English Heritage rejects bid to honour Python star Graham Chapman with blue plaque amid drive to celebrate more ethnic minority figures

DAILYMAIL.COM • 5h ago

By CHRIS HASTINGS 22:00 10 Oct 2026, updated 22:12 10 Oct 2026

It seems Life Of Brian star Graham Chapman is still regarded as ‘a very naughty boy’ more than 45 years after the film’s release.

English Heritage has turned down a request to erect a blue plaque to celebrate the life and work of the former Python.

Chapman, who died aged 48 in 1989, was snubbed even though he met the eligibility criteria for the honour.

Friends and supporters fear he may have fallen victim to a drive by the charity to increase the number of black and Asian figures who are celebrated.

On Saturday, fellow Python and writing partner John Cleese, said: ‘I wonder why they have not decided to go ahead.

‘It seems that a lot of these quangos have woke inclinations unrepresentative of most British people.

‘Presumably, we can put up a plaque ourselves.’

English Heritage, which runs the official blue plaques scheme in London, receives about 80 nominations annually and this year said it would erect nine.

The charity’s list included Oscar–winning actor Sir Laurence Olivier and pioneering astronomer Cecilia Payne–Gaposchkin. But others honoured will be less familiar.

They include Kamal Chunchie, a Sri Lankan–born Methodist pastor who fought for racial justice in London’s East End in the 1930s and 40s, and Duse Mohamed Ali, who was a leading figure in London’s Pan–Africanism movement.

Chapman co–write some of the best–known Python skits, including the Dead Parrot sketch, the Argument Clinic and Four Yorkshiremen.

He is best known for playing the title role in the 1979 film Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian, about a man wrongly assumed to be a messiah. Brian’s mother Mandy – played by Terry Jones – famously declared: ‘He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.’

A spokesman for English Heritage said it had ‘carefully considered’ Chapman’s nomination, adding: ‘The selection process is highly competitive, with many exceptional candidates considered each year.’

Another Python, Sir Michael Palin, said Chapman, who quit drinking in 1977, would have preferred the unofficial plaque put up in his honour on the side of the Angel pub in Highgate, north London, in 2012: ‘Graham would be very tickled.’

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