Graham McCann

Graham McCann is a British author and historian, who has written extensively on film and television stars and British comedy series. He is a former lecturer and fellow at the University of Cambridge where he taught social and political theory. McCann has become noted for his biographies on figures such as Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, John Le Mesurier, Woody Allen and Terry-Thomas and books about British television comedy such as Dad's Army, Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers. He often contributes articles to various newspapers and has appeared several times on television and radio. He retired from full-time writing in 2015.

McCann earned a doctorate at Cambridge and, before becoming a full-time writer, was a fellow and lecturer in social and political theory at King's College. Among his fields of expertise is American culture, and he gave a lecture entitled "Aspects of American Culture" at the university in 1993. He also taught in the university's continuing education programme, primarily in the subject of the history of British political thought. McCann stopped being a full-time writer in 2015.

The author of at least 17 books, McCann's 1988 biography of Marilyn Monroe was the first to approach her life from a sociological perspective. This subject was revisited in his chapter "Biographical Boundaries: Sociology and Marilyn Monroe" in The Body: Social Processes and Cultural Theory published in 1991. He followed this with a biography of Woody Allen (1991), and with Rebel Males (1993), an analysis of the influence of Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean and their transformative role in moving the masculine heroic role in American popular culture closer to a sensitivity associated with bisexuality. He won praise for his 1997 biography of Cary Grant, A Class Apart. Andrea Highbie of The New York Times described the book as "well-researched", while Publishers Weekly considered it a more comprehensive account than Geoffrey Wansell's Cary Grant: Dark Angel book.

Many of McCann's more recent books concern British television, especially comedians and comedy series. HarperCollins describe him as "Britain's leading writer about film and TV". He has published biographies of Morecambe and Wise (1998), John Le Mesurier (Do You Think That's Wise?, 2010) and Terry-Thomas (Bounder!, 2008). In 2004, he published a biography of comic Frankie Howerd. Simon Callow of The Guardian noted the book's "occasional tantalising glimpses of his friendships" and "gamely attempts to sketch the broad outlines of Howerd's sex-life". In 2001 he published Dad's Army – The Story of a Classic Television Show. He has also authored Only Fools and Horses: The Untold Story of Britain's Favourite Comedy (2011), Fawlty Towers (2012), and A Very Courageous Decision: The Inside Story of Yes Minister (2014), and has edited a book containing material by the comedian Dave Allen (The Essential Dave Allen, 2005).

McCann has written numerous articles about politics and popular culture for The Guardian, Evening Standard, the Daily Mail, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Washington Post, The Times Literary Supplement, The Modern Review, Sight & Sound, Radical Philosophy and the New Statesman. He has acted as a consultant to programme makers; during the early 2000s he was the television critic for the Financial Times.

In May 2015 he was awarded the "Best Correspondents prize" at the Leicester Comedy Festival on a writing piece which documented his discovery that Roy Clarke had been commissioned to write a sitcom for Morecambe and Wise, a project which was never finalised.

According to his website, McCann has made several appearances on British television and radio, including the four main terrestrial television channels, BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking and Work in Progress, BBC Radio 4's Front Row, Thinking Allowed, Great Lives and the Today programme. McCann has also acted as an adviser on television programmes, and "several cultural projects, including Gordon Young and Why Not Associates' Comedy Carpet in Blackpool".

• Amnesty International (4 October 2012). Graham McCann, ed. A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick): Amnesty Presents the Best of the Secret Policeman's Ball (Main ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN 978-0857867346.  — 2 editions
• A Very Courageous Decision: The Inside Story of Yes Minister. Aurum Press Ltd. November 1, 2014. ISBN 978-1781311899.  — 5 editions
• Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas. Aurum Press. 2009. ISBN 9781845134419.  — 5 editions
• Cary Grant: A Class Apart. Columbia University Press. March 15, 1998. ISBN 978-0231108850. 
• Eisler, Hanns; Adorno, Theodor W.; McCann, Graham (Introduction) (11 December 2007) [1947]. Composing for Films (Illustrated ed.). Continuum. ISBN 9780826499028.  — 10 editions
• Dad's Army: The Story of a Very British Comedy: The Story of a Classic Television Show (New ed.). Fourth Estate. 1 September 2002. ISBN 978-1841153094. 
• Do You Think That's Wise?: The Life of John Le Mesurier. Aurum Press. November 8, 2010. ASIN B0077FAV8W. ISBN 978-1845136529.  — 5 editions
• Fawlty Towers (First ed.). Hodder & Stoughton. October 18, 2007. ISBN 0-340-89811-9.  — 6 editions
• Frankie Howerd: Stand-Up Comic (illustrated ed.). HarperCollins UK. October 1, 2004. ISBN 1841153109. ISBN 978-1841153100.  — 2 editions
• Marilyn Monroe. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. 1988. ISBN 978-0813513027.  — 4 editions
• Morecambe and Wise. Robson Books Ltd. 1998. ISBN 9780860519027.  — 2 editions
• Only Fools and Horses. Splendid. September 1, 2011. ISBN 978-0955891694.  — 5 editions
• Rebel Males: Brando, Clift and Dean. London: Hamish Hamilton. 1991. ISBN 9780241128848.  — 4 editions
• Spike & Co: Inside the House of Fun with Milligan, Sykes, Galton & Simpson. Hodder & Stoughton Paperbacks. 11 January 2006. ISBN 9780340898093.  — 4 editions
• Still Open All Hours: The Story of a Classic Comedy. BBC Books. 30 October 2014. ISBN 1849908869.  — 4 editions
• The Comedy Carpet Blackpool: The Making of a World Class Monument to Comedy (1 ed.). Booth Clibborn. 1 November 2013. ISBN 978-1861543394. 
• The Essential Dave Allen. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. November 7, 2005. ISBN 0340899433.  — 5 editions
• Woody Allen: New Yorker. Polity Press. 1990. ISBN 9780745608907.  — 2 editions