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''Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle'' is a British
comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
series created by and starring Stewart Lee and broadcast on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
. It features
stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...
and sketches united by a theme for each episode. It was script-edited by Chris Morris and was initially executive-produced by
Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...
, marking a rare reformation of a creative team formed for '' On the Hour'' in 1991. Lee had said that this is exactly the sort of show he wanted to do, saying "I don't want to do any television that I don't have complete control of." The first series aired in 2009, with subsequent series in 2011, 2014 and 2016. Stewart Lee announced in May 2016 that the BBC had declined to make any further series. This was due primarily to cuts to BBC 2's comedy budget which would now focus instead solely on scripted comedy.


Format

The bulk of the show is a Stewart Lee stand-up comedy performance, recorded live at the Mildmay Club in
Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area in the northwest part of the London Borough of Hackney, England. The area is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington (parish), Stoke Newington, the ancient parish. S ...
with a club audience. Usually two episodes of the show were recorded per evening. Each episode has a theme, which Lee performs with his material. The stand-up is punctuated with sketches, written by Lee but usually performed by Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner with cameos from other TV and circuit comedians. From series 2, the sketches were removed in favour of a short film at the end of each episode. An element of the programme is the "hostile interrogator", played by Armando Iannucci in the second series and by Chris Morris in Series 3 and 4. In a darkened room, the interrogator quizzes Lee about his approach to stand-up comedy and his attitudes toward his audience and the comedy industry. In Series 1, the interrogator segments (with Iannucci and
Johnny Vegas Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, angry comedic rants, and use of surreal humour. Ve ...
as interrogators) were not included in the main programme, accessed instead via the
BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to cl ...
and included on the DVD releases as bonus features. The interrogator segments were integrated into the main body of the show by Series 2. The opening theme tune to Series 1 is "Tom Hark" by Elias & His Zig-Zag Jive Flutes. From series 2 there is a
cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In North ...
and no theme tune or title card.


DVD releases

*Series 1 was released on 7 September 2009 as a 2-disc region-2 PAL set. Red-button extras are included. *Series 2 was released on 20 June 2011 as a single-disc region-2 PAL issue. Red-button extras are absent. *Series 3 was released on 10 November 2014 as a 2-disc region-2 PAL set. During a promotional run of his '' A Room with a Stew'' tour at the Leicester Square Theatre the admission price included a complimentary copy of the DVD. *Series 4 was released on 10 October 2016 as a 2-disc region-2 PAL set.


Episodes


Series overview


Series 1

Series 1 was broadcast on BBC Two between 16 March to 20 April 2009.


Series 2

Series 2 was filmed between 11 and 14 January 2011; aired from 4 May to 8 June 2011. It features Armando Iannucci as the hostile interrogator. Six lines in the series were written by Bridget Christie, Simon Munnery and Tim Richardson.


Series 3

Series 3 was filmed between 17 and 19 December 2013; and aired from 1 March 2014. It introduced Chris Morris as the hostile interrogator.


Series 4

Series 4 consists of six episodes, broadcast from 3 March 2016.


Reception

Andrew Billen of ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' described the first series as "the most intelligent half hour of stand-up you will see on television this year" and that Lee "has become the master of deadpan stand-up". ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' Guide said "Lee's Vehicle feels well overdue, with his brand of bone-dry, spot-on scepticism a refreshing change from the perky, ambitious tones of the '' Mock the Week'' brigade ..it's brilliant." Brian Viner of ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' said "In my front room, Lee was preaching not so much to the converted, as to an ayatollah. He did so brilliantly, though." ''The Guardian'' named ''Comedy Vehicle'' as one of its top ten television highlights of 2009, commenting that it "was the kind of TV that makes you feel like you're not the only one wondering how we came to be surrounded by so much unquestioned mediocrity". One of the show's few negative reviews came in the ''
Sunday Mercury ''Sunday Mercury'' is a Sunday Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid published in Birmingham, UK, and now owned by Reach plc. History The first edition was published on 29 December 1918. The first editor was John Turner Fearon (1869–1937), w ...
'', which stated: "His whole tone is one of complete, smug condescension". Lee subsequently used this line to advertise his next stand-up tour. Writing about the third series in '' The Metro'', Keith Watson said "It’s comedy that makes you stop and think, and there’s not enough of it about", awarding the show four out of five stars. Ellen Jones writing in ''The Independent'' said "this comedy about comedy would be unforgivably self-indulgent if Lee wasn’t just as incisive on every other facet of modern life as he is on his own comedic genius".


Awards

In May 2010, the series was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy Programme, which was won by '' The Armstrong & Miller Show''. In May 2012, the second series of ''Comedy Vehicle'' was nominated for the same award, and won. At the 2011
British Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. The British Comedy Awards (1 ...
, the series won the award for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme, and Lee won Best Male Television Comic.


References


External links

* * *
The barnacle of British comedy
- ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 14 March 2009. Lee interviews himself for the paper shortly before broadcast of the first show. {{Christopher Morris 2009 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings 2000s British comedy television series 2010s British comedy television series BBC television comedy British stand-up comedy television series British English-language television shows