Options
Count Arthur Strong TV sitcom?
[Deleted User]
Posts: 245
Forum Member
✭
This might be a long shot but does anyone have any news about the sitcom starring the Radio 4 character, Count Arthur Strong. It was filmed at the beginning of the year and was initially due to air in April. Has it been shelved indefinitely? I've tried looking it up on line but can't find any information. I was in the audience for the filming of episode 5 and I thought it was very funny. I was really looking forward to seeing the finished product.
0
Comments
i thought it was a game show type-o-thing that was happening rather than a sitcom. Anyhow, I didn;t know it had been recorded. Thought it was still in planning/etc.
I doubt the sit-com format will work on TV, it's curiously old fashioned and suits radio better. Like John Shuttleworth's outing on TV it didn't QUITE capture John's character.
A spoof low budget quiz show with Arthur as the bad tempered host may be good though.
It also starred Rory Kinnear (sp) as the son of the count' s former partner who after splitting with Arthur went on to have a very successful comedy and acting career. Kinnear' s character comes looking for Arthur because he is writing a biography of his father and wants info on his early years. The episode I watched was mostly set in a cafe which the count frequents a lot and other regular character's include the brother and sister who own the cafe. When a riot ensues the cafe staff and customers hide in a back room, where, despite obvious protests, the count proceeds to keep up everyone's spirits by performing his entire rep which includes whole Shakespeare speeches as well as numerous west end hits. It was a very funny sequence which had the audience in stitches.
Having said that, I can see why you'd either love him or hate him but despite people's reserve about whether a sit com would actually work, I thought it did work and would be prepared to give it a go if only they'd show it. Maybe they could bring it out on DVD if they've decided to shelve it. I feel a letter to the BBC coming on. after all, if they've already made the entire series it's a complete waste of licence payer' s money to just throw it away.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Count-Arthur-Strong/146028638840641?fref=ts
Here's Graham Linehan's twitter:
http://twitpic.com/cejva0
Looks like this was only recorded relatively recently, so there's plenty of time to bung it on the telly. British Comedy Guide suggests June. (ooh, it's June now!)
http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/count_arthur_strong/
I saw Count Arthur Strong's Commando Performance on stage this time last year, and it's one of the best nights out I have had for a very, very long time. Favourite CAS quote (often used in the Chuff household): "I don't like to blow my own trumpet up myself".
"It was the worst audience I ever had that, if you leave out the Bradford Alhambra, and that was a geniune misunderstanding so it doesn't count".
The following extract came from this page - http://www.countarthurstrong.com/bbbc/
In 2012 production began on the TV sitcom ‘Count Arthur Strong’ for BBC 2. The series has been written by Steve Delaney and Graham Linehan and features Rory Kinnear performing alongside Arthur as Michael Baker. The Komedia Entertainment, Delightful Industries and Retort TV Production is directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Richard Boden with Executive Producers Richard Daws, Jon Rolph and Gregor Sharp for the BBC. Count Arthur Strong was produced throughout the Winter 2012/13, recorded in front of a live audience at Pinewood Studios. It is planned to be aired on BBC2 in the Summer of 2013 and transmission dates will be announced on this site soon.
Not sure how it'll work on TV as, for me, these shows lose something when you have got used to them being a purely aural thing. I have a vivid idea of what CAS looks like ( from the radio show)- and it's not like JS plays him.
I'll give it a go though.
That's weird - I like John Shuttleworth!
Bloody comedy eh? Nothing to laugh about there!
HOORAY!
Totally agree.....:)
Same here, like the radio show, but not sure about TV, I didn't apply for tickets for that reason, I remember laughing so much at the grumbleweeds show on radio many years ago, after several series they then moved to TV and that was it, they didn't last if you know what I mean, but who knows....
No, me neither. There are some marvellous comedies on Radio 4 (anyone else loving the current series of The Castle?) but the track record of successfully transferring them to TV is patchy at best. Fingers crossed.
Aaahhhhh The Grumbleweeds..... Uncle Rubbish and his teatime toytime time slot.
Fingers crossed that this doesn't fall flat, and scupper future radio shows while he's at it ...