15 Storeys High – Series 1 (6 episodes) [VHS] [2002]
Focused on the madcap lives of flatmates Vince (Sean Lock) and Errol (Benedict Wong), the first series of the critically acclaimed BBC comedy Fifteen Stories High craftily points out the eccentricities of the modern world. Vince is an oddball with the habits of a man who has spent too much time in his own company. A lifeguard at the local swimming pool, he takes great pride in being able to tell swimmers off for no reason, and obtains his home decorating ideas from photos in Readers’ Wives. His lodger, Errol is the opposite of Vince, naively stupid and always taken advantage of by others. But he has his own unusual habits, too, such as tearing at wallpaper whenever he sees an unstuck corner. Vince has the weirdest encounters, though: such as being locked in the stocks for six hours when wrongly accused of killing a swan; or taken hostage by a neighbour when he spies a moon-boot wearing Shetland pony in the man’s spare bedroom.
Equally as funny are the short stories of the other residents living in the tower block that are interspersed between the antics of Vince and Errol. Enclosed within the four walls of different flats on the estate, these claustrophobic locations provide the ideal settings for the extreme behaviours depicted. There’s the hygiene obsessive who forces a visiting double-glazing salesman to take a bath and wear a protective suit before being able to look round his flat; the old man who spends all night in front of a mirror in a pair of underpants pretending he’s James Bond; and a New Age enthusiast who’s always getting disturbed when recording relaxation tapes. The general weirdness of the series takes some getting used to, but once you decipher the crazy world of Vince and Errol this is five-star comedy with a dark tinge. –John Galilee
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Ssshhhhh! Don’t tell anyone how good it is…,
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I hadn’t even heard of 15 Storeys High until it was recommended to me by Amazon – presumably because I’ve purchased Spaced, Black Books and Game On in the past. I didn’t know what to expect from the series and I wasn’t familiar with Sean Lock, the writer and star, despite him being a cult figure on the stand-up circuit.
Sean plays Vince, resident of a tower block and a life guard at the local swimming pool. He rents his spare room to Errol (Benedict Wong), who struggles to come to terms with the lunacy of London-life and its inhabitants.
The humour is dry, dry, dry and there is no laughter track or title music. The direction (by Mark Nunneley) adds brilliantly to the humour with creative camera angles and ‘star wars’ style swipe cuts. Vince and Errol’s world is grimy and dark, populated by surreal (normal?) people and surreal happenings. The beauty of the series is that the two main protagonists don’t moan about their existence, they just get on with it, they go to work and they come home. Life goes on.
Vince get’s terrorised by scholl children, Errol gets a job in a fish market where his naivety makes him a tad prone to wind ups, Vince tries to get lucky with the girl upstairs, Errol tries to pass his driving test and Vince drink’s a bit too much ‘Blue Rat’ energy drink (‘all the energy of a rat, trapped in a can’).
Series 2 has just started showing on tv and I can’t wait for it to be released on DVD. Buy this DVD yourself but don’t tell anyone else how good it is – it’s a gem of a secret!
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|Giving olives to people who don’t like olives…,
15 Storey’s is a massively underrated show, which is hardly surprising to those who know that Sean has been one of the best stand-up comedians around for years and doesn’t seem to get the exposure his talent deserves. Witness his occassional slots on HIGNFY to get an idea of his dry distorted take on things – he always manages to give paul merton a run for his money.
I met Sean & Martin Treneman (the other writer) at the Darts this year and I have bad news for those waiting for series 2 to come out on DVD. Unfortunately Sean feels that the BBC have no time for him and didn’t ‘get’ FSH. Carlton aren’t willing to pick up Series 2 as a syndication (as they did for Series 1) as the sales figures weren’t startling and the BBC won’t produce it themselves. Unless another independent production company comes into the fold the chances are it won’t ever see the light of day.
Other than that, fans may be pleased to know that Sean & Martin are both lovely blokes who were happy to have a chat and pleased to meet fans of the show. And the darts was alot of fun.
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|All The Energy of a Rat in a Can,
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What can I say about this apart from I was weak from laughing afterwards. There is an abundance of very funny material, some quite dark although unlike other shows he doesn’t drop to the levels of sick humour. You will need to watch this a number of times to appreciate how well written and observed this comedy is. A tragedy for anyone who misses out, as most people appeared to when it was on BB3 and then BB2.
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