Transcript
[LIGHTHEARTED MUSIC]
[LAUGHS]
[CLICKING FILM REEL]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GRAHAM FELLOWS
John Shuttleworth is a Northern character. He’s from Sheffield, which is where I’m from originally. But I started doing him when I moved to Manchester, and I think I was a little bit nostalgic for the Sheffield of my teens. So I started playing around with this sort of ‘Now then, how’s tha doin? Alright?’
But quite soon, I took him away from a Sheffield accent, from the sort of Billy Casper, sort of Kestrel for a Knave, sort of ‘Now then, how’s that doing? Alright?’. I can’t really do that anymore. And I think living in Manchester affected the accent, and it became ‘Just sort of like that, you know, sort of, you know’. Actually, because I live in Lincolnshire now, it’s gone a bit Lincolnshire. ‘You know’. Or is that Staffordshire? I don’t know.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) My wife Mary made a lovely shepherd’s pie and peas.
John Shuttleworth’s language is definitely not from the present day.
(SINGING) I said, that looks fantastic, love. And I tucked in hungrily.
I think it all comes back from my dad, who is kind of a little bit out of time. Well, he’s dead now. But when I started doing John, I probably-- in fact, I know I did, I used him as a template. Though, ironically, my father is from Croydon.
(SINGING) A shandy bass in a lady’s glass.
The line ‘a shandy bass in a lady’s glass’, that really is sort of me paying homage to Sheffield, to the working men’s club where I used to work in Sheffield. And I’m sure these guys used to come up, and they’d say, half a double diamond in a lady’s glass. But in this way of saying it in quite a butch way, I thought it was quite amusing. So yeah, I mean, I guess that’s a Northern expression. I don’t know if it’s used in the South, but lady’s glass.
(SINGING) I will attend you when you’re very ill, plump the pillows beneath your head. I’ll undertake your burial, or my wife Mary will if I’m already dead.
That came about because I think I realized ‘burial’ rhymed with ‘Mary will’. Mary is John’s wife, so I played around with the ‘undertake’. See, that was a little joke. I undertake-- ‘I’ll undertake your burial, or my wife Mary will if I’m already dead’.
(SINGING) I can’t go back to savoury now, oh no, my taste buds would go crazy. Can’t go back to savoury now.
‘I can’t go back to savoury’ is a song all about obsession, isn’t it? It’s about listing all the things in the meal and all the little aspects of the meal. So it’s very character-driven because John Shuttleworth would do that.
(SINGING) Hush now, my child, lie you very still. Eat your tomato soup and soft white bread.
[BEEPING TONES]
There’s a friend of mine who actually is-- all the time, he sort of says, oh, yes, that’s a bit claggy, isn’t it? Good old Northern word. You know, you’ve met people like that, that do that sort of thing. They’re self-conscious about the use of words because they love language. Well, John loves language, but he doesn’t know he does.
(SINGING) Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh, oh, oh-oh, oh, oh.
[LIGHTHEARTED MUSIC]