Count Arthur Strong (VIDEO)

count arthur strong
(Image credit: BBC/Retort)

Arthur meets a figure from his past life as a musician... the versatile entertainer John Shuttleworth

In what is one of the highlights of the current series – which hasn't been helped by some haphazard scheduling – Arthur revisits his youth, in which he gets to play around with his Beatles delusions.

The episode, The Three Wishes,  introduces one of his bandmates from his youth, the versatile lounge performer John Shuttleworth (the comic creation of Graham Fellowes, who some may remember for another alter ego Jilted John).

What will happen when two legends of comic delusion meet? Will they right the wrongs of their past? Will they create a super-group and experience the success they should have had first time around? Will they spontaneously combust?

You never quite know with this bonkers comedy, which is one of its most appealing qualities.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.