John Shuttleworth (character)

John Shuttleworth

Shuttleworth at the Big Chill 2010
First appearance Radio: The Shuttleworths
Television: The Paradise Club
Created by Graham Fellows
Portrayed by Graham Fellows
Information
Gender Male
Occupation Musician, radio presenter
Spouse(s) Mary
Children Darren Shuttleworth
Karen Shuttleworth

John Shuttleworth is a fictional singer-songwriter and radio presenter, created by English comedy actor and musician, Graham Fellows in 1986. Shuttleworth is in his late 50s and is from Walkley in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He has a quiet manner and slightly nerdish tendencies. His musical talents are usually expressed through his Yamaha PSS portable keyboard and include "Pigeons in Flight", a song that Shuttleworth attempted to have selected for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Character portrait

Shuttleworth is a very affecting character. Essentially decent and benevolent, but with a painful lack of self-awareness, the unfortunate gap between his actual musical talent and his steadfast belief in the possibility of his eventual pop super-stardom is the main source of the character's tragi-comedy. His "next-door neighbour and sole agent", Ken Worthington is more of a hindrance than a help to John's life.

The character was inspired by some demo tapes sent in to Chappell Music, where Graham worked as a songwriter in the 1980s, and takes some of his mannerisms from Graham's father and from mouse breeders he knew as a young man in Sheffield (a character prototypical of John Shuttleworth appeared on the single "Men of Oats And Creosote").

Supporting characters

Shuttleworth has fronted several radio and television series, usually supported by other characters, also voiced by Fellows, including agent / manager, Ken Worthington ("TV's Mr. Clarinet Man"), who came last on the TV talent show New Faces in 1973, as well as John's wife Mary Shuttleworth, their two teenage children Darren and Karen, and Mary's friend Joan Chitty.

Broadcasting

The Shuttleworths' various adventures have featured on several radio shows, including The Shuttleworths, Shuttleworth's Showtime and Radio Shuttleworth, with Fellows supplying all the voices and performing on his organ. He also made a four-part TV series supposedly filmed by Worthington, 500 Bus Stops (the title being a parodying reference to Frank Zappa's 200 Motels), about a UK national tour thwarted very early on by the demise of his beloved Austin Ambassador Y Reg but then continued by public transport. The venues visited were invariably mundane and uninspiring, and situations experienced usually demoralising, but were optimistically dealt with as if they were defining moments in his career. There followed a television special, Europigeon, following the success (or otherwise) of Pigeons in Flight. In May 2008 Fellows appeared in the BBCs Comedy Map of Britain in which he discussed the origin of his Shuttleworth character.

Radio

Shuttleworth has also guested on Mark and Lard's Graveyard Shift on Radio 1, and on Radio 4's Loose Ends.

Television series

It's Nice Up North & Southern Softies

In 2004, Fellows (as Shuttleworth) made a film with photographer Martin Parr, entitled It's Nice Up North, in which Shuttleworth tests his theory that British people are nicer the further north one ventures by visiting the Shetland Islands, the most northerly part of the United Kingdom. In summer 2007 he travelled to the Channel Islands to shoot another, Southern Softies. Again featuring an appearance from Parr, Shuttleworth aims to discover whether people are softer the further south you go.

Other TV appearances

Other recordings

Stage show

In April 2007, Shuttleworth started touring with a new stage show With My Condiments. It was inspired by Jamie Oliver's promotion of healthy food for school children. Fellows thought "what would happen if Shuttleworth did the same for a slightly older age group".[1] In June, Shuttleworth's 4 Rather Tasty Tracks was released as a download or CD, reaching the appropriately modest number 96 in the UK charts and number 29 in the Indie Charts in July 2007.

In November 2008 John commenced the Minor Tour – and other Mythological Creatures tour.

In October 2010, John commenced his five-month A Man With No More Rolls tour, claiming that it was a misprint and should have been called A Man With No Morals

Television advertising

In 2009, Shuttleworth appeared in a UK television advertising campaign for Yorkshire Tea.

References

  1. ↑ The Independent, 20 April 2007 (5-minute Interview)

External links