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Concept
John Shuttleworth (character)
Summary
John Shuttleworth is a fictional singer-songwriter and radio presenter, created in 1986 and performed by English comedy actor and musician Graham Fellows. 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 PSS portable keyboard and include "Pigeons in Flight", a song that Shuttleworth attempted to have selected for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Shuttleworth is a pathetic 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 in John's life.
The character was inspired by some demo tapes sent in to Chappell Music, where Fellows – who had previously had UK chart success as the character Jilted John – 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", issued under Fellows' own name in 1979.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Midweek programme, on 3 June 2015, Fellows suggested that Shuttleworth was an amalgamation of the "very steady types" he had served beer to in a working men's club in Sheffield and the more eccentric characters he had met while showing fancy mice.
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.
Official source
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