John Shuttleworth 2

I agree - although a diluted Shuttleworth is better than no Shuttleworth at all.

Not just the celeb guests but those phone calls betray, for me, some signs of the performer's enjoyment. For the same reason I'm less keen on JS live - what does he think he's doing in a crammed theatre when his normal gigs are in hospices etc (or not, as in the great Pillock of the Community episode which, according to William Cook's Ha Bloody Ha, Fellowes recognised as his best writing, even though nothing happened). Far better the intimacy of radio where you can believe he's wandering round with a tape recorder trying desperately to collect enough things of interest to fill a programme.

For me the first radio series was the best although others have had their moments. But yes, a domestic Shuttleworth, irritated by trivial things, with the merest suggestion of what the other members of his family think of him (not much), with the subtext always the need (in his life as in the programme) to fill up the time is deeply satisfying. If Graham Fellowes felt he'd mined that seam for long enough, that's understandable, though I regret it; I do hope the changes were not about the programme being dumbed down by outside forces.

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Ah - I didn't realise how many home-based ones he'd done. Certainly one not in the first series which stayed with me was his finding, I think, a watch in his loft - presumably this is the episode entitled Cough in a Loft as listed on the official website index:

www.shuttleworths.co...

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Hmmm ... at the risk of destroying the (limited) magic I do wonder how those celeb things were done. Was Graham Fellows in full JS garb throughout, a la Jimmy Clitheroe? Were the additional voices added after the celeb (or Leo Sayer) had left?

Possibly better not to know. Far more interesting to ponder over an episode of The Shuttleworths when Ken makes a reference to John's first wife only for John to shush him, fearful Mary will overhear. And to consider whether, in the Pillock of the Community episode, everyone in the hospice was furitvely watching behind lace curtains, praying he would go away and entertain somewhere else.

But that episode is a kind of victory (as well as a humiliation) for John, given the amount of interest and pleasure he can derive from a discarded sweet wrapper ... In fact, now I think of it, on an unconscious level my reservations about the Radio Shuttleworth series may have been not so much aesthetic as concern for his welfare: this is a man, after all, whose hobbies include measuring reservoir levels; surely exposure to C-list celebrities on a semi-regular basis might well result in some kind of sensory overload?

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Listening to the John Kettley episode today, have to admit it did work well - even if there was the ghost of an out-of-character smile audible in John Shuttleworth's voice at one point.

Portraying himself (or a version thereof) is obviously something Kettley is good at: he also featured in a recentish episode of Dave Podmore, giving an inspirational talk to a dispirited Podmore at umpire college. Awestruck, Pod tells Andy: "People say he's a one trick pony, but lifelessonwise he's there or thereabouts."

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I've also seen him, at least three times, and although it's been enjoyable to me it seems a (necessarily?) different sort of performance from the low key radio stuff - though I did have to laugh when I saw him at Edinburgh a few years ago with a show around 5.15 - this was for our safety, John explained during the performance, as any later and there could be "youths congregating outside."

It's just that for me the illusion is lost a bit when he's facing these large crowds who are laughing a lot at what he says and yet he carries on, by and large, as if they're not. I prefer the added melancholic dimension of listening on your own in the dark to JS doing pointless things to fill in the day (and try to find enough material to constitute a show). In the same way that it can be a more melancholy experience to watch Laurel and Hardy by yourself rather than in a packed cinema (when you're more likely to register the pain and resignation in Hardy's expression in a closeup which, with the original audience present, would merely have been intended to mark time until the laughter died down) so for me the essential Shuttleworth is a solitary experience.

Of course an alternative explanation is it may be about my wanting to feel that only I get it - I don't want to see other people sharing my "secret" so maybe it's cultural snobbishness too.

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Given my reservations about his live performances expressed above it may seem odd for me to draw attention to a live Shuttleworth gig; nevertheless, this is to let those in or around London who might be interested in deciding for themselves about his live appeal - or perhaps those who have decided already but now wish to test their conviction by a repeat bout of exposure to Sheffield's Maestro of the Mundane [copyright] - know that he's playing at the Bloomsbury Theatre 10-13 December. It's a good venue for him (small enough to feel fairly intimate wherever you're seated; I've seen him there before).

Mitch Benn will be there on 15th October (and possibly even some time between 10-13 December as an audience member - I don't know; I have no access to box office details; no USB stick has fallen into my hands).