as in a brilliant impressionist and comedian.

Yeah, certainly a brilliant impressionist. I remember a lot of the references going over my head in those early days, though.

 

[Reno]

Yeah, certainly a brilliant impressionist. I remember a lot of the references going over my head in those early days, though.

Mine wasn't a comment in support for Sessions' talents.

 

[8ball]

Mine wasn't a comment in support for Sessions' talents.

Wevs.

 

[krtek a houby]

There wasn't, well not really. Officially I was at Ealing college across the road but did music technology. All my classes were at facilities in Ealing studios.

And pints at the Red Lion?

 

[Orang Utan]

I remember he used to do rather baffling improvisations on Who's Line Is It Anyway? that would have gone over most people's heads (well mine anyway), esp in the In The Style Of round - stuff like The Wind In The Willows in the style of Kierkegaard

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

And pints at the Red Lion?

Gawd I can't remember which was which. I think I went to the one a the top of the road because it was closer to my house. I forget the name. There was also a pub in Ealing Studios which generally had really really cheap booze. When they filmed the white room there it was sponsored by some strong beer that they sold for 50p mid nineties.

 

[angusmcfangus]

Gawd I can't remember which was which. I think I went to the one a the top of the road because it was closer to my house. I forget the name. There was also a pub in Ealing Studios which generally had really really cheap booze. When they filmed the white room there it was sponsored by some strong beer that they sold for 50p mid nineties.

Hoegarten if I remember correctly but it was the white room.