Actors - Graham Fellows

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	Actors - Graham Fellows

Graham Fellows is an English comedy actor and musician, best known for creating the character of John Shuttleworth, an aspiring singer/songwriter in his late 50s from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, with a quiet manner and slightly nerdish tendencies. His musical talents are usually expressed through his Yamaha organ, and include such greats as Pigeons In Flight, a song which Shuttleworth attempted to have selected for the Eurovision Song Contest.

He has also created many supporting characters, including John's wife Mary Shuttleworth, and next-door neighbour and incompetent manager Ken Worthington. Their various adventures have featured on a number of radio shows, including The Shuttleworths, Shuttleworth's Showtime and Radio Shuttleworth, with Fellows doing all the voices and performing on his organ. He has also appeared in a television special, Europigeon, following the success or otherwise of "Pigeons In Flight". In 2004, Fellows (as Shuttleworth) made a film with photographer Martin Parr; titled It's Nice Up North, 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.

Shuttleworth is a very affecting character. Essentially decent and benevolent, but with a fatal lack of self-awareness, the unfortunate gap between his actual musical talent and his steadfast belief in the possibility of his eventual pop-stardom is the main source of the character's tragi-comedy. The apparently disturbed Ken Worthington is more of a hindrance than a help to John's life.

Fellows is also notable for a hit single in 1978 under the pseudonym Jilted John with the song Jilted John. The single was done in the aggressive, minimalist style of the then-prevailing punk/New Wave style, but with poppier influences, somewhat akin to The Buzzcocks. The novelty hit was most memorable for its biting lyrics, a first-person narrative of a bitter teenager named John whose girlfriend Julie had left him for another guy named Gordon, "just 'cause he's better lookin' than me/just 'cause he's cool and trendy." The cries of "Gordon is a moron" and coda of "Yeah yeah, it's not fair!" repeated ad infinitum in bratty delivery make it one of the most memorable singles of British punk/new wave. Produced by Martin Hannett, the song reached number 4 in the UK singles chart. It was memorably introduced on Top of the Pops as "one of the most bizarre singles of the decade".

Two more recent creations of Fellows include Brian Appleton, a media studies lecturer and rock musicologist from Newcastle-under-Lyme, who is convinced that many major British music stars have plagiarised his music; and Dave Tordoff, a builder, specialising in concrete flooring, from Goole, who attempts to be an after dinner speaker but only talks about his accumulated wealth.

Selected TV & Radio

The Shuttleworths (4 series as of 2004) - BBC Radio 4
500 Bus Stops (TV series)
Europigeon (TV mockumentary about the Eurovision Song Contest)

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