Like history, and the kipper, comedy tends to repeat on you. For example, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle amounts to very little more than Lee doing his stand-up comedy act in front of an audience but with a camera pointing at him, and Dave Allen at Large, of blessed memory, amounted to the same thing. But…
On his Comedy Vehicle Stewart Lee drove a cross between a tractor and the field it was ploughing into the debate that should start now about the purpose of BBC Two. After the silliest opening titles Lee could dream up, in which his tractor-field was followed by a troupe of circus performers, Stewart Lee’s Comedy…
Stewart Lee is not a happy man – at least, he doesn’t seem that way. The blood vessels run close to the surface of his face, giving him the appearance of having a permanent, self-loathing blush. He talks in hushed tones, occasionally giving out a harsh, maniacal cackle. Say the wrong thing and he jumps…
GO into any bookshop and you’ll see the shelves are groaning under the weight of celebrity books. They’re big business in the publishing world, but Stewart Lee isn’t impressed. The stand-up comedian turns the pages of “toilet books”, his opening topic in his new BBC2 series. He explores a different theme each week, beginning with…