John Marshall (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), better known by the stage name John Sessions, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as ''
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...
'', as a panellist on ''
QI'', and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and
Hollywood.
Early life
John Sessions was born John Marshall on 11 January 1953, according to most sources in
Largs
Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic.
A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...
,
Ayrshire, Scotland. His family moved to
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
, England, when he was three. His father was a gas engineer. He had an older brother, Bill, and a twin sister, Maggie.
Education
Sessions was educated at
Bedford Modern School
Bedford Modern School (often called BMS) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in The Harpur Trust, born from the endowments left by Sir William Harpur in the six ...
, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), and
Verulam School
Verulam School is a state secondary school for boys with academy status in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, founded in 1938 as St Albans Boys' Modern School. The name was changed in the 1940s to St Albans Grammar School for Boys and in 1975 ...
,
St Albans, followed by the
University College of North Wales
, former_names = University College of North Wales (1884–1996) University of Wales, Bangor (1996–2007)
, image = File:Arms_of_Bangor_University.svg
, image_size = 250px
, caption = Arms
...
in
Bangor, from which he graduated with an
MA in
English literature.
At university, he had begun to appear to audiences with his comedy in shows such as "Look back in Bangor" and "Marshall Arts". He later studied for a PhD on
John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
at
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...
in
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, although he did not complete the doctorate.
This period in his life was unhappy.
In a "Worst of Times" column for ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' from around 1990, he talked of how the freezing Canadian weather had depressed him, he was smoking "far too many cigarettes" and "had a couple of disastrous flings", and described his PhD dissertation as "200 pages of rubbish".
Career
Sessions attended
RADA
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Se ...
in the late 1970s, studying alongside
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...
; the two would work together on many occasions later in their careers.
His name change occurred when he became a performer, owing to the presence of a John Marshall already on the
Equity register. In the early 1980s, he worked on the small venue comedy circuit with largely improvised freewheeling fantasy
monologues. He topped a double bill with
French and Saunders
''French and Saunders'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is a ...
during this period.
He had a number of small parts in films including ''
The Sender
''The Sender'' is a 1982 British psychological horror thriller film directed by Roger Christian and written by Thomas Baum. It stars Kathryn Harrold, Željko Ivanek (in his film debut), Shirley Knight, and Paul Freeman.
Plot
A young, dish ...
'' (1982), ''
The Bounty'' (1984) and ''
Castaway'' (1986).
Sessions played to his strengths in improvisation and comedy with his one-man stage show ''Napoleon'', which ran in London's
West End for some time in the mid-1980s. He and
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
were the only two regular panellists on the original radio broadcast of ''
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...
'' in the late 1980s. When the show, still hosted by
Clive Anderson
Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...
, made the transition to television, Fry departed from regular appearances, but Sessions remained the featured panellist for the first season. A frequent player in the second, he did not appear again after his two appearances in the third series.
A gifted impressionist who also voiced characters for ''
Spitting Image
''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...
'', he drew heavily on his extensive literary education and developed a reputation for being "a bit of a swot", being able to quote extensive passages of text and make endless cultural and historical references. His ready ability to switch between accents and personae meanwhile allowed his career in improvisation to flourish. On ''
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' is a short-form improvisational comedy show originating as a British radio programme, before moving to British television in 1988. Following the conclusion of the British run in 1999, ABC began airing an American ...
'', his ability to affect the contrived witticisms of ''
Restoration Comedy'' became an audience favourite. In 1987 he played Lionel Zipser in
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's mini-series ''
Porterhouse Blue''.
In 1989, he starred in his own one-man TV show, ''John Sessions''.
Filmed at the
Donmar Warehouse
The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.
Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...
in London, the show involved Sessions performing before a live audience who were invited to nominate a person, a location and two objects from a selection, around which Sessions would improvise a surreal performance for the next half-hour.
This series prompted two further one-man TV shows: ''John Sessions' Tall Tales'' (1991) and ''John Sessions' Likely Stories'' (1994).
Although billed as improvisation, these were increasingly pre-planned.
In an interview headlined 'Who The Hell Does John Sessions Think He Is?' in ''
Q'' magazine in the early 1990s, he admitted that some of his improv was not entirely spontaneous, but that if it were advertised as scripted 'it had to be funnier'. 1991 also saw Sessions in the BBC drama ''Jute City'', a three-part thriller based around a sinister
Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
bunch of villains, co-starring with vocalist
Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
(Derek W. Dick, singer in the first incarnation of rock band
Marillion).
In 1996, he was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts to write "Paint, said Fred", the life of
Frederic, Lord Leighton, the pre-eminent Victorian artist, in a one-man show that used his comic writing abilities and his gift for impersonation.
Sessions also starred in ''
Stella Street'', a surreal "soap opera" comedy about a fantasy suburban British street inhabited by celebrities such as
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
and
Al Pacino, which he conceived with fellow impressionist
Phil Cornwell
Philip Cornwell (born 5 October 1957) is an English actor, comedian, impressionist and writer. He is part of the '' Dead Ringers'' television and radio series, and was the voice of Murdoc Niccals in the virtual band Gorillaz. Cornwell has co- ...
, the two of them playing several parts in each episode.
Sessions later returned to formal acting, with parts ranging from
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer ...
(to
Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. H ...
's
Samuel Johnson) in the UK TV comedy drama ''Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the
Western Isles
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast ...
'' (1993) to Doctor Prunesquallor in the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' (2000) and in 1998 as Hercules Fortesque, a BBC HR manager in the BBC mini-series ''In The Red'' adapted from the book and the BBC radio series by Mark Taverner. He provided the voice of the Professor in ''
'' in 1996. He also appeared in several
. He also contributed "
s and play excerpts.
In between appearing in regular film and TV roles, Sessions made appearances on ''
''.
, on the inaugural episode of ''QI'', in which he demonstrated his effortless memory of the birth and death dates of various historical figures (while simultaneously and apologetically deeming the knowledge of such facts "a sickness").
and others) so realistically that some listeners did not realise that the whole thing was a
. Other Sessions' creations appeared on Berkeley's show in subsequent years. Sessions had taken the role of narrating the popular
'', in which he played General Tannis. He occasionally appeared in the
...