Arthur Mathews (born c1959) is an Irish writer who, often with writing partner Graham Linehan, has either written - or contributed to - a number of popular British comedies. 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Graham Linehan Graham Linehan (born 1969) is an Irish writer who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written - or written for - a number of popular British comedies. ... British Comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years. ...

As a partnership, the two have quietly been inserting their combination of overt daftness and gently unsettling queerness into all manner of places only the most dedicated viewer would detect.

He has contributed to many sketch shows, including Harry Enfield and Chums, The All New Alexei Sayle Show and, notably, the Ted & Ralph segments of The Fast Show. Harry Enfields Television Programme is a British sketch show starring Harry Enfield. ... The Fast Show is a BBC comedy Sketch show programme which ran from 1994 to 2000. ...

However, it was with Father Ted (3 series, 1995-1998) that Linehan & Mathews (as the pair are often referred to) made their biggest splash on the public imagination. Father Ted is a 1990s television situation comedy set on the extremely remote fictional Craggy Island off the west coast of Ireland. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Both Linehan and Mathews worked on the first series of sketch show Big Train but only Mathews had a hand in the, less fondly remembered, second series. Big Train is a surreal television comedy sketch show written by the creators of the more successful Father Ted, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan. ...

Nevertheless, Mathews has continued to provide material for many of the shows respected by hard core, thirty-something, comedy junkies, particularly Brass Eye and Jam. The Brass Eye logo. ... Jam is a British comedy television series created by Chris Morris. ...

The pair made a rare appearance in the hugely accomplished sitcom I'm Alan Partridge as two Irish men considering Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) for a contract. Typically, they went away with a strong urge to employ somebody else (Partridge: ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’. What a great song. It really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday, doesn’t it? You wake up in the morning, you’ve got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you’ve got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!". The examples and perspective in this article do not represent a worldwide view. ... Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word cover Im Alan Partridge is a British sitcom. ... Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word Alan Partridge is a fictional character portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan. ... Steve Coogan (born 14 October 1965 in Manchester, England) is an English actor and comedian. ...

In 1999 Linehan & Mathews created the sixties-set sitcom Hippies, but the six-part series (which starred Simon Pegg and Sally Phillips) was written by Mathews alone. Simon Pegg on-set in Shaun of the Dead Simon John Pegg (born February 14, 1970) is an English stand-up comedian, writer and film and television actor. ... Sally Phillips (born 10 May 1970, in Hong Kong) is a British comedienne who has appeared in many television programmes, such as Fist of Fun (1995), Comedy Nation (BBC 2), Im Alan Partridge (BBC 2, 1997), Holding the Baby (ITV, 1997), In The Red (BBC 2, 1998), Smack the...

In the absence of a picture, Mathews is the fairer haired of the two in the scene mentioned. Those looking for another point of distinction between the two should note that Mathews contributed to only one episode of the first two series of Black Books, whereas Linehan had a hand in six. Black Books is a British television sitcom, broadcast on Channel 4 and written by Dylan Moran, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley. ...

In late 2003, the writing duo were named one of the 50 Funniest acts In Britain by The Guardian. [1] In December 2003 The Observer newspaper printed its list of the 50 people it considered funniest and/or most influential in British comedy. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Further reading

• Well Remembered Days: Eoin O'Cellaigh's Memoirs of a Twentieth-century Irish Catholic -- Arthur Mathews (Paperback - Macmillan - March 9, 2001) ISBN 0333901630

A comic novel

• "Father Ted": The Complete Scripts -- Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews. (Paperback - Boxtree - October 20, 2000) ISBN 0752272357

A comic novel is a work of fiction in which the writer seeks to amuse the reader: sometimes with subtlety and as part of a carefully woven narrative, sometimes above all other considerations. ...

External links

The Guardian Newspaper's 50 Funniest People In Britain