GRAHAM Fellows will be Completely Out Of Character at Leeds City Varieties tomorrow and East Riding Theatre, Beverley, on Wednesday in his one-man show about several men.

Step forward his teenage days as satirical pop star Jilted John, created when studying drama at Manchester Polytechnic; his 25 years and more as perky, sanguine Sheffield songsmith and quirky philosopher of the mundane, mint-loving, keyboard-playing John Shuttleworth; and their fellow Fellows' fellows, rock musicologist and (suspended) media studies lecturer Brian Appleton and Goole laser-screeding concrete contractor Dave Tordoff.

Plus his two cameo roles in Coronation Street, first as a Young Man who chatted up Gail Potter while she was waiting for Brian Tilsley outside a cinema in an episode in January 1979 and, secondly, Les Charlton, who, between June and July 1982, had a platonic friendship with Gail while Brian, now her husband, was away working in Qatar.

Now having caught up with the age of bon-viveur Shuttleworth, 59-year-old Fellows has – temporarily – jilted John Shuttleworth, stopping touring in his purple leather jacket and fawn slacks after his My Last Will And Tasty Mint, packing away John's keyboard in favour of his acoustic guitar and a pedal harmonium to perform his own songs: revelatory, humorous and oddball still, sometimes sad too, topped off by Jilted John's number four hit from August 1978.

Expect also to hear the tale of the night jazz legend George Melly broke into Fellows' bedsit and of the time Fellows bought a packet of bread sauce with a famous Hollywood actor, poignantly recalled in the ballad Mark Rylance Was My Lodger.

"The history of this show is I did 18 dates starting in January and February, then the Edinburgh Fringe for a couple of weeks in the summer and I thought, 'let's do a few more this autumn'," says Fellows. "It's definitely different from what I've done before, with people coming up afterwards saying 'you really bared your soul'.

"Little do they know I've made it up...but no, it really is my life story, slipping into John Shuttleworth, Dave Tordoff and Brian Appleton."

Songs of love and loss from Fellows' album Weird Town, released in January this year, will be aired too. "It's my first album since 1985; that one was called Love At The Hacienda, all about nightclubs. It's quite a classic in Japan," he says.

York Press:

Graham Fellows as that other fellow, John Shuttleworth

"I've also just done a Jilted John 40th anniversary tour, with the last gig in Manchester, which we recorded for an album that will come out next year; touring with my band, hiring a van, something I've not done before, which was hugely enjoyable. We all got on really well but it was all over in two or three weeks, and we just did it to mark the 40 years."

The guitar and pedal harmonium will be in action in Leeds and Beverley, with Fellows having a particular affinity for the harmonium. "I was doing a little play for the National Trust Theatre back in the 1980s in an old factory, and at the end I was so in love with this harmonium I'd been playing, I asked if I could have it, and they said 'yes' for £40.

"What makes it so lovely is it's all powered by your feet, and its sound is both happy and sad, melancholic and hopeful – and that matches how my life's had its ups and downs," says Fellows.

"In this show, I describe my 'big wobble': my breakdown at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2002, when I left my show and just packed it in. Before that, I'd been a milkman for about three months in 1988/89, because John Shuttleworth had started doing well, supporting Robert Plant at the Marquee Club, but I was troubled by depression, as my mum had died the year before and I thought I should be doing something useful for the community."

Looking ahead, John Shuttleworth will be back in action in 2020, to coincide with a book."I'm going to be 60 next year and I don't like the idea of John getting past 60, but that's where we are now!" says Fellows.

Meanwhile, listen out for The Shuttleworths, back on BBC Radio 4 this season, including a half-hour slot straight after The Archers on Sunday, December 23 at 7.15pm.

Graham Fellows: Completely Out Of Character, Leeds City Varieties, Sunday, November 18, 7.30pm; East Riding Theatre, Beverley, November 21. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or cityvarieties.co.uk; Beverley, 01482 874050eastridingtheatre.co.uk/2018/06/graham-fellows/