Comedian and actor Steve Delaney created Count Arthur Strong at drama school in the 1980s. The character’s backstory goes something like this: A faded music hall star over the age of 70. Pompous. Easily distracted. Always ready to perform wherever there might be an audience – especially if it involves making any money. However, Count Arthur Strong isn’t a very professional entertainer and his performances often result in chaos.
In the ’90s and early ’00s, Delaney took his quirky elderly character on the comedy circuit as well as appeared at numerous editions of the Edinburgh Fringe, with his 2002 Forgotten Egypt show – a ventriloquism act with a mummy dummy – receiving huge acclaim.
Radio 4 began airing Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show! in 2005. It ran until 2012 and picked up a Sony Gold Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2009.
Then the character was re-imagined for the BBC2 sitcom Count Arthur Strong, which aired from 2013 to 2017. Written by Delaney and Graham Linehan, it followed a delusional out-of-work star who used to have a radio show and was now attempting to make it big on television.
Count Arthur Strong was back again in 2018 with the Alive And Unplugged tour, his first live solo show in over a decade. That was followed in 2019 by the huge Is There Anybody Out There? tour, during which he combined his showbiz experiences with big questions about science and philosophy that other entertainers are usually afraid to tackle.
The Evening Standard described Delaney’s Count Arthur Strong portrayal as “pure genius and pure tribute to the golden age of vaudeville”, while The Guardian said, “at every turn his performance gives us something to marvel at”.
On 20 November 2020, Count Arthur Strong relented “due to substantial public demand” and allowed himself to be talked into a brand new tour titled And This Is Me! crossing the UK from February to June 2022.
In 2024, Count Arthur Strong announced a new festive run of shows, entitled Count Arthur Strong is Charles Dickens in 'A Christmas Carol', which would see him tour the UK across November and December.
