John Sessions (born January 11, 1953) is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Image File history File links Johnny-SweetRevenge. ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Largs (grid reference NS203592) is a burgh on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about 33 miles (53 km) from Glasgow. ... North Ayrshire (Sìorrachd Inbhir Air a Tuath in Gaelic) is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland. ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Cha togar mfhearg gun dioladh (Scottish Gaelic)1 Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Queen Queen Elizabeth II... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?) is a short form improvisational comedy show. ...

Early life

Sessions was born John Gibb Marshall in Largs, North Ayrshire and spent some of his earliest years in Kempston, Bedford and St Albans, Hertfordshire. He changed his name when he became a performer as there was already a John Marshall on the Equity register. He graduated with an MA in English literature from the University of Wales and later studied for a PhD from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, although (contrary to common assumption for many years) he did not complete the doctorate.^[1] From later interviews and references in his work it appears this latter period was an unhappy one: in a 'Worst of Times' column for The Independent 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'. Nonetheless he began to make appearances to small audiences with his comedy there. Largs (grid reference NS203592) is a burgh on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about 33 miles (53 km) from Glasgow. ... North Ayrshire (Sìorrachd Inbhir Air a Tuath in Gaelic) is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland. ... Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, England. ... St Albans is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35. ... Hertfordshire (pronounced Hartfordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom and part of the East of England Government Office region. ... The British Actors Equity Association (now called Equity) is the British actors trade union. ... The University of Wales (Prifysgol Cymru in Welsh) is a federal university founded in 1893. ... McMaster University is a medium-sized research-intensive university located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with an enrollment of 18,238 full-time and 3,836 part-time students (as of 2006). ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman - Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 106 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 4th... For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation). ...

Career

He attended RADA and in the early 1980s worked on the small venue comedy circuit with largely improvised freewheeling fantasy monologues. He topped a double bill with French and Saunders at times. He had a number of small parts in films including The Sender (1982), The Bounty (1984, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins) and Castaway (1986). Not appearing particularly comfortable in these roles however, he 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. Sessions and Stephen Fry were the only two regular panellists on the original radio broadcast of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the late 1980s. When the show, still hosted by Clive Anderson, 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, but he did not appear again after his two appearances in the third series. A gifted impressionist (he also voiced characters for Spitting Image), 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. Rada is the term for council or assembly borrowed by Polish from Middle High German Rat (council) and later passed into Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages. ... French & Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show starring and written by comedy team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and is also the name by which they are known on the rare occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. ... The Sender is a 1982 horror film directed by Roger Christian and written by Thomas Baum. ... See Bounty for other uses of Bounty. The Bounty is a 1984 drama film with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins based on the 1973 book by Richard Alexander Hough, which itself was based on a historical event. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American born Australian actor, director, and producer. ... Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins CBE (IPA: ) (born 31 December 1937) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Welsh film, stage and television actor. ... Castaway VHS cover Castaway is a 1986 film starring Amanda Donohoe and Oliver Reed, and directed by Nicolas Roeg. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Whose Line Is It Anyway? (sometimes abbreviated to Whose Line?) is a short form improvisational comedy show. ... Clive Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is a British former barrister (specialising in criminal law) turned comedy writer and television presenter. ... Spitting Image was a satirical puppet show that ran on the United Kingdoms ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. ...

By 1989, he was starring in own one-man TV show, John Sessions. Filmed at the Donmar Warehouse 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 outings in John Sessions' Tall Tales (1991) and John Sessions' Likely Stories (1994), although these were increasingly pre-planned rather than improvised: 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 wasn't entirely spontaneous but that the bottom line was that if it were advertised as scripted 'it had to be funnier'. Ultimately Sessions grew weary of this kind of performance (as did the viewing public). More successful was Stella Street (1997 to present), a surreal "soap opera" comedy about a fantasy suburban British street inhabited by celebrities like Michael Caine and Al Pacino, which he conceived with fellow impressionist Phil Cornwell, the two of them playing several parts in each episode. The Donmar Warehouse is a small theatre in the Covent Garden area of the West End of London. ... Q is a music and entertainment magazinepublished monthly in the United Kingdom. ... Stella Street S2 is out on uk DVD 13TH AUGUST Stella Street was a British television comedy programme originally screened on BBC2 (1998 - 2001). ... Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhite CBE (born March 14, 1933), known professionally as Michael Caine, is a two-time Academy Award-winning British film actor. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Phil Cornwell (born 5 October 1957 in Southend-on-Sea) is a British comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. ...

Increasingly Sessions has returned to formal acting, with parts ranging from James Boswell (to Robbie Coltrane's Samuel Johnson) in the UK TV series Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles (1993) to Doctor Prunesquallor in the BBC adaptation of Gormenghast (2000). He has also appeared in some Shakespeare films, playing Macmorrow in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989), Philostrate in the 1999 film of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Salerio in 2004's The Merchant of Venice, with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons. James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleckand 1st Baronet (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Robbie Coltrane, OBE (born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950) is a Scottish Television and Film actor. ... For other persons named Samuel Johnson, see Samuel Johnson (disambiguation). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion (US$7. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... Kenneth Charles Branagh (b. ... Henry V may refer to: Henry V of England Henry V of France Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, one of the Shakespearean histories, based on Henry V of Englands life Henry V, a 1944 film adaptation of the play Henry V, a 1989 film adaptation of the... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Merchant of Venice is a 2004 movie based on Shakespeares play with the same name. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Jeremy Irons (born September 19, 1948) is an Oscar, Tony and double-Emmy award winning English film, television and stage actor. ...

Sessions in a 2005 episode of QI

In between appearing in regular film and TV roles Sessions has made appearances on Have I Got News For You and, more recently, as a semi-regular panellist on QI. Sessions was one of four panellists, including the permanent Alan Davies, on the inaugural episode of QI, in which he demonstrated his effortless memory of the birth and death dates of various historical figures (while simultaneuously and apologetically deeming the knowledge of such facts "a sickness"). Image File history File links Johnny-QI.png‎ John Sessions on an episode of QI. This image is a screenshot of a copyrighted television program or station ID. As such, the copyright for it is most likely owned by the company or corporation that produced it. ... Image File history File links Johnny-QI.png‎ John Sessions on an episode of QI. This image is a screenshot of a copyrighted television program or station ID. As such, the copyright for it is most likely owned by the company or corporation that produced it. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Alan Davies (born 6 March 1966) is an English comedian and actor best known for starring as Jonathan Creek on the popular TV mystery series of the same name. ...

On radio, Sessions guested in December 1997 on the regular BBC Radio 3 show Private Passions, presented by Michael Berkeley, not as himself but as a 112-year-old Viennese percussionist called Manfred Sturmer, who told anecdotes (about Brahms, Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and others) so realistically that some listeners did not realise that the whole thing was a hoax. Other Sessions creations appeared on Berkeley's show in subsequent years. BBC Radio 3 is a domestic UK BBC radio station, which devotes most of its schedule to classical music. ... Private Passions is a weekly music discussion programme which has been running for over 10 years on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley. ... Michael Berkeley (born 1948) is a British composer. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (September 13, 1819 – May 20, 1896) was a German musician, one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era, as well as a composer, and wife of composer Robert Schumann. ... This article is about the German composer of tone-poems and operas. ... Schoenberg redirects here. ... A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ...

Sessions made a guest appearance in a special webcast version of Doctor Who, in a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he played General Tannis. He also appears in the BBC series Judge John Deed as barrister Brian Cantwell on an occasional basis. Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, (and a 1996 television movie). ... Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion (US$7. ... Judge John Deed is a BBC television drama series about a high court judge, created, written and produced by G. F. Newman. ...

In 2006 he presented some of the BBC's coverage of The Proms, and featured in one of the two Jackanory specials, voicing the characters and playing the storyteller in the audiobook version of Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's children's book Muddle Earth. In 2007 he appeared in the final episode of the second series of Hotel Babylon, playing a hotel owner, Donovan Credo. A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. ... Jackanory is a long-running BBC childrens television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. ... An audio book is a recording of the contents of a book read aloud. ... Paul Stewart is the writer famous for writing The Edge Chronicles, and Lake of Skulls, among many others. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Jane Frank: illustration from Thomas Yoseloffs The Further Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel (1957). ... Muddle Earth is a childrens book by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. ... Hotel Babylon is a BBC television drama series based on the book of the same name by Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous, first shown in January 2006. ...

External links

• John Sessions at the Internet Movie Database
• John Sessions community on LiveJournal