The Shuttleworths

On The Shuttleworths (Radio 4, Wednesday) John watched Mary buy a toaster on eBay. In Shuttleworth world this is enough of an event to inspire several songs, a sleepless night and deep reflection on crumb trays. In Reynolds world this 15 minutes was just what a person, numbed by frantic months of pre-election on-the-hour-every-hour speculation, second guessing and mistaken assumption, truly needed.

A London School of Economics study reported last week that the key to a happy marriage is sharing the household chores. In which case, The Shuttleworths must be the happiest couple in radioland and certainly the most whimsically funny.

Returning for a new series, John Shuttleworth's focus of interest is, as ever, the domestic arena and he rarely strays further than next door where his useless, parochial agent Ken Worthington (and, oh, they do exist) lives.

Graham Fellows plays all the characters superbly, caressing the vocal range from falsetto to soprano, embracing personality traits from studied patience (Mary) to shiftily incompetent (Ken). But it is John, with his musical elegies to the trivial and his beadily obsessive eye for commonplace detail, who knits this community together. His first song is a lament to broadcasters who fail to give the www opening to a website address - "They might have changed it to yyy," he reasonably opines in his nasal singing voice. He is a magnificent everyman, the hero of his own daily life. I can imagine that if Mary was struck down by a debilititating illness, John would find both tragedy and triumph as he rustled up a bowl of soup or plumped up her pillows.

Devotees of John Shuttleworth (aka Graham Fellows), his wife Mary and his next-door-neighbour-cum-entirely-useless-manager Ken Worthington will already be gearing up for the return to the airwaves of the greatest retired security guard turned singer/songwriter there has ever been. For those who have never encountered The Shuttleworths before, it will be an experience akin to plunging into 24 or Lost without any previous series knowledge - entirely incomprehensible. But don't let that put you off, for this is one of the cleverest character comedies on radio, on a par with Count Arthur Strong and Ed Reardon's Week. This week John encounters the thrilling highs followed by the angst-ridden lows of using...no, not drugs, but eBay. Listen to this and the functions of a modern electric toaster will take on an enchanting hue for the rest of your life, thanks to Mr and Mrs Shuttleworth. It's great to have them back.

John Shuttleworth's guide to website perils. His opening song will be balm to the ears of computerphobics. Mary, his wife, under the tuition of their son Darren (he's good with computers) has turned into an eBay addict. She's bidding for a toaster. John is worried. This is belt tightening time for the Shuttleworths as well as the rest of us. But this toaster has such functions... How can he be sure that Mary's bid will be successful? Naturally he seeks advice from his neighbour (and sole agent) Ken Worthington. Fifteen minutes of heaven.

Many of us will feel at home with The Shuttleworths (Radio 4) and their quest to buy a toaster on eBay. After a queasy week of political machinations, this was both solace and balm, and it was lovely to eavesdrop on John and Mary bidding 99p for the item. They cooed over the specifications ("oh, and a handy mid-cycle cancel button!") and bickered at length over crumb trays.

Graham Fellows: What I see in the mirror

Graham Fellows, comedian, aka John Shuttleworth: 'A lot of people become actors because they're not particularly happy with the way they look.'

John Shuttleworth interview

As one of the Daily Telegraph's 50 Reasons To Love Britain, John Shuttleworth, the ex-security guard and versatile singer/ organist from Sheffield, is a national institution, like Countdown and Spam.

Fabulous Fellows

John Shuttleworth doesn't think much of this coffee lark - all that money for an espresso and you don't even get milk with it!