McCann earned a doctorate at Cambridge University and, before becoming a full-time writer, was a fellow and lecturer in social and political theory at King's College, Cambridge. Among his fields of expertise is American culture, and in 1993 he lectured on "Aspects of American Culture" at the university. He also taught in the university's continuing education programme, primarily in the subject of the history of British political thought.
Writing career
McCann has published at least 17 books. His 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, and with Rebel Males, 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 received 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 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, John Le Mesurier and Terry-Thomas. In 2004, he published a biography of comic Frankie Howerd. Simon Callow writing for 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, Fawlty Towers, and A Very Courageous Decision: The Inside Story of Yes Minister, and has edited a book containing material by the comedian Dave Allen. 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.
