Arthur Mathews

Mathews has contributed to many sketch shows, including Harry Enfield and Chums, The All New Alexei Sayle Show and the Ted & Ralph segments of The Fast Show. However, it was with Father Ted (three series, 1995–1998) that he and Graham Linehan made their biggest impression. It debuted on Channel 4.[1][2][3] The writing partnership had previously co-written the comedy Paris[4] (one series, 1994), also for Channel 4. Both Linehan and Mathews worked on the first series of sketch show Big Train, but Linehan dropped out for the second series. Mathews has also contributed to other British comedies such as Brass Eye, Jam, Black Books and later Toast of London. He later contributed sketches for Kevin Eldon, including the Amish Sex Pistols.[5] In 1999, Linehan and Mathews created the sixties-set sitcom Hippies, but the six-part series (which starred Simon Pegg and Sally Phillips) was written by Mathews alone.[6] In late 2003, the two men were named one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television by The Observer.[7]

Works

Toast of Tinseltown

Tortured thespian Steven Toast relocates to the ultimate actor's playground - Hollywood. Surely this time he will get the adulation he so richly deserves.

Release Date:2022-01-04

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:17

The Road to Brexit

Cult favourite Matt Berry offers his unique take on Brexit, in this one-off comedy special to mark the passing of the Article 50 deadline. Reuniting with collaborator Arthur Matthews for the first time since Toast Of London, Berry plays rogue historian Michael Squeamish, who’s on a mission to discover the origins of Brexit and offer some interesting opinions on Britain’s current plight along the way. Through creative use of archive footage and filmed interviews, The Road To Brexit unashamedly plays fast and loose with the facts to create a joyously surreal whistle stop tour of Britain’s relationship with Europe, from the 1950s right up to Brexit.

Release Date:2019-03-26

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:2

Toast of London

Steven Toast, an eccentric middle-aged actor with a chequered past, spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it.

Release Date:2013-10-20

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:18

Vote Count:85

Small, Far Away: The World of Father Ted

On the 15th anniversary of its launch, this documentary follows Father Ted creators Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews on a return trip to Craggy Island to take in its location and discuss how the series was made with cast and crew.

Release Date:2011-01-01

Vote Count:1

Val Falvey, TD

Val Falvey, TD is an Irish comedy television programme starring Ardal O'Hanlon and Owen Roe. The show began airing on RTÉ Two in November 2009. The show is about Val Falvey, a TD in the fictional town of Kilmehill.

Release Date:2009-11-22

Department:Creator

Job:Creator

Wide Open Spaces

Have you ever had a best friend you couldn't stand? Myles has one - Austin - only he's too much of a slacker to do anything about it. In fact, each one of these layabouts is as useless as the other: a pair of thirty-somethings who laze around watching their lives flutter past. Fate, however, has plans to remedy their lack of motivation. Up to their necks in debt, they decide to help a dodgy entrepreneur, Gerard, to create a new landmark in Irish tourism: a Famine Theme Park.

Release Date:2009-07-19

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:2

I Am Not an Animal

I Am Not An Animal is an animated comedy series about the only six talking animals in the world, whose cosseted existence in a vivisection unit is turned upside down when they are liberated by animal rights activists.

Release Date:2004-05-10

Character:Niall the Rabbit (voice)

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:781

The Catherine Tate Show

Comedy legend Catherine Tate plays all her best-loved characters in this riotous sketch show. Expect sulky teens, offensive nans and the most tactless women in the world.

Release Date:2004-02-16

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:2

Vote Count:31

Paedogeddon: A Brass Eye Special

A team from a live studio reports their organised efforts to secure children in stadiums across the country while an appeal is made regarding the sighting of a paedophile disguised as a school.

Release Date:2001-07-26

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Black Books

Black Books centres around the foul tempered and wildly eccentric bookshop owner Bernard Black. Bernard’s devotion to the twin pleasures of drunkenness and wilful antagonism deepens and enriches both his life and that of Manny, his assistant. Bearded, sweet and good, Manny is everything that Bernard isn’t and is punished by Bernard relentlessly just for the crime of existing. They depend on each other for meaning as Fran, their oldest friend, depends on them for distraction. Black Books is a haven of books, wine and conversation, the only threat to the group’s peace and prosperity is their own limitless stupidity.

Release Date:2000-09-29

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:519

Jam

Adapted from Blue Jam, a late night radio show, Jam consists of six shows featuring dark humour and unsettling sketches unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. From the mind of Chris Morris.

Release Date:2000-03-23

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:3

Vote Count:26

Hippies

Swinging London, 1969. From his flat in Notting Hill Gate, Ray Purbbs edits an 'underground' (that is, counterculture) magazine, Mouth, assisted by his fellow hippies Alex, Jill and Hugo. Ray is passionate about protest, ludicrously enthusiastic about every hip trend and convinced he is (or could be) a major player in the battle between the Establishment and the alternative society. Alex - though he comes from a wealthy background and seems more interested in golf than altering society - is coolness personified, a man so laid-back he seems to exist outside of reality. Jill embraces all the new-found liberty afforded her gender and claims to espouse free love, though this attitude doesn't stretch to her 'boyfriend', Ray, long been deprived of her carnal interest. Hugo is spectacularly vague, almost brilliant in his obliqueness. Led by Ray, the quartet jump on every trendy bandwagon and comprehensively fail to make the slightest bit of difference in all they do. The gang are pretty useless at everything - in fact, they're not even that good at being hippies.

Release Date:1999-11-12

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:6

Vote Count:12

Suit You Sir! The Inside Leg Of The Fast Show

A look at how the Fast Show developed into one of TV's most successful series, with contributions from the creators, writers, cast and some famous fans.

Release Date:1999-09-11

Character:Himself

Big Train

Twisted and original sketch show from the minds of Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews, starring Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon and Mark Heap.

Release Date:1998-11-09

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:12

Vote Count:48

I'm Alan Partridge

The fortunes of a former chat show host who is reduced to a lowly slot on Radio Norwich. Alan Partridge is divorced, living in a travel tavern, and desperate for a return to television.

Release Date:1997-11-03

Character:Paul Tool

Episode Count:1

Vote Count:154

Never Mind the Horrocks

Jane Horrocks showcases her wide-ranging talents as a mimic and comedy performer.

Release Date:1996-09-19

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Coogan's Run

Coogan's Run was a 1995 UK TV series featuring Steve Coogan as a series of odd characters living in the fictional town of Ottle. It was written by various people including Coogan, Patrick Marber, David Tyler, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Geoffrey Perkins and Henry Normal. The series consists of six self-contained stories, although Coogan's characters from the other episodes in the series make occasional cameo appearances.

Release Date:1995-11-17

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:2

Vote Count:5

Father Ted

A crazy comedy about three rather strange parish priests exiled to Craggy Island, a remote island off the Irish west coast.

Release Date:1995-04-21

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Character:Father Billy Kerrigan

Episode Count:25

Vote Count:307

The Fast Show

The Fast Show is a multi BAFTA award winning sketch comedy show written and produced by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson.

Release Date:1994-09-27

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:22

Vote Count:46

Paris

Paris is a British sitcom produced by Talkback Productions for Channel 4. It was written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, best known for their later sitcom Father Ted. The show only lasted one series consisting of six episodes in October and November 1994. It featured the escapades of French artist Alain Degout living in 1920s Paris, who wants to be famous, but his work gets him nowhere. Unlike BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo, which was also set in France, featuring characters speaking in French accents, the characters of Paris spoke in an English accent.

Department:Creator

Job:Creator

Vote Count:1