'DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BE YOURSELF?'

Laziness, semi-retirement and doing things slowly - Graham Fellows explains his filmmaking technique on the 20^th anniversary of documentary Nice Up North.

It's been just over forty years since writer/performer Graham Fellows - creatively adrift after his brief pop hit success as Jilted John - pulled on a polo neck, put on some specs and fired up the Yamaha keyboard to create the character of John Shuttleworth. Live tours, albums and a long-running radio show starring the character have followed down the decades.

Twenty years ago, Fellows directed and starred in the first full-length John Shuttleworth film, It's Nice Up North, working in tandem with acclaimed photographer Martin Parr. To mark the anniversary, Fellows is taking the film back around the country for a series of Q&A screenings. Here, he talks to Cult Manchester's Andy Murray about the highs and lows of bringing his alter ego to the silver screen.

Cult Manchester: What possessed you to make a Shuttleworth feature film in the first place?

Graham: It came about because I'd done a gig up in the Shetland Isles a couple of years before. In 2003 or so, I took my family up there. We decided to do that sort of tourist thing of hopping up the islands to the most northerly… and I couldn't help but notice that people seemed to get nicer the further north we went. Also, I remember that my map folded in a very amusing way, so when you opened it, it looked like the most northerly island was Yell. Then, as you opened it more, you got the last island. So, I suddenly saw a plot device. It just started brewing in my mind that John could go up to Shetland and see if people are nicer the further north you go. I remembered my map, and I kept that plot device, and we added a few more. 

CM: It's Nice Up North was a collaboration with the (now late) photographer Martin Parr, credited as 'cinematographer'. How would you describe his role in the project?

Graham: I think I always had Martin Parr in mind and he very graciously agreed to come along, but I didn't have him for long because he had such a busy schedule, so the thing was shot very quickly. It was five filming days, I think, in Shetland, which is crazy - but we did it. Martin's part would have been bigger, I guess, if he had had more time. But as a very busy professional photographer, he was only able to give up the odd afternoon to look at footage and stuff and advise.

I'd kind of done a bit of a plot for it and I'd written some script, and actually that was something Martin and I didn't always agree on. He felt that the film could have just been random encounters, but I think he's wrong. I think you need that trajectory of John having an overall mission of going, 'let's go to the most northerly point'. I felt you need little plot devices like Ken (Shuttleworth's agent) ringing up, so we kept those in. But probably the best bits are where the magic happens, where we're just riffing off people that we met in the street.

CM: How did Martin feel about the finished film?

Graham: We did collaborate on the edit and I think he was reasonably happy in the end. I remember my madcap ideas like making a woman in a coat look like she was a model on the catwalk - he liked that, but initially he was resistant to it.

I think if the film's got a fault - well, it's probably got lots of faults - but one of the faults is that it was my first film, so I got my first experience of editing with modern digital software and fell overly in love with things like speeding up and slowing down, freeze frames and going backwards. I still cling to those silly effects, because I find them funny and enjoyable and sometimes, I just want to freeze the frame and talk about something, I'm just doing it very instinctively. Because of the way I make films, it's very haphazard and amateurish, really. I've learned to trust that, actually, over the years.

CM: Did you have any kind of a model for the film? People like Patrick Keiler and Andrew Kotting were making wryly humorous British UK travelogue-type documentaries around that time, but still not quite anything like what you were doing.

Graham: You see, I should be aware of those, but I don't think I was. It's funny - when I made my film, there didn't seem to be many filmmakers. And now, of course, there are thousands and they're all making films for Instagram, YouTube, the social media platforms. I think my approach is different because I'm not thinking how to influence people really or how to make money on the content. It strikes me that a lot of that content, almost all of it is just so fast. It seems to be a thing that young people do particularly. So, I just go the other way. I do everything really slowly.

CM: Do you remember the shoot as a happy time? Was that a pleasant experience for you?

Graham: No, no, it wasn't at all, because I was absolutely worn out. I was trying to do about 10 jobs. I didn't have a script editor. I did all my own makeup and costume. I didn't have anyone to really help. Well, we were a skeleton film crew and we did have a guy driving us around. But no, it was very stressful.

The evenings were not relaxing. We stayed in a hotel in Lerwick, the capital of Shetland and I'd be eating my tea while I was writing up all the notes for the next day or ironing my trousers, having to wash them because they got splashed with mud. But apart from that, I was very happy. I was very happy when things went really well, like when I knew we'd got a good scene under our belts.

CM: Was there maybe a degree to which you'd bitten off more than you thought you had when you were in the midst of it?

Graham: Yeah, but I think that's what you have to do. You have to push yourself. See, I don't really push myself anymore. That's where I get a bit bored. I wake up and look out the window and I see coils of steam coming from - this is a few months ago, not now - coming out of central heating vents. I'm semi-retired and life has become very dull. I need to push myself. Luckily, I've got this tour coming up. And I'm sure at some point I will not be able to resist doing some more gigs with John, but I don't know where or when.

CM: You've made three feature films now - It's Nice Up North, plus the 2009 follow-up John Shuttleworth adventure Southern Softies and 2022's Father Earth. Do you have any urge to do a fourth?

Graham: Yes, there is one brewing. There was there was talk of doing a final one in the John Shuttleworth series, about going west - possibly It's Weird Up West, something like that. It might have involved going to Ireland, but it never materialised. Martin Parr - who, of course, has now sadly died - was interested in us doing a third one. He did work on Southern Softies, but only for a day, so he said, 'well, maybe we can do a whole film together and this time I'll be the director and the editor, or we control the editing'. And I said, 'yeah, OK'. Unfortunately, that never happened. But we'll see.

CM: Could you imagine making a third Shuttleworth film with another artistic collaborator, letting somebody else into that world and your process?

Graham: Yeah, I think I could certainly be directed when we're being filmed. It's just that when it comes to editing, I think I know what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the sort of crazy odd things. A lot of the script is actually constructed in the edit, after the event. I did 500 Bus Stops (1997 John Shuttleworth BBC TV show), a whole series with someone else directing and controlling the edit, and I wasn't able to delve into the more haphazard sort of instinctive things that happened.

But I really hope I'll make another film. I think I will, definitely. I would say I'm a documentary filmmaker - if you want to call me a filmmaker, and most people don't. But occasionally I like to imagine I am one. I mean, I know a few proper documentary filmmakers and they're amazing, and they're all skint as well. It's not an easy business.

But I think my biggest problem is getting too comfy in being lazy. You've got to have that hunger. Mine goes a lot and it takes a while to come back. I have it a bit, but I can feel the slow onset. It amazes me when I see people like John Cooper Clarke. Now, is he hungry or is he just mad? Because he's gigging all the time! It's OK, I can be rude about John. I've known him a long time...

But I think you've got to do things for a reason, and it shouldn't be money. Well, in my case, it wouldn't be money, making an arty film. It would just be because I really, really want to do it. In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to touring with this film and doing Q&As and meeting audiences and hopefully selling some of my brand new It's Nice Up North mugs.

CM: Your last film, Father Earth (in which Fellows mostly appears out of character as himself with members of his family), was something quite special. Very engaging without ever being saccharine, very genuine.

Graham: Thank you. I mean, do you know how hard it is to be yourself? It really was hard. To make a voiceover is so difficult and I still struggle with that. And it's so easy to be John...

The  It's Nice Up North 20^th Anniversary Screening tour is calling at HOME Manchester (17 September 2026) and Sale Waterside (18 October). Details here.

Certain screenings on the tour will also include Martin Parr: A Southern Softie? This is a new eight-minute retrospective film Fellows has made about his friend and collaborator.