A Liar's Autobiography. Copyright: Bill And Ben Productions
A Liar's Autobiography

A Liar's Autobiography

  • 2013 comedy drama

Suitably psychedelic animated film of Graham Chapman's fictionalised autobiography. Stars Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

A Liar's Autobiography. Copyright: Bill And Ben Productions

Key details

Genre
Comedy Drama
Released
2013
Stars
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland, Philip Bulcock, Stephen Fry and more
Writers
Graham Chapman, David Sherlock, Douglas Adams, David A. Yallop and Alex Martin
Directors
Bill Jones, Ben Timlett and Jeff Simpson
Producers
Bill Jones, Ben Timlett, Meyer Shwarzstein, Mark Sandell, Mark Greenberg, Douglas A. Lee, Aurelio Landolt, Hanspeter Jaberg and more
Company

"THIS IS NOT A MONTY PYTHON FILM. It's not Monty Python, it's not Monty Python, it's NOT Monty Python. Although most of the Pythons are in it, this is a Graham Chapman film. It's by him, and about him. Python happens as part of the story, but so do other things in Graham's life, like his love life and his drinking. In many ways, Graham embodies the lunatic spirit of Python, and this infuses the humour throughout this film. But it's not Python, it's Chapman."

Graham Chapman, probably best remembered as 'the dead one from Monty Python', writes and stars in the animated movie of his own life story, A Liar's Autobiography. He was born, he went to Cambridge and met John Cleese, he smoked a pipe, he became a doctor, he became a Python, he decided he was gay (well, 70/30, according to a survey he did on himself), he got drunk a lot, he stopped being drunk, he made some films, he had some sex (actually, a lot), and moved to Los Angeles. Finally, he was whisked up into space by aliens (although that might have been in a film).

Although Chapman selfishly dropped dead in 1989, he had taken the trouble to record himself reading his book, A Liar's Autobiography - and those recordings have now ingeniously been used to provide Chapman's voice for the 3D animated feature of the same name. Fellow Pythons John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam also turn up, playing themselves and other characters, along with a few surprise guests.

Not a documentary, not a Monty Python film, A Liar's Autobiography is Chapman's own take on his bizarre life and his search for self-knowledge. Incredible, yes. Surreal, certainly. True? Who knows? At his memorial service, John Cleese called Chapman "a freeloading bastard". Now, as the film re-unites Chapman with Cleese, Jones, Palin, and Gilliam for the first time in 23 years, he is set to earn a new title - the most prolific corpse since Elvis.

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Additional details

UK certificate
15
Duration
87 minutes
UK release
Friday 8th February 2013
Also known as
  • A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story Of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
Production
Animated
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

All previous repeats
  • Tuesday 5th August 2014 at 10:00pm on BBC4