Count Arthur Strong (TV series)

Count Arthur Strong is a BBC sitcom written by Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan. Delaney portrays the title character in the series, a reboot of the character from the radio programme Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show!^[1] The series focuses on the meeting between Count Arthur Strong, an eccentric, semi-retired music hall performer, and Michael Baker, the bookish son of his former comedy partner.^[2]

A third series is due for broadcast in 2016.^[3]

Cast

• Steve Delaney as Count Arthur Strong, an elderly, pompous, out-of-work actor from Doncaster with delusions that he is a show-business legend. The character has been described as "a mixture of physical and mental clumsiness, mirthful malapropisms and Tourettic tics, whose pride forbids him from ever conceding fallibility, even as his world crashes around him".^[4]
• Rory Kinnear as Michael Baker, a writer. Michael, a shy, bookish and quiet man, is using Arthur's anecdotes to help write his late father's biography.^[5]
• Chris Ryman as Bulent, the irascible, hot-tempered owner of Arthur's local café, who is constantly irritated by Arthur's bumbling.^[5]
• Zahra Ahmadi as Sinem, Bulent's younger sister with a mischievous sense of humour.^[5]
• Andy Linden as John the Watch, an enigmatic regular at the café and close friend of Arthur's.^[5]
• Dave Plimmer as Eggy, a quiet, gentle, melancholy café regular obsessed with eggs and conspiracy theories.^[5]
• Ruth Posner as Katya, a café regular and Arthur's greatest fan. (Series 1)^[5]

Production and broadcast

In 2009, it was reported that Delaney would be working on making a television version of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! for Talkback Thames and BBC Two,^[6] and further that Graham Linehan and Jeremy Dyson were working on a project for TV called Count Arthur Strong's Entertainment Game.^[7] The quiz show format was subsequently dropped in favour of a sitcom.^[8]

The first episode of Count Arthur Strong was recorded on 10 January 2013 at Pinewood Studios. Written by Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan, it co-starred Rory Kinnear as the son of the recently deceased Max Baker, Count Arthur's erstwhile comedy partner. Michael Baker (Kinnear) sets out to track down Count Arthur after the death of his father in order to write a biography.

The television project heralds a new chapter in the life of Count Arthur Strong as compared to the character in the radio series. None of the characters from the radio programme are featured (Geoffrey, Wilf Taylor, Sally Marsden etc) and the series is set in London^[9] rather than Doncaster. The cafe is run by a stroppy Turkish character called Bulent (Chris Ryman) and his sister; Arthur's "biggest fan" is Katya, an elderly Polish lady (Ruth Posner).

The series was recorded in front of a live audience from January to February 2013 at Pinewood Studios.^[10]

The first episode of six began broadcast on BBC2 on 8 July 2013, with one episode each week airing thereafter.^[11] The first episode was watched by 971,000 viewers, less than half of BBC2's slot average over the previous three months.^[12] Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were subsequently moved from Mondays, 8.30 pm, on BBC Two, to Tuesdays, 8 pm, on the same channel.^[13]

A second series was commissioned, but aired on BBC One after moving from Two. The series was recorded at Pinewood Studios between 6 June 2014 and 18 July 2014. The second series began broadcasting on BBC One on 6 January 2015.^[14]

Episodes

The first series was shown on BBC Two.

Series 1 (2013)

Series 2 (2015)

The second series of Count Arthur Strong sees a shift to BBC One and a later time slot of 10:35pm.^[15]

Series 3 (2016)

A third series was confirmed to air in 2016,^[3] recording was completed at Pinewood Studios in August 2016

Awards

The first series of Count Arthur Strong was nominated for an impressive three British Comedy Awards - Best Sitcom, Best New Comedy and Steve Delaney being nominated for Best Comedy Breakthrough Artist.^[16] Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan were nominated as Best Comedy Writers at the 2014 BAFTA Craft Awards^[17] and the show was also nominated for Best Situation Comedy at the 2014 BAFTA awards.^[18]

DVD release

The first series of Count Arthur Strong was released on 19 August 2013. In September 2013, BBC WorldWide recalled all the DVDs due to a picture fault.^[19] Series two of Count Arthur Strong will be released on DVD by Network on the 26th September 2016.^[20]

References

External links

• Count Arthur Strong at the Internet Movie Database
• Count Arthur Strong at BBC Programmes
  
• Count Arthur Strong at British Comedy Guide