Arthur Mathews (writer)

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Arthur Mathews (born c.1959 in County Meath, Ireland) is a comedy writer who, often with writing partner Graham Linehan, has either written - or contributed to - a number of popular television comedies.

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.

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.

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.

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 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!".

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.

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.

In late 2003, the writing duo were named one of the 50 funniest acts to work in television by The Observer. [link]

Arthur Mathews (writer)

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