John Sessions, the celebrated comedian, actor, and impressionist, captivated audiences with his extraordinary ability to transform into a myriad of characters. His sudden death at 67 due to a heart attack marked the loss of a unique talent in British entertainment. Sessions, as he himself acknowledged, often found embodying others easier than being himself, a sentiment he poignantly expressed in a 1994 interview: “The hardest part you’ll ever play, honey, is yourself.” This inherent duality became the hallmark of his illustrious career, characterized by both dazzling performances and underlying personal struggles.
Sessions burst onto the scene with his 1987 West End show, The Life of Napoleon, a performance that epitomized his exhilarating and exhausting comedic style. Critics marveled at his rapid-fire transitions between voices, ranging from Laurence Olivier to characters from EastEnders, peppered with literary allusions to figures like Picasso and Faulkner, all while seamlessly navigating historical events from the Battle of Jena to the mundane setting of a golf course. This frenetic energy and encyclopedic knowledge became his trademark.
His television breakthrough arrived with Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988-91), the improvisational comedy show where his quick wit and vast repertoire of impersonations truly shone. Alongside contemporaries like Stephen Fry and Josie Lawrence, John Sessions thrived in the spontaneous environment, effortlessly conjuring scenarios like James Joyce at the beach or Ernest Hemingway at the dentist. Even a playful jab from fellow contestant Paul Merton, who quipped that being trapped in a lift with John Sessions would be his least desirable scenario, was taken in stride by Sessions, showcasing his self-deprecating humor. “A lot of people found me infuriating – they thought I was a smart aleck, but I did try not to be,” he reflected, acknowledging the perception of his intellectual persona.
Despite not attending Oxbridge, unlike many of his peers, John Sessions possessed a remarkable erudition, often displaying it on shows like the BBC panel quiz QI. In the very first episode in 2003, he famously outshone the equally learned Stephen Fry by correctly recalling Michelangelo’s birth and death dates. This intellectual depth, some speculated, might have been a compensatory mechanism for not completing his PhD thesis on poet John Cowper Powys. One commentator mused that “perhaps he would not feel compelled to display his erudition; but then he would have been lost to the stage, which would have been a pity,” highlighting the intrinsic link between his intellectualism and his performance artistry.
John Sessions as Edward Heath alongside Meryl Streep’s Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011). Sessions’s talent for mimicry allowed him to embody a range of public figures.
The “smart aleck” image, however, persisted, famously culminating in his Spitting Image puppet in 1989, which depicted him disappearing into his own posterior. Ironically, John Sessions was both an impressionist for and a target of the satirical show. The puppet, part of Kenneth Branagh’s “Brit Pack” segment, initially unsettled Sessions. “Suddenly on the telly I saw this brilliant puppet with this funny tie and baggy cheeks and it was me going up my ass. That was quite scary. I thought, ‘Am I going up my ass?’” This reaction reveals Sessions’s characteristic self-doubt and vulnerability beneath the veneer of intellectual confidence.
This vulnerability was a recurring theme in John Sessions’s life. He openly battled depression, expressed dissatisfaction with his physical appearance, and was prone to self-criticism in interviews. In a candid 1999 interview with the Sunday Times, he confessed, “Some nights, I can’t get to sleep and lie there looking back on my life and eventually nod off thinking, ‘I’m completely useless and hopeless, talentless and should fuck off.’” Even reassurances from the interviewer failed to fully alleviate his deeply ingrained self-doubt.
Born in Largs, Ayrshire, John Sessions, originally John Marshall, experienced a childhood shaped by his family dynamics. His father, a peripatetic gas engineer of Protestant faith, and his Glaswegian Catholic mother, Esmé (nee Richardson), faced familial ostracism due to their mixed marriage. He grew up with a twin sister, Maggie, and an older brother, Bill. He recalled a childhood awareness of his parents’ age, fostering a sense of responsibility to avoid causing them trouble. He found solace and humor in his relationship with his mother, sharing a “confidentiality of humour” based on recognizing the “unacknowledgedly absurd,” a sensibility that permeated his comedic work.
The family relocated to England when John was three, eventually settling in St Albans. His early education at Verulam school marked the beginning of his performance journey. At the age of seven, he performed his first impersonation, Lonnie Donegan’s Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, aiming to impress his father. He pursued English at Bangor University with aspirations of becoming a teacher, a path diverted when his father arranged a job for him at the gas board. However, the corporate world proved unfulfilling. “I told Dad it was boring, and the next thing he knew was that I was going off to do a PhD in Ontario,” he recounted. The Canadian experience proved isolating and unproductive, with his dissertation amounting to, in his words, “200 pages of rubbish.”
Returning to the UK at 26, John Sessions auditioned for Rada, arriving with a hangover. His initial audition piece from Much Ado About Nothing was met with harsh criticism from Rada’s principal, Hugh Cruttwell, who deemed it “terrible” and an “impersonation of what an actor sounds like.” However, a subsequent performance from Pinter’s The Homecoming secured him a scholarship. More significantly, Rada fostered a lifelong friendship with Kenneth Branagh, who later directed him in The Life of Napoleon and cast him in film adaptations of Henry V (1989) and In the Bleak Midwinter (1995). Upon joining Equity, he adopted the stage name Sessions to distinguish himself from another John Marshall.
John Sessions onstage in Longing (2013). This marked his return to theatre after a long absence, highlighting his dedication to his craft despite personal setbacks.
John Sessions envisioned a dual career path post-Rada: comedian and actor. He navigated both worlds for several years, performing on the comedy circuit alongside acts like French and Saunders, often showcasing intellectually stimulating material, such as imagining Milan Kundera’s take on Dallas. His brand of erudite improv comedy solidified with his TV shows John Sessions’ Tall Tales (1991) and John Sessions’ Likely Stories (1994).
In a 1994 interview promoting My Night With Reg, Kevin Elyot’s Aids drama, John Sessions was asked about his sexuality. His cautious “Yes I am, but my parents don’t know,” was disregarded when the journalist outed him, an event followed by his mother’s unexpected death and his father’s rapid onset of dementia. The subject of his sexuality was never discussed within his family. Sessions explained his reluctance to disclose this aspect of his life to his parents, fearing they might internalize it as a personal failing due to their generation’s societal norms.
A particularly poignant incident occurred during a My Night With Reg performance when John Sessions suffered a memory lapse and had to leave the stage. He attributed it not to stage fright, but to overwhelming personal grief and stress. He recounted returning home for Christmas to find his grieving father had filled the fridge with presents for his deceased mother. This period marked a long hiatus from theatre for Sessions. He later reflected on a missed opportunity to engage in “good old-fashioned graft” with the RSC or National Theatre, believing it would have been therapeutic. His return to the stage only materialized in 2013 with his friend William Boyd’s play Longing.
Despite his early television fame, John Sessions felt his career trajectory plateaued. “I had a twinkly couple of years, but then I ran out of steam,” he admitted in a 2014 interview. He confessed to a growing lack of confidence with age and a sense of losing his way. However, his talent for mimicry reignited his career, particularly with Stella Street (1997-2001), the BBC series he co-wrote and starred in, imagining celebrities living on a suburban street.
Phil Cornwell and John Sessions in Stella Street (1998). Sessions co-created and starred in this series, showcasing his and Cornwell’s impressive range of celebrity impersonations.
Mimicry became a cornerstone of his later successes in both television and film. He portrayed figures like Geoffrey Howe in Margaret (2009), Harold Wilson in Made in Dagenham (2010), Ted Heath in The Iron Lady (2011), and Norman Tebbit in The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011). His portrayal of Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring in We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story (2015) was particularly lauded for its accuracy. Even in minor roles, like Dr Prunesquallor in the 2000 adaptation of Gormenghast, he consistently stole scenes.
Describing himself as a “loner,” John Sessions claimed to enjoy a solitary life. In his later years, he adopted a more politically conservative stance, shifting from Labour support to voting for Ukip, expressing Eurosceptic views and advocating for the abolishment of the Scottish parliament. Reflecting on his multifaceted persona, he concluded, “I’m pretty much one character really. A grumpy old fool.”
John Sessions is survived by his sister and brother, leaving behind a legacy as a brilliant, complex, and profoundly talented performer who enriched British comedy and drama with his unique and unforgettable contributions.
