Lead Balloon
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| Lead Balloon | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) |
| Running time | approx. 0:29 (per episode) |
| Creator(s) | Jack Dee Pete Sinclair |
| Starring | Jack Dee Raquel Cassidy Sean Power |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Original channel | BBC Four |
| Original run | 4 October 2006–8 November 2006 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| IMDb profile | |
Lead Balloon is a British television sitcom written by and starring British comedian Jack Dee. It began broadcasting on BBC Four on 4th October, 2006, and it is produced and directed by Alex Hardcastle.
A second 8-episode series was commissioned in November 2006 for broadcast on BBC Two in Autumn 2007.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The central character is Rick Spleen. Similarly to Jack Dee, he is a successful middle-aged comedian with elements of cynicism and misanthropy in his humour. Although wealthy, respected and generally well-meaning, Rick's life is still plagued by petty annoyances, disappointments and embarrassments, many of them resulting from his own stubbornness and his incompetence as a liar.
[edit] Cast / Characters
[edit] Main cast
- Jack Dee as Rick Spleen
- Rick is a stand-up comedian living in London. He has had a successful career, including television appearances, and he is a celebrity. He now makes most of his money doing shows for corporate clients and he feels that he has lost his way as a comedian. Spleen is not his real name, and the choice of it is something he regrets. He is a habitual and incompetent liar. He is also incompetent at practical tasks, but will often attempt them to avoid dealing with professionals.
- Raquel Cassidy as Mel
- Mel is Rick's partner. She is a talent agent. She is a strong contrast with Rick, being calm, perceptive and considerate of other people.
- Sean Power as Marty
- A less successful comedian, from New York. He writes material for Rick. They have an argumentative professional relationship but are really friends, often working together in Rick's house or Michael's cafe. He understands Rick well, and tries to moderate Rick's more desperate behaviour. He is quietly frustrated with Rick, England and his career.
- Tony Gardner as Michael
- Michael owns and runs the cafe that Rick and Marty frequent. The cafe mainly sells organic food and drinks. He lives with his father and he is socially awkward to the extent of seeming a bit disturbed. It is rumoured that he was a high-flyer in The City but suffered a nervous breakdown.
[edit] Recurring cast
- Anna Crilly as Magda
- Rick and Mel's housekeeper. She comes from an East European country. She is often puzzled by British attitudes, behaviour and language. She is a willing worker and generally suffers Rick's selfish eccentricities in sullen silence.
- Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Sam
- Rick and Mel's teenage daughter. She attends a sixth form college. Her main role is extracting money from Rick, often by expressing sympathy for his misfortunes.
- Rasmus Hardiker as Ben
- Sam's boyfriend, who goes to the same college. He is a stoner. In episode 4, he starts a circus skills course but finds it too restricting and gives up after one morning.
[edit] Episode guide (series one)
| # | Episode | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Rubbish" | October 4, 2006 |
| Rick dresses up as the Earth to film an advertisement promoting recycling. Rick and Mel are invited to a christening by one of her clients. They struggle to devise an excuse not to go, and are both struck by the ugliness of the baby. Rick and Marty try to write material for a corporate gig which Rick will be doing for a notoriously thuggish loans company; Rick rejects all the material as dangerously provocative. Rick has a frustrating time trying to buy a christening present without being ripped off. Michael has devised a new cake recipe and forces Rick to take a sample home, where it is thrown away. A few days later, a series of articles appears in a tabloid, for which a journalist has gone through the contents of Rick's dustbin. The articles describe large amounts of recyclable rubbish (making Rick look hypocritical), the discarded jokes for the corporate gig (and an angry response from the company), the cake, and the torn-up invitation (with the baby's photograph defaced by Rick). In the closing credits, Rick is buying an extremely expensive teddy bear for the baby. | ||
| 2 | "Wayne" | October 11, 2006 |
| A noisy paperboy (the Wayne of the title) is waking Rick early in the mornings. Rick can't find any teaspoons. The toaster is broken. Rick ineffectually complains to the newsagent (Vicki Pepperdine). He takes the toaster back to the shop and lies to the owner (Ewen Macintosh) about when he bought it. He steals teaspoons from Michael's cafe, ineptly. Rick ends up buying a very expensive new toaster, shamefacedly returning the teaspoons to Michael (who somehow gets the toaster as well), and lying awake all night fretting about being woken up by Wayne. The episode also features a bad ABBA tribute band and a DVD of "funny" home videos. | ||
| 3 | "£5000" | October 18, 2006 |
| Rick has a fight with an abusive audience member (who was getting bigger laughs than Rick) and gets a cut near his eye. Magda recommends vodka, which proves very painful. Michael is doing a sponsored skip for charity. Rick has sponsored him for £5, not realising that this means £5 per skip, for a predicted thousand skips (hence £5000). Rick tries to back out and ends up offering Michael a flat £500, which Michael refuses. Marty is angry with Rich after a failed TV pitch (which is not shown). Shortly after, Rick "accidentally" hits Michael with his car. Rick belittles the Community Support Officer investigating the accident, who has Rick arrested by the regular police and detained for a few hours. Michael now has a hurt leg and a black eye. The skipping is cancelled but Michael takes the £500 anyway. Rick recommends vodka for the black eye. | ||
| 4 | "Allergic" | October 25, 2006 |
| Rick does a corporate gig with 70s comedian Bob Fairchild (Ted Robbins). Rick makes coffee for Bob, who mentions a caffeine allergy. The next day Rick hears that Bob suddenly died. Rick worries that he inadvertently killed Bob with the coffee, and Marty winds him up. Bob's daughter Fiona, one of Mel's clients, is reportedly devastated. Rick and Marty work on material for a comedy news quiz, and Rick makes Magda pursue a shopping channel for an undelivered free gift. Eventually, the show goes very well and Rick learns how Bob really died. Rick and Marty return home loudly drunk and happy, only to find Mel in the kitchen comforting poor Fiona. Rick is tactless. | ||
| 5 | "Pistachio" | November 1, 2006 |
| Rick has bought a scooter, "pistachio" in colour (light green). The scooter is the subject of general derision and Rick becomes embarrassed with it. Magda's mother (in her home country) has injured her knee and Magda, believing that she has inherited weak knees, is wallowing in suffering. Rick has an argument with a dry cleaner. Rick buys a black leather jacket and later gives it to Magda, who then sells it on eBay. In the final credits, Rick is trying to paint the scooter black. | ||
| 6 | "Fatty" | November 8, 2006 |
| On a chat show, the host rudely comments that Rick is getting fat. Rick is offended but Mel and the others agree, and Marty taunts him with doughnuts. An elderly neighbour, Doris, has lost a cat, which Rick finds in his garage as he is heading out to the gym. At the gym, another man comments on Rick's weight. Rick angrily claims that his weight is a side-effect of cancer drugs, whereupon the other man reveals that he has colon cancer. An awkward scene results. Magda returns the cat and gets a £100 reward. Rick takes the money off her and donates it to the man's colon cancer charity. Later, Doris's son comes to Rick's house and makes Rick pay the money back. As Rick is closing the door, he comments on Rick's weight. | ||
[edit] Influences
Many people[citation needed] have compared Lead Balloon to the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, basically because Jack Dee plays a fictionalized version of himself - a successful middle-aged comedian - as Larry David does in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Like the "Larry David" character, Rick Spleen gets into awkward situations through pride, stubbornness, petty dishonesty, and lack of agility in social situations.
There are also similarities in the camerawork, the way the jokes are structured, and the absence of a laughter track. The ugly baby situation in episode one is similar to a situation in an episode of David's previous series Seinfeld, and the stealing cutlery situation in episode two occurred in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
However, Lead Balloon is more laid-back in tone than Curb Your Enthusiasm and the dialogue is more strictly scripted rather than being improvised. In interview, Dee has said that The Office was a bigger influence than Curb Your Enthusiasm[citation needed]. Comparisons have also been made with Extras[citation needed], which was written by the writers of The Office and is closer in situation to Lead Balloon, but was written and filmed at more or less the same time as Lead Balloon.
[edit] Trivia
- The show's theme tune is "One Way Road" (written by Noel Gallagher) performed by Paul Weller from his Studio 150 album.
- Armando Iannucci is credited as a script consultant.
- The first episode drew 383,000 viewers, a record for comedy on BBC Four. However, the third episode had only 199,000 viewers. The initial high viewing figures prompted the BBC to start showing the series on BBC Two from October 26, while it was still running on BBC Four.
