Alexei Sayle's Stuff
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Alexei Sayle's Stuff was a comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 18 episodes over 3 series from 1988 to 1991.
It starred stand-up comedian Alexei Sayle, with a recurring cast including Angus Deayton, Mark Williams, Arabella Weir, Tony Millan, Jan Ravens, Owen Brenman, Harriet Thorpe, and Felicity Montagu.
The sketches (which Alexei sometimes did and sometimes didn't appear in himself) were interspersed with Sayle's trademarked angry monologues delivered from increasingly odd locations about the UK which he traversed on a moped in a vague attempt to catalog and comprehend all the STUFF about him. The style of humour was often surreal, blunt and offensive to many, with the bulk of the content written by Alexei himself, with Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Additional material was contributed by long time collaborator David Stafford and comedian and promoter Huw David Thomas.
At the beginning of series 2 (in a sequence spoofing the creation of Disney's Mickey Mouse) it was revealed that Alexei Sayle was in fact a cartoon character. Viewers were shown a short extract from the very first animation from 50 years previously, named 'Steamboat Fatty' (spoofing, also, Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon), as well as Mouseketeer-esque children dancing around wearing bald wigs. An edited down version of this sketch becomes the title sequence for series 2. Series 1's titles feature a young fit hunk being turned by prosthetics into Mr Sayle. Series 3's were a pastiche of Zorro meets Juke Box Jury.
One episode in series 2 begins with a lengthy 'spoof' of Juliet Bravo featuring the JB number 2 Anna Carteret. Viewers were fooled into believing that the first few minutes of the programme was a real Juliet Bravo episode, the illusion being broken only when one of her male colleagues appears not to "know what a woman is". There was much other similar blending and bending of the boundaries of TV formats throughout the series.
As one might expect from the "Marxist" comedian and "Grandfather of Alternative Comedy" Sketches involved many historical charecters (particularly socialist ones) interspersed with biting comments on contemporay British Politics. Large volumes of venom were projected in the direction of the arch-nemesis of 1980s Alternative Comedy Margaret Thatcher.
Memorable sketches included:
Beauty Miss - Personal Beauty products as used by George Bernard Shaw and Berthold Brecht. Oscar Wilde's "The Noble Art of Verbal Abuse" - for protection against Millwall fans. An operatic interview with Sir Freddy Kruger. Joan Alone - Joan of Arc's personal biography, plugged during torture. Unemployment and Teletext - twin scourges of the 1990's. Issues - A treatise on Islamic politics with Samantha, Tina and Babs of the Toby Carvery, Oswestry. Horay for British Films - a satirical attack on the then dire state of the British Film Industry. International Olympics Committee looking round a council house in London with a view to staging the Olympics inside it. A drinks party held by Triffids. Fireman get dainty new uniforms and prance around like fashion models while out on the job. Most episodes in Series 3 feature the recurring charecter "Monsieur Obergene" A mime artist who is part Mr Bean and part Marcel Marceau.
Alexei Sayle's Stuff was a prelude to his 1994 series The All New Alexei Sayle Show, which was remarkably similar in content and was likewise followed by the less-successful Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round in 1998.
