Alexei Sayle's Stuff

This has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. My local PBS station aired it late on Friday nights over ten years ago and I was hooked. I can't remember much about it now, except for a few of the songs, such as the one in the title (to the tune of Mickey Mouse) but I know it was hilarious! I would love to see this again!

Alexei Sayle and his writers somehow managed to make several series of surreal humour and not be compared to Monty Python, even with Cleese-a-like Angus Deyton in the days before he disappeared up his own smug a**e.

Largely unnoticed at the time and widely unrepeated, this was a series that deserved more credit than it was ever given. By the time the BBC had woken up to what they had, the series had turned into something resembling light entertainment instead of the confident and unapologetic oddness in "Stuff".

A few too many song and dance routines though. And more often than not they just weren't funny, as clearly demonstrated in his mid-80s LP "Panic".

Is it fat, bald and jewish in here or is it just me...?

Alexei Sayle produced one of the finest programs ever seen on BBC2, recording three series of 'stuff'. The supporting cast were excellent. Alexei was able to combine his top class stand up material with amusing and downright bizarre sketches.

Favourites of mine include the Freddy Krueger Opera sketch, the post office song ( £50 stamp ), Candid Cardinal, Dick Van Dyke - 50 years of Alexei Sayle, Snow White and the Seven Samurai, Lesley Crowther dominated episode, 'I'm pissed' ( Here come the Lizards ), and many others. It seemed that every single sketch or monologue was written and performed to perfection.

Alexei Yuri Gagarin Moscow Dinamo Back 4 Glorious 5 year plan Stalin Tractor Sayle, I salute you.

If any single individual epitomised the alternative comedy movement of the '80's, it was Alexei Sayle. Looking like a newly released convict whose suit has gotten too small for him, he bludgeoned audiences into submission with a powerful blend of surreal humour and satire. Love him or hate him, you couldn't ignore him. 'Stuff' was a good vehicle for his talents, in which the man himself sped round London on a moped, ranting on topics as diverse as fox hunting, The Royal Family, and Margaret Thatcher, as well as sketches penned by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall, some of which wouldn't have looked out of place in their L.W.T. show 'End Of Part One'. I remember one funny ( and politically incorrect! ) item about a Japanese car factory in the Midlands run like a W.W.2 P.O.W. camp! Three different title sequences were used ( the best was the Walt Disney spoof with Alexei as Mickey Mouse! ), all ended with someone asking: "Who's that fat bastard?". Genius more like.

Stuff is the best comedy series, and it is amazing how a comedian can come up with such original stuff for so long. Unlike other comedians he does not constantly recycle jokes through various characters. Very funny stuff.