''A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI'' is a comical autobiography written by

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two P ...

of Monty Python fame, featuring a fictionalised account of his life. First published in Britain in 1980, it was republished in 1991, 1999 and 2011. Unusually for an autobiography, the work is credited inside to five authors: Chapman, his partner

David Sherlock Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two ...

, Alex Martin,

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

, and David A. Yallop. Adams' sole contribution was in the form of a sketch written by himself and Chapman for the television

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

Out of the Trees ''Out of the Trees'' is a 1975 television sketch show pilot written by Graham Chapman, Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna that was broadcast on BBC 2 in 1976. The show shared some of the stream-of-consciousness style of '' Monty Python's Flying ...

'', which was rewritten for the book in the first person and passed off as a real event. It is not known how much material the other writers contributed. The book was re-released in 1991 with an afterword by Eric Idle, which has been included in all subsequent releases. A semi-sequel, ''Calcium Made Interesting'', was released in 2005.

Film adaptation

In June 2011, it was announced that Bill and Ben Productions was making an animated 3D movie based on the memoir. The full title is ''A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman''. Although not a Monty Python movie, all but one of the remaining Pythons are involved in the project. Asked what was true in a deliberately fanciful account by Chapman of his life,

Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...

joked: "Nothing... it's all a downright, absolute, blackguardly lie." The film uses Chapman's own voice—from a reading of his autobiography shortly before he died of cancer—and entertainment channel

EPIX Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...

has announced that the film is in both 2D and 3D formats. Produced and directed by London-based Bill Jones, Ben Timlett and Jeff Simpson, the film used 14 animation companies, each working on chapters that range from 3 to 12 minutes in length, with each chapter in a different style. John Cleese recorded dialogue which was matched with Chapman's voice.

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin w ...

voiced Chapman's father and

voiced his mother.

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

voiced Graham's psychiatrist. They all play various other roles. Among the original Python group, only Eric Idle was not involved. The film received a limited theatrical release on 2 November 2012 in the US, and aired on the Epix TV channel on the same day. The film was shown in 3D at the Rotterdam Film Festival on 1 February 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liars Autobiography 1980 books Books adapted into films LGBT-related books Show business memoirs Eyre Methuen books Works by Graham Chapman