Sean Lock's 15 Minutes of Misery (Radio 4)

The show's original incarnation was a radio series entitled Sean Lock's 15 Minutes of Misery. It was broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 in the "Late Night on 4" comedy slot at 11.00pm. It ran for six episodes between 30 December 1998 and 3 February 1999. The show was written by Sean Lock and produced by Dan Freedman, and starred Lock, Kevin Eldon and Hattie Hayridge.^[6][7][8]

Sean Lock: 15 Storeys High (Radio 4)

Lock's second series was entitled Sean Lock: 15 Storeys High, and it was also broadcast on Radio 4's "Late Night on 4" comedy slot and written by Sean Lock and Martin Trenaman and produced by Chris Neill. Each series had five half-hour episodes. Series one aired from 24 November 1999 to 22 December 1999, and starred Lock, along with Felix Dexter, Jenny Eclair, Tim Mitchell, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Chris Pavlo and Peter Serafinowicz. Series two aired from 24 November 2000 to 22 December 2000, and included roles from Dan Freedman, Alex Lowe, Dan Mersh, Paul Putner, Rob Rouse and Chris Neill.^[9] The 15 Storeys High radio series used a different method to present the events going on in other flats in the tower block. It dispensed with the idea of Sean listening in on others using "Bugger King", replacing it with a voiceover simply announcing the flat number of the subsequent scene. The show introduced Sean's flatmate Errol (played by Serafinowicz in series 1, episodes 2–5).^[10][11]

Both radio series (Sean Lock's 15 Minutes of Misery and Sean Lock: 15 Storeys High) were recorded in front of a studio audience. The theme tune used for both series is the 1960s song "England Swings" by Roger Miller.^[7]

Writing

The 15 Storeys High TV series was written by Lock with Trenaman and Mark Lamarr credited with his real name Mark Jones.^[12]

Each series took six to seven months to write. Lock's view was, "The hardest thing to write is sitcom. 15 Storeys High is the hardest thing I've worked on. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. To do a decent sitcom. To do a shit sitcom, you can do that without much effort, and there are plenty of those around". The writing process did not follow a particular structure or pursuit of a story arc. Trenaman recalled that Lock would come in the office one day and say, "I want to do something about an airport, something about travelling ... We'd just set off. There was no plan of action."^[13][14]

During filming Lock allowed some improvisation that made scenes funnier. At other times, Lock's attention to detail would be more restrictive when some actors felt they could improve a line. Lock was adamant about retaining certain dialogue, explaining the effort taken to write something would be wasted, but also that the pay-off on a later joke related to the plot would be compromised.^[15]: 3:20

Lock and Lamarr found they could avoid unnecessary exposition dialogue between scenes when director Mark Nunneley showed they could simply use wipe transitions during the film edit.^[16]: 5:50

Trenaman's other recollection about writing the show, "... is laughing a lot in that office – I mean really rip-roaring laughs. The other memory I have is both of us staring at the wall in silence for hours and going, 'I can't think of anything'".^[14]

Filming

15 Storeys High is noted for its drab, grainy, washed-out style to reflect the mundanity of the characters' lives.^[17] Directed by Mark Nunneley, the series was filmed unlike any show at the time, including the in-vogue mockumentary style.^[14] Lock was influenced by arthouse films and considered Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction Stalker (1979) as a film that affected him profoundly.^[18] Trenaman said, "[Lock] wanted it shot like a Swedish art film. At the time I thought it was a brilliant idea. But people at meetings were going, 'Really...? What, a sitcom on the BBC shot like that?!' It was really Sean's vision".^[14]

Filmed mainly on location, the interior rooms of the tower block were filmed in a studio. The exterior view from the 15th floor was a huge photograph and the lighting was done in such a way that it could appear to be day or night. ^[19]: 2:38 A joke on set was, "Can we not afford any lights? Mark, are there any lights in the budget?!"^[14]

Broadcast

The series was the victim of poor scheduling and did not get the attention given to other successful turn-of-the-millennium era British comedies, such as The Office, Phoenix Nights and The Royle Family. These sitcoms similarly moved away from the traditional live studio audience and laugh track format using multiple cameras to a single-camera setup visual style.^[22][14][23]

The show was originally broadcast on the digital channel BBC Choice, which was later rebranded to BBC Three, from 7 November 2002 to 12 December 2002. It was not promoted to a mainstream terrestrial channel with a larger prime time audience the same way Little Britain transferred from BBC Three to BBC One.^[12][22][24]

The second series, broadcast from 12 February 2004 to 18 March 2004, ended up being programmed on Sundays late at night on BBC Two.^[12][22] One episode was delayed even further due to the overrun of the preceding live "badger watch" show hosted by Bill Oddie who exclaimed, "There are some sitcom fans who are going to be disappointed ... but we're going to see some badgers in a minute!"^[14]

Series 1 (2002)

Series 2 (2004)