15 Storeys High

15 Storeys High is the tale of Vince and his slightly ditzy flatmate Errol as they bugger through life.

It's slightly rough for the first few episodes but it defintiely gets better, and I did like some of the more surreal and out-there moments (like Vince's nude loving father). A stand out to me was the Airport episode, if mainly due to how ridiculous it got. It's sad that the main player is dead now, although it hopeully means that more love can be given to this show.

After his sad and untimely passing, the BBC decided to return Sean Lock's cult sitcom to the iPlayer, to allow it to find a new audience. I watched "15 Storeys High" at the time, and my recollection was that I liked it, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to watch it again. After a couple of shaky episodes, the show really finds its feet and has some great comedic ideas.

Two men, the brusque Vince (Sean Lock) and naïve Errol (Benedict Wong) share a flat in a South London complex. Their interactions, with each other and their neighbours, form the basis of the sitcom, but each episode shows us the lives of other people living around the complex and the increasing idiosyncratic way that these people live their lives.

The first couple are, admittedly, a bit shaky. The first episode has a scene recreating "Jim'll Fix It" which has unintentionally become a lot more shocking since the revelations about Saville came out and I'm perhaps a bit surprised that the BBC didn't decide to edit this out of the re-release. Once you reach the third episode though, it settles down into the right rhythm and tone and the last four episode of this run are really good.

There's a lot of actors across this season who would go on to become regular faces in comedy across the next twenty years, Cavan Clerkin, Michael Smiley, Martin Trenaman, Toby Jones, Peter Serafinowicz, and Paul Putner are just some of the names who would appear.

It's a very funny show and makes it even sadder than during Sean's time he didn't write more narrative based comedy.

Great stuff. Sean locke's character is just a mean bloke who seems not to be able to stand anyone else. Despite this he shares his flat with Errol, who is a simple fellow, perhaps a more less caricatured version of Father Dougal.

The beauty of it is that despite the strange situations they make for themselves, they remain real characters you can believe in. Errol is naive and extremely likable. Vince is the opposite, cynical, and nasty, taking out his vitriol on other people in unprovoked acts of spite (but in a funny way).

The supporting characters inhabiting the rest of the building are the exaggerated, strange beings, and i thought that a great deal of their antics were just slightly too bizarre to exist alongside Vince and Errol's reality.

But this is one of the funniest first series I have seen, and I look forward to seeing the second (hurry up and release it on DVD!!)

Having been a fan of Sean Lock's comedy for many years I looked forward to this series and it did not disappoint. It is hilarious! To anyone who hasn't seen it, buy the BBC DVD right now. To summarise Vince, a swimming pool attendant, and his jobless flatmate, Errol, live in a block of flats. And, as in most sitcoms, hilarious adventures ensue. However, the brilliance comes from Lock's surreal writing. The two characters are flatmates but not friends, the adventures range from the problems of being addicted to a cheap energy drink (Blue Rat), trying to get your flat decorated when you use Readers' Wives for style tips ("You can't have sex in a living room. That's where you have Christmas") or simply the problems that come from killing a swan. Each episode is broken up by short glimpses of what is going on in the other flats. These vary each week and go from the sublime to the ridiculous (the man who wants "dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, spot!" for his spotted dick is fantastic.

If you like comedy- give it a go. If you want a change from canned laughter filled colourful sitcoms - give it a go.

I had never heard of 15 Storeys High until a friend recommended it. I didn't have great expectations but ended up watching all 6 episodes in one go! This is a weird, wonderful, surreal comedy with brilliant characterisation. Locke & Wong are just terrific as the undynamic duo -a morose swimming pool attendant and a hapless fish-factory worker living together in a rather run-down apartment block. Their dull, aimless lives are interspersed with moments of absurdity; the story lines border on the ludicrous, made all the funnier by the deadpan delivery of the actors. 15 Storeys High can rightfully take its place among the very best of BBC Comedies - a real hidden gem that hopefully one day will receive the recognition it deserves. If you haven't seen it and you like slightly off-the-wall comedies like The Office,you shouldn't be disappointed!