Sean Lock has died

[msm]

Can't remember what episode

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thomas-way-podcast/id489814891
Though feel I  have looked on Sean unfavourably after , and it seems unfounded/ unjustified   now . silly me .

[Barry Admin]

The old thread may help in narrowing it down; from a quick look, it would seem to be within the first five episodes.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=31287.0

[The Mollusk]

It's weird, I don't think of the style as off-putting in the slightest now, maybe it was due to watching it 20 years ago on a shitty tv, i just remember flicking on to a scene in a flat and it looked so dark and bleak so i just carried on flicking.

"It's your telly, you've got the brightness turned right down!"

"... Is it on?"

I watched the "Keep It Light" standup last night which has been uploaded to All 4 as a tribute to Sean. Shame they picked such a relatively rubbish show from the final years of his life to pay respects really, it wasn't great at all and there's a fucking ad break spliced into it every 10 minutes which demolishes the pace entirely.

[zomgmouse]

Sean appeared in this comedy roast of Bruce Forsyth and was I think the best of the lot: https://youtu.be/ZzBt2Zu-rBE

[pigamus]

I even remember the ad that BBC2 used to run for 15 Storeys High

"Baldy!"
"I'm not bald!"

I started watching off the back of that I think

[AsparagusTrevor]

I even remember the ad that BBC2 used to run for 15 Storeys High

"Baldy!"
"I'm not bald!"

I started watching off the back of that I think

There were adverts for 15 Storeys High?

[Barry Admin]

I know you guys hate him now, but I'd like to point out that Armando Iannucci frequently and noisily went to bat for 15 Storeys High in the press at the time. Just worth remembering, I think.

Armando Iannucci on 15 Storeys High
(BBC 2002)

This comedy series was on the BBC fairly recently. It was written by and featured Sean Lock, the comedian, and was set in a block of flats. A strange blend of gritty realism and mad surrealism, and very, very funny. It's difficult to describe. Sean basically shared this flat with a brilliant actor called Benedict Wong, who played the part of a not quite stupid but very innocent - hysterically innocent - flatmate. The show was always scheduled at something like 59 minutes past one in the morning because I think the people in the BBC didn't really understand it. If you speak to other comedians they'll sing its praises to high heaven, and then just shake their heads in bewilderment that nothing came of it. The first series is out on DVD, but I hope they bring the second series out as well.

15 Storeys High is a great unsung comedy, says Armando Iannucci.

Life is full of mysteries, such as "where do they put the emergency exits in the Channel Tunnel?". But for me, one of the greatest is why isn't 15 Storeys High recognised as the comic classic it is? The second series, which starts on BBC Two this week, has been dumped, like an insane relative of the Royal Family, out of sight where no one is likely to notice (late on Sunday nights).

In case you know nothing about 15 Storeys High, it's a quietly absurd sitcom starring Sean Lock as Vince, a grumpy swimming pool attendant who lives in a tower block with a second-generation Chinese northerner called Errol, played by Benedict Wong.

It's filmed in a blanched-out sequence of static, grainy shots that trap you into thinking you're about to get some grim kitchen-sink piece of social commentary. In fact, what you get is a joyously escalating series of warm and hilarious plots prompted by the inconsequential. My favourite memory from the first series is of Errol peeling off a bit of loose wallpaper in the bathroom, only to end up stripping the room bare and backing out of the flat with all the wallpaper down his trousers, his bum now enormous and crinkling, trying to pretend to Vince that nothing had happened.

Even little moments of dialogue burst out of control, such as Vince persuading Errol not to buy goldfish: "You get one goldfish and it's lonely. You get two and they don't get on. You get a third and it's two on one. You get a fourth and it's a borstal."

15 Storeys High is difficult to describe, because it is unlike any other sitcom. The last comedy I can remember that arrived with such a perfect, idiosyncratic and fully formed comic world of its own was Father Ted. It's that good. I want you to watch it so much it hurts.

[Jittlebags]

Just to add a couple of small items to his resume..

1 Dec 1998. 'Aternative comedian' in Make Mary Merry section of Radio Shuttleworth S1, E5.
15 Dec 2005. Harvey the Harpendon Plumber in Ed Reardon's Week S3, E1 The Name Check

[Small Potatoes]

Had my order for 15 Storeys High cancelled by Music Magpie, annoyingly. A cursory glance on eBay reveals several motherless fucks selling it for £60 and upwards.

I've just had the exact same thing happen with another eBay seller, claiming it was posted but they will offer a refund. Lying bastard. Looks like the full series is going for SEVENTY-FIVE QUID at the minute. That'll teach me to give away my previous copy.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

My Grace & Favour DVD never turned up after Frank Thornton died.

[jobotic]

That's because he died on his way to post it

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

There were adverts for 15 Storeys High?

I don't remember any. The first I heard of it was when Lock appeared on Room 101.

[studpuppet]

I've just had the exact same thing happen with another eBay seller, claiming it was posted but they will offer a refund. Lying bastard. Looks like the full series is going for SEVENTY-FIVE QUID at the minute. That'll teach me to give away my previous copy.

I have a Series 1 DVD and thought it would be nice to have the second series as well, so bought one off eBay for £8 (about £3 more than they were pre-posthumously), and got this message (bold is my emphasis):

Thank you for your purchase.

Unfortunately we have had an issue with our automated stock updater as this item is not currently in stock and should not have been listed yet.

We are expecting delivery of our stock within the next week, however as yet we do not have an exact date to when this would be.

If this is not an urgent purchase and you are happy to wait until then we can hold your order for you and dispatch when our stock is received.

Alternatively, if you need it urgently or would prefer to purchase elsewhere, I can arrange a cancellation request be sent instead?

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Either they had multiple listings and not enough units, or they realised they could put the price up and were hoping I'd cancel...

[Icehaven]

I've just had the exact same thing happen with another eBay seller, claiming it was posted but they will offer a refund. Lying bastard. Looks like the full series is going for SEVENTY-FIVE QUID at the minute. That'll teach me to give away my previous copy.

Hope the BBC stick it up on iplayer and pull the rug from the gouging fuckers.

[BritishHobo]

Charlie Brooker raved about it on Screenwipe as well, I remember. It is mad how neglected it was. Why fucking bother making it at all? The knowledge that he had a third series fully written is ENRAGING. Never made because they never actually bothered to give the show the opportunity to become successful in the first place.

[BeardFaceMan]

It's very easy to see why he was so upset about the whole thing and fucked off to panel shows instead, to put that much work into something, have it almost universally praised and to be treated like that must have hurt.

Was there really a third series written? Fuck, that's makes it even sadder.

[jsgibble]

There's a DVD rip here - subtitles included in the file as are the 4 commentaries
.
Removed

[Jerzy Bondov]

I sold the DVD to Music Magpie for FORTY FUCKING PENCE and now it's worth SEVENTY POUNDS?! Good CHRIST.

I ripped it but not the commentaries, so will grab that, cheers jsgibble.

[Small Potatoes]

There's a DVD rip here - subtitles included in the file as are the 4 commentaries

You're an absolute star - it's the commentaries I really wanted to hear again.

The seller I spoke of emailed to say that if another one comes into stock they will email me and honour the original price. They're obviously lying and I'll never hear from the cunt again.

[pigamus]

I don't remember any. The first I heard of it was when Lock appeared on Room 101.

It was that bit I've just quoted, where the kids are shouting nonsensical abuse at Vince. I thought, that looks interesting, and so it proved. How often they ran those trails, no idea.

[crankshaft]

There's a DVD rip here - subtitles included in the file as are the 4 commentaries

THANK YOU.

[Ambient Sheep]

It's very easy to see why he was so upset about the whole thing and fucked off to panel shows instead, to put that much work into something, have it almost universally praised and to be treated like that must have hurt.

sickasapike basically said as much (they were mates), in a post I keep meaning to dig out.

[Ambient Sheep]

Are you guys watching it on YouTube?
I never found the visual style off-putting, and wonder if that might explain the difference.

Mine was from a torrent, I don't know its original source.

I too am awaiting the DVD boxset, ordered via Amazon from someone called "Charley's" for £12.04 either the day he died or the day after, I forget.  (Had been meaning to check it out for ages anyway, as it gets the same level of praise on here as Inside No. 9 and Taskmaster, both of which I checked out and loved too.)

Allegedly it was posted last Friday but still holding my breath, especially given other people's experience.  I'll have a look if/when it arrives but from what I can gather it is meant to look like that.

[Petey Pate]

sickasapike basically said as much (they were mates), in a post I keep meaning to dig out.

So did Mark LaMarr in one of his recent radio appearances.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Are you guys watching it on YouTube?
I never found the visual style off-putting, and wonder if that might explain the difference.

Although I saw it at the time and knew it had been desaturated and looked dingy, I ended up buying the dvd's because of how bad all the versions on youtube etc looked.

It still looks like a dodgy rip on the dvd's, I guess it's the effect in itself often almost looks like a washed-out early-2000's 'camera in the cinema' pirate job.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Charlie Brooker raved about it on Screenwipe as well, I remember. It is mad how neglected it was. Why fucking bother making it at all? The knowledge that he had a third series fully written is ENRAGING. Never made because they never actually bothered to give the show the opportunity to become successful in the first place.

The bbc made ridiculous decisions at the time, both on BBC Three (commision some genuinely interesting comedies and give them a graveyard slot while carpet bombing the schedules with 2 pints of lager) and then stuff on BBC Two was getting fucked over by the fact Jane Root was dumbing things down.

The experience seems similar to what Stewart Lee wrote about directiong Attention Scum! around the same time:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/mar/12/mondaymediasection.bbc

[imitationleather]

Learning there's a third series of 15 Storeys High that never got made has seriously ruined my day.

[non capisco]

Learning there's a third series of 15 Storeys High that never got made has seriously ruined my day.

Yeah. That is brutal news. Fuck.

COME WIPE YOUR TEARS ON ME COAT!

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

It's really starting to get to me that 'Comedian Sean Lock last video' is still the first thumbnail in my youtube recommendations. I didn't even like him.

[msm]

There's a DVD rip here - subtitles included in the file as are the 4 commentaries

great the only thing I like as much as watching comedy is watching people talking about comedy , also had my order for the DVD cancelled .