John Langdon

Graham Forsdyke
ISMACS News
Issue 138

I n the regular emails that we exchanged he was always “Mon ami mate” and I was “Cher frère”. But there’ll be no more emails, as good friend and ISMACS colleague John Langdon has died.

With sight in one eye gone, a cataract in the other and on a portable oxygen apparatus, he was working as production editor on his final issue of ISMACS News from hospital only days before he passed.

I, of course, knew of John’s willingness to help collectors with his encyclopaedic knowledge of Singer machines – he had spent considerable time as a consultant at the Clydebank Museum helping to catalogue the hundreds of machines there. And I was aware

of his regular job as a comedy writer, but hadn’t realised the extent of his talent until researching this obituary.

John’s good friend Rory Bremner, who he first met at the Edinburgh Festival, wrote a charming tribute which can be read, as part of a longer obituary by writer Bruce Dessau, here:

https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/8527/john-langdon-dies

It reveals that John was the leading writer in dozens of television and radio comedy shows.

I also discovered that he had been a Punch columnist, Editor of Punch at the Edinburgh Festival, and had won the Press Prize for the best script at the Montreux Festival. London Evening Standard Arts Critic, Bruce Dessau, had this to say: “Langdon was one of the country’s most experienced comedy writers, working on classic programmes including Not The Nine O’Clock News and With Kenny Everett. He also worked on The News Quiz and most regularly with Rory Bremner, who paid tribute to Langdon on Twitter: “So sad to report that my lifelong writing partner, best buddy, supporter, champion, encourager, and joy-giver John Langdon died on Monday. The kindest, most generous and funniest man and most brilliant of writers, he’s left me with a lifetime of great memories ... He was writing lines for the tour of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue right up to early January, despite failing sight and being on oxygen for severe COPD. Loved jokes, comedy & people.” Comedian John Dowie wrote on Facebook: “RIP John Langdon. Comedy Gagman Extraordinaire and All Round Lovely Chap.”

John was born in 1947 in North London, to Richard and Monica Langdon, the eldest of four children. He had a brother Mark who now lives in Australia and a sister Kim who is in the USA. Another sister, Margaret, lived in Berkshire and sadly died in 1997. In his youth he enjoyed working as a scaffolder, a football referee and on an antiques stall on the Portobello Road.

John became an accomplished guitar player, originally learning the double bass because he reasoned it would be easier for him to get work, on the basis that fewer people were likely to play one as it was big and awkward to carry. He played in the orchestra that recorded the theme tune for the film Fiddler on the Roof, the soundtrack of which won an Academy Award. John was also involved in an early production of the musical Hair, with which he toured in Europe.

During the early 1970s he worked at a Russian restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, in the evenings playing music guitar with talented balalaika player Bibs Ekkel. They formed a long-lasting musical partnership, performing and recording many albums as Bibs and Vanya.

There, too, he met Ros, whom he later married, and her daughter Nicola. Their son, Alex, was born in 1975 and the family moved out to Sunbury on Thames in 1977. Around this time, he developed an interest in words which led to work in advertising copywriting. He created the copy and design used to advertise the Borshtch ‘n Tears restaurant on the London Underground.

In 1977 John submitted a joke to Radio 4’s topical comedy show Week Ending, the first joke he ever sold. Building on this achievement, he went on to write sketches for a number of radio comedy shows, television shows and comedians.

He went on to produce ISMACS News, which he continued to do into 2020, and he also constructed and started to populate his own vast database of serial numbers for all Singer’s machines made before 1900 - an unimaginably large task – as there were literally millions. Add in fluent Russian and you begin to get an idea of the man’s abilities. When John took over the job of Production Editor at ISMACS News, he brought a new degree of professionalism to the publication. Some years ago, failing health forced him to resign the position, but he took it up again for a few issues before his demise.

In the comic-writing trade he was renowned for always handing in his scripts at the last possible moment – or even a good time after that. This earned him the nickname The Late John Langdon. Sadly, now, that’s all too true. Rest in peace Mon ami mate.

~Graham Forsdyke

(Many thanks to Rory Bremner for providing the photograph)