Sean Lock
Encyclopedia
Sean Lock is an English
comedian
and actor
. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award
in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio. He has written material for such comics as Bill Bailey
, Lee Evans
and Mark Lamarr
and was voted the 55th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007 and again in the updated 2010 list as the 19th greatest stand-up comic.
, Surrey
. Prior to becoming a comedian, he was a labourer on building sites. During this time, he developed skin cancer
. His first television appearance was in 1993, when he appeared in a supporting role alongside Rob Newman and David Baddiel
in their TV show Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. He toured with the duo as their support act, and, as a result, became the first comedian to perform at Wembley Arena
. Newman and Baddiel were widely promoted as being the first comedians to have performed at Wembley but, in his capacity as their warm-up, Lock technically takes this honour. However, Lock has conceded the honour to the duo on several occasions, including on the BBC Radio 4
show Loose Ends
. In 1995, Lock played an escaped murderer in an episode of The World of Lee Evans, alongside Lee Evans
and Phil Daniels
.
's 1998 BBC2 series, Is It Bill Bailey?
and had his own show on BBC Radio, 15 Minutes of Misery.
As the title suggested, these shows filled a 15-minute time-slot and also featured Kevin Eldon and Hattie Hayridge
. The premise involved Lock eavesdropping on his neighbours in his South London tower block (all played by Lock, Eldon and Hayridge) using a bugging device fitted by his plumber, "Hot Bob" (Eldon), which was known as "The Bugger King" (and had "nothing to do with meat or sex").
15 Minutes of Misery lasted for one series of six programmes in late 1998 and early 1999, and would later be expanded into the half-hour series 15 Storeys High
. From ostensibly the same tower block, Lock's character was now given a flatmate (the hapless Errol) and a job at the local swimming baths, as well as a somewhat dour and intolerant demeanour.
The bugging device was no longer used, but the antics of Lock's neighbours still featured heavily in the show. The plots for this series were more linear in a "traditional" sitcom style, although they still showed Lock's brand of dark, surreal humour
.
15 Storeys High would transfer to television after two radio series, with Lock's character renamed 'Vince', for a further two series in 2002 and 2004.
's 2001 feature film This Filthy Earth, based on the novel La Terre
by Émile Zola
.
In 2004, Lock had a guest appearance in television's first ever "dope opera", Top Buzzer
, written by Johnny Vaughan
. In 2005 he became a regular team captain on the panel game
8 Out of 10 Cats
.
In spring 2006, he hosted his own entertainment show on Channel 4
called TV Heaven, Telly Hell
. Lock narrated for the BBC production World Cup Goals Galore in 2006. In 2008 he appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year
, on a team with James Corden
. Lock has also appeared on many popular British TV panel shows including Have I Got News for You
, QI
and They Think It's All Over
. Lock has become "The Curator" for the second radio series of The Museum of Curiosity
, in 2009, taking over from Bill Bailey
.
In 2010, Lock took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala
, a benefit show
held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital
, filmed live at the O2 Arena
. He has also appeared in a spoof video produced by Shelter
, the housing charity, to highlight the problem of rogue landlords.
.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio. He has written material for such comics as Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
, Lee Evans
Lee Evans (comedian)
Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.-Personal life:Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex...
and Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr is an English comedian, radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Lamarr was born in the Park South area of Swindon and has three elder sisters. His father is Irish...
and was voted the 55th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007 and again in the updated 2010 list as the 19th greatest stand-up comic.
Early life and career
Lock was born in ChertseyChertsey
Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. Prior to becoming a comedian, he was a labourer on building sites. During this time, he developed skin cancer
Skin cancer
Skin neoplasms are skin growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy. The three most common malignant skin cancers are basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma, each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises...
. His first television appearance was in 1993, when he appeared in a supporting role alongside Rob Newman and David Baddiel
David Baddiel
David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, novelist and television presenter.-Early life:Baddiel was born in New York, and moved to England when he was four months old. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was a Welsh research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after...
in their TV show Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. He toured with the duo as their support act, and, as a result, became the first comedian to perform at Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...
. Newman and Baddiel were widely promoted as being the first comedians to have performed at Wembley but, in his capacity as their warm-up, Lock technically takes this honour. However, Lock has conceded the honour to the duo on several occasions, including on the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
show Loose Ends
Loose Ends (radio)
Loose Ends is a British radio programme originally broadcast on Saturday mornings, and then transmitted early Saturday evenings from 1998 by BBC Radio 4. It was hosted by Ned Sherrin until he became ill in late 2006 with a reported throat infection, and later throat cancer...
. In 1995, Lock played an escaped murderer in an episode of The World of Lee Evans, alongside Lee Evans
Lee Evans (comedian)
Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.-Personal life:Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex...
and Phil Daniels
Phil Daniels
Philip W. "Phil" Daniels is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as "cockneys" such as Jimmy in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Mark in Meantime, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Edward Kitchener "Ted"...
.
15 Minutes of Misery and 15 Storeys High
Continuing with stand-up as the mainstay of his workload, Lock also made regular appearances on various radio panel shows, script-edited for Bill BaileyBill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
's 1998 BBC2 series, Is It Bill Bailey?
Is It Bill Bailey?
Is It Bill Bailey? was a stand up / sketch comedy series written by and starring Bill Bailey. One series of six episodes was produced and aired on BBC Two in 1998, and it has never been recommissioned or released on DVD...
and had his own show on BBC Radio, 15 Minutes of Misery.
As the title suggested, these shows filled a 15-minute time-slot and also featured Kevin Eldon and Hattie Hayridge
Hattie Hayridge
Hattie Hayridge is a British stand-up comedienne and actress, best known for the role of the female version of Holly in Red Dwarf during the third, fourth and fifth series, along with the role of Hilly in Parallel Universe, the final episode of the second series.After graduating from the...
. The premise involved Lock eavesdropping on his neighbours in his South London tower block (all played by Lock, Eldon and Hayridge) using a bugging device fitted by his plumber, "Hot Bob" (Eldon), which was known as "The Bugger King" (and had "nothing to do with meat or sex").
15 Minutes of Misery lasted for one series of six programmes in late 1998 and early 1999, and would later be expanded into the half-hour series 15 Storeys High
15 Storeys High
15 Storeys High is a critically acclaimed British sitcom, set in a tower block. The main characters are Vince Clark, a misanthropic, cynical recluse played by Sean Lock, and Errol Spears, Vince's exact opposite and whipping boy, played by Benedict Wong....
. From ostensibly the same tower block, Lock's character was now given a flatmate (the hapless Errol) and a job at the local swimming baths, as well as a somewhat dour and intolerant demeanour.
The bugging device was no longer used, but the antics of Lock's neighbours still featured heavily in the show. The plots for this series were more linear in a "traditional" sitcom style, although they still showed Lock's brand of dark, surreal humour
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
.
15 Storeys High would transfer to television after two radio series, with Lock's character renamed 'Vince', for a further two series in 2002 and 2004.
Other work
Lock wrote the screenplay for Andrew KöttingAndrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting is a British film director, writer and artist.Kötting was born in Kent. He studied BA Fine Art at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, London, 1984; MA in Mixed Media, Slade School of Art, London 1988. In 1989 he collaborated with Leila McMillan in setting up BadBLoOd & siBYL...
's 2001 feature film This Filthy Earth, based on the novel La Terre
La Terre
La Terre is a novel by Émile Zola, published in 1887. It is the fifteenth novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. The action takes place in a rural community in La Beauce, an area of northern France...
by Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
.
In 2004, Lock had a guest appearance in television's first ever "dope opera", Top Buzzer
Top Buzzer
Top Buzzer was a British sitcom written by Johnny Vaughan, styled as television's first ever "dope opera". It was shown on MTV in 2004 and later repeated on Five. It was released on DVD on 24 October 2005. It revolves around two small-time cannabis dealers, Lee and Sticky , and their customers...
, written by Johnny Vaughan
Johnny Vaughan
Jonathan Randall Vaughan is an English broadcaster and journalist. Vaughan has become well known as a television and radio personality and has also built a reputation as a film critic. He co-presented Capital Breakfast alongside Lisa Snowdon on 95.8 Capital FM between 2004 and 2011...
. In 2005 he became a regular team captain on the panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 out of 10 Cats is a television comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organizations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by...
.
In spring 2006, he hosted his own entertainment show on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
called TV Heaven, Telly Hell
TV Heaven, Telly Hell
TV Heaven, Telly Hell is a comedy television show on Channel 4, presented and produced by Sean Lock. The format is similar to Room 101, with guests discussing their likes and dislikes of items on television....
. Lock narrated for the BBC production World Cup Goals Galore in 2006. In 2008 he appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year is an annual British television programme broadcast in the last or first week of the year on Channel 4. Essentially, the show is a comedy panel game in the style of a pub quiz. Three teams, of two celebrities each, are asked questions relating to the events of the year...
, on a team with James Corden
James Corden
James Kimberley Corden is an English actor, television writer, producer and presenter. He is co-creator and star of BBC comedy shows Gavin & Stacey and Horne & Corden, and acted in the 2009 film Lesbian Vampire Killers....
. Lock has also appeared on many popular British TV panel shows including Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
and They Think It's All Over
They Think It's All Over (TV series)
They Think It's All Over was a British comedy panel game with a sporting theme produced by Talkback Thames and shown on BBC One. The show's name is taken from Kenneth Wolstenholme's famous 1966 World Cup commentary quotation, "they think it's all over...it is now!" and the show used the phrase as...
. Lock has become "The Curator" for the second radio series of The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity, formerly titled The Professor of Curiosity, is a comedy panel game on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It stars John Lloyd as "The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham" and owner of the fictional "Museum of Curiosity"...
, in 2009, taking over from Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...
.
In 2010, Lock took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala
Channel 4's Comedy Gala
Channel 4's Comedy Gala is a British stand-up comedy benefit show organised Channel 4 in aid of the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The gig is filmed live at the O2 Arena in London, and then broadcast later by Channel 4...
, a benefit show
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
, filmed live at the O2 Arena
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
. He has also appeared in a spoof video produced by Shelter
Shelter
Shelter is a basic architectural structure or building that provides cover. The word may also refer to:-Places:*Port Shelter, Hong Kong*Shelter Bay , various locations*Shelter Cove , various locations...
, the housing charity, to highlight the problem of rogue landlords.
Personal life
Lock lives in East London with his partner and their three children, two daughters and a son. He is a fan of Chelsea football clubChelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
.
Stand-Up DVDs
| Title | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Live | 17 November 2008 | Live at London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... 's HMV Hammersmith Apollo |
| Lockipedia Live | 22 November 2010 | Live at London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... 's HMV Hammersmith Apollo |
External links
- Sean Lock writes the foreword for the novel Nappy Rash by Mark Kotting on Wrecking Ball PressWrecking Ball PressWrecking Ball Press is a small press poetry & prose publishing company, based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK. Wrecking Ball Press was established and is edited by Shane Rhodes; it was born in the back of a café....
ISBN 1-903110-16-5 - ShortList.com – Exclusive Sean Lock Interview 2008-12-12