Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show!

More adventures of the show business legend (and trout tickler) Count Arthur Strong. If you haven't met him before you'll be unaware of his way of looking at the world and tendency to forget significant things. Those who love his idiosyncracies include Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie and critic Miranda Sawyer. Personally, I can't abide the blundering, blustering, malapropic Mancunian Count, creation of Steve Delaney. Nor, I can exclusively reveal, can Jim Naughtie (although what the Count thinks of Jim may be another matter).

Count Arthur to star in BBC Two gameshow

Radio 4 character Count Arthur Strong will appear in a new BBC Two gameshow.

Ballot-box fever gripped Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (Radio 4, Friday) with Strong pledging to run on a "bi-Parmesan one ticket for all" in the "important erections coming up". He was worried, though, about the grilling he'd get from "James Nightie" ("they go for your Jaguar").

The Count's charms, alas, elude me but he has many 40-something fans, among them his producer (and fellow radio legend) Mark Radcliffe. The Count (played by Steve Delaney) is supposed to be a one-time variety star, now sole proprietor of Doncaster's Academy of Performance, raconteur, malapropist, old, muddled. He lives in a little world where door bells ring, misunderstandings proliferate, butchers are funny and lavs a right laugh. In other words, it's like the radio shows those 40-somethings used to hear at their grans'.

Count Arthur strikes comedy gold for his devoted creator

A bumbling thespian prone to mixing up his words is about to hit our TV screens, says Ian Burrell.

BBC Radio 4 wins comedy awards at Sonys

BBC Radio 4 show Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show has taken gold in the comedy category, beating Miranda Hart's Joke Shop on BBC Radio 2 and Adam and Joe on BBC 6 Music.

One of the finest comic creations on radio at present.

Little by little, Steve Delaney's creation of a superannuated thesp apparently suffering from the onset of senile dementia is becoming not only acceptable to laugh at, in these rigidly PC days, but something of a comic gem. At any rate the presumably live studio audience in these six new episodes hewn from the living jelly of the Count's haphazard life seem to think so. Mangling the language with abandon all ships (that's the sort of thing he says), confusing Gordon Ramsay with Alf Ramsay, he tackles a series of challenges with the confidence of the severely deluded. In today's opener, for example, he takes charge of the local greasy spoon and tries to turn it into the sort of place where bookings are required for luncheon.

Ah Count Arthur Strong. I can't quite believe that I've gone so long without mentioning the funniest man on Radio 4 (not an enormous compliment, but still). Us critics like to be critical, you see, and Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! provides little to moan about. It is R4's best sitcom by several miles.

First, Count Arthur, faded actor, is a convincingly complete character. Comedian Steve Delaney has honed him through umpteen live performances: he knows Count Arthur inside out. This means the Count can be dropped into any situation and he'll react consistently: bigging up his fame, getting his words wrong, searching out meat products, or booze. Plus, all the best British sitcoms feature a frustrated older man - think of Fawlty, Rigsby, Mainwaring, Meldrew - and Count Arthur is always in a tizz. And, a small point this, but often overlooked by Radio 4 execs: Count Arthur is hilarious.

From strength to strength

A bumbling retired entertainer shows us just how comedy should be done. Count Arthur Strong so outperforms the rest of Radio 4's comedy output that it sounds as if it's doing a little victory jig on the roof of Broadcasting House.