Monty Python star Graham Chapman honoured with blue plaque

Awarded by the British Comedy Society, the plaque plunders a line from Life of Brian for its dedication to Chapman, describing the pipe-smoking comic as “a very naughty boy.” It also jokingly refers to Chapman’s well-known fondness for the grape, stating that he “drank here often and copiously.”

The plaque was funded by family and friends of Chapman after budget cuts forced English Heritage to abandon its plans to memorialise the comedian with one of its official plaques.

Python stars Michael Palin and Terry Jones were among a crowd of comedians that included Barry Cryer and Carol Cleveland who descended on the pub yesterday for a memorial service to Chapman, who died of cancer in 1989.

Speaking at the memorial, Michael Palin said: "This was Graham's manor and Graham was a lovely guy.

"I spent many happy times with him, most of which I forget. This was where he was and we used to come up here to see him.

"Highgate was his patch and he should be celebrated because he was a very good, brilliant, funny, nice, wise, kind man, who occasionally drank too much."

Palin also said that Chapman would have been pleased that so many of his friends and colleagues had turned out to celebrate his life.

"I think he'd be suitably impressed that we all came along. He would have stroked his sideburns a bit as he was known to do. I think he would have approved."

Barry Cryer remembered Chapman as “one of my best mates” and said: "We did an awful lot of writing together, but also an awful lot of drinking together.

"I think the pub is the perfect place to put the plaque. Very Graham, very silly.”