Lead Balloon

Lead Balloon
The title screen of Lead Balloon
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Jack Dee Pete Sinclair
Starring	Jack Dee Raquel Cassidy Sean Power Tony Gardner
Opening theme	Paul Weller - One Way Road
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	29 min.
Original release
Network	File:BBC Four logo.png BBC Four
Release	October 4, 2006 – Present

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 was repeated soon after on BBC Two.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.

A further repeat of the series on BBC HD began on December 19, 2006, one of the few comedies to do so..

Characters

• Rick Spleen (Jack Dee) — Rick is a stand-up comedian living in London. He now stuggles to get decent gigs, making ends meet by hosting corporate events such as the Frozen Goods Awards Evening, prompting him to feel he has failed 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 often attempts practical tasks himself in an attempt to avoid paying professionals, but his incompetence usually leads to failure.

• Mel (Raquel Cassidy) — Rick's partner and a talent agent. She is a strong contrast with Rick, being calm, perceptive and considerate of other people.

• Marty (Sean Power) — Although less successful as a comedian, Marty (originally from New York) writes the majority of Rick's material. They have an argumentative professional relationship but are really friends, often working together in Rick's house or Michael's café. He understands Rick well, and tries to moderate Rick's more desperate behaviour. He is quietly frustrated with Rick, Britain and his own career.

• Michael (Tony Gardner) — Michael owns and runs the cafe that Rick and Marty frequently visit to escape the chaos of Rick's home. The cafe mainly sells organic food and drinks. He lives with his father and he is socially awkward to the extent of seeming a slightly simple. It is rumoured that he was a high-flyer in the City but suffered a nervous breakdown.

Recurring characters

• Magda (Anna Crilly) — Rick and Mel's Eastern European housekeeper. She is often puzzled by British attitudes, language and, in her view, softness. She is a willing worker and generally suffers Rick's selfish eccentricities in sullen silence.

• Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) — Rick and Mel's teenage daughter. She attends a sixth form college. Her main role is extracting money from Rick, often by expressing sympathy at his misfortunes.

• Ben (Rasmus Hardiker) — Sam's stoner boyfriend, who goes to the same college. He had numerous interests and jobs through the first series, including a circus skills course. However he does not see most of his schemes through, leaving his shelf-stacking Saturday job on the grounds that "they wanted me to be in, like, y'know, before the shop's open and that" which is "not his style".

Plot

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.

Episodes

Main article: List of Lead Balloon episodes

Influences

Many reviewers have compared Lead Balloon to the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Jack Dee plays a fictionalized version of himself – a successful middle-aged comedian – as Larry David does in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 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 scripted rather than improvised. In an interview with The Guardian, Dee acknowledged the influence of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, stating, however, that the "paradigm shift" of The Office was a bigger influence.

Production

Music

The show's theme tune is One Way Road (written by Noel Gallagher) performed by Paul Weller from his Studio 150 album. A song in one of the episodes of this series is called The Luckiest (written by Ben Folds) in his Rockin' the Suburbs album .

Ratings

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.

External links

• Lead Balloon official website at bbc.co.uk
• Lead Balloon at IMDb
• Lead Balloon at The British Sitcom Guide
• 'So what's the big idea?' (2006-09-30) article at Times Online