Man Stroke Woman

Man Stroke Woman
Starring	Nick Frost Amanda Abbington Ben Crompton Daisy Haggard Meredith MacNeill Nicholas Burns
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	12 (2 Series)
Production
Running time	30 mins
Original release
Network	BBC Three
Release	20 November 2005 - 1 March 2007

Man Stroke Woman is a British television comedy sketch show directed by Richard Cantor and produced by Ash Atalla and starring Amanda Abbington, Ben Crompton, Daisy Haggard, Meredith MacNeill, Nicholas Burns and Nick Frost. In addition to being broadcast on digital channel BBC Three in the United Kingdom, all the episodes were available for streaming from the BBC website. Series 2 started in January 2007 and is also available for streaming from the BBC website.

There is no studio audience or laugh track.

Running characters

Series One

• A woman (Abbington) who appears in front of her husband (Burns) wearing an ensemble which includes one ludicrous item of clothing (e.g. a hat which floats six inches above her head or a top emblazoned with red lights spelling out the word "WHORE"). She asks her husband how she looks and he tries to tell her—as tactfully as possible—what is wrong with the outfit: "The dress is... just a little... loud?" She then responds, "You can never just say I look nice, can you?"

• A man (Crompton) who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend (Haggard). He sees her in various locations and, after starting a conversation with her, bursts in to tears, and begins to speak unintelligibly through his sobs. The rest of the episode cuts back to this sketch as the ex-girlfriend tries to guess what he's saying.

• Two workers at a cosmetics counter in a department store (Haggard and Abbington), and their boss (MacNeill). A customer will walk up to the counter and ask for assistance. The women behind the counter behave very rudely in a childish fashion (e.g. by repeating what the customer says, or by surreptitiously making rude hand gestures) while trying to hold back their laughter. The customer asks them to stop, and eventually asks to see their manager, who appears and behaves in exactly the same way until the customer walks off.

• A young father (Burns) who is talking to his baby son Josh (who is off-camera) about the activity that they are currently undertaking (e.g. cooking a roast turkey, burying a dead cat, putting bottles in a bottle bank). His wife then appears and asks where Josh is. We then see that in the place where you would expect a baby (e.g. push chair/high chair), is the object that you would expect the initial activity to be performed on (e.g. an uncooked turkey, a dead cat, a pile of bottles, a Rugby ball). The dad then shifts nervously.

• Two friends (Crompton and Frost) are together in public, where they encounter some totally normal activity (e.g. fishing, dancing). Crompton enquires as to what the activity is, and the surprised Frost explains it, clearly disconcerted by his friend's lack of knowledge of this basic activity. Crompton invariably asks when this started, the reply inevitably being, "while back". Further in the conversation, Frost mentions a noun related to this activity, still very mundane (e.g. music, fish), to which Crompton replies "what the fuck is a [noun]?!" The conversation continues for a short while, before Crompton says, "Do I look like an idiot?", and Frost smiles and admits defeat, as if this activity really were non-existent.

• Two friends (Crompton and Frost) are participating in some unsavoury activity in which they seem out of place (e.g. aerobics, sumo wrestling). After a particularly unpleasant or dull incident, Crompton looks accusingly at Frost and says, "You said there'd be girls here!"

• A man (Burns) who is often asked for things that he doesn't want to give (such as the final figures for his boss from a report he hasn't done, or his mobile number from an annoying girl). He ends up repeating the number 4 until the right number of digits has been reached. The other party never seems to understand that he is lying.

Series Two

• A woman who phones a police call centre where her friend works, and pretends to need the police. She then recounts a story — usually a thinly-disguised fairy tale — before collapsing in giggles, maybe trying to convince her friend to come home. The woman pretends that she is coming, but then goes on to another call.

• A couple (Frost & MacNeill) participate in some sexual roleplay, with the woman wearing a different kinky uniform in each sketch. Sadly for him, the woman takes her roleplaying all too seriously (e.g. during a nurse rolepley she informs him that he has cancer), which leads the man to conclude "Jenny, I don't think we should do roleplay any more."

• An office worker (Crompton) is giving a serious presentation about an outlandish idea, apparently under the impression that this is what he's been asked to do. His co-workers eventually put him straight, but not before he's admitted to having already put his plan into action.

• An alcoholic man called Jack (Frost), is out with his 12 year old nephew, the man is so drunk that he doesn't realise how old the nephew is, and does inappropriate things, such as urinating against the side of his car or goes to inappropriate places such as a stripclub.

• Two people (one of whom is Abbington) are at a playground where their children are playing. Abbington notices something about the other person's child, and comments on it amiably (e.g. "is that your little boy, the one playing on his own?"). The other parent doesn't seem too concerned — until Abbington gives an insight into what life could be like for the child, such as explaining a boy who finds it hard to make friends will go on a killing spree, ending in suicide as a teenager. Upon seeing the look of horror in the other parent's face, Abbington character backtracks, saying "Or — he'll be fine!"

• A male frontman of a fictional band (Burns) is shown introducing a song in a gig, which always seems to have a dark twist about its writing process. The crowd doesn't seem to notice how dodgy his inspiration is, even if he reveals the song to have been written for a man he once ran over, and killed.

• A man (Crompton) is seen offering to help women (Haggard, and in one case, MacNeill) out in various circumstances, e.g. washing the dishes after a meal, or removing a spider. Whilst the woman is facing away from him, she begins a grateful monologue along the lines of, "Most men would expect something in return for this - i.e. SEX. Not you, you're a true friend." This punchline sees Crompton, who has been walking quietly up behind her dressed in a kinky masochistic/BDSM outfit, freeze, then slip away.

• Two friends (Frost & Crompton) are sitting in a pub or club. Frost explains some aspect of male behaviour that he believes women find attractive (e.g. treating them meanly, acting as though you have a dark mystery). He persuades Crompton to approach a woman while exhibiting this kind of behaviour, telling him he's certain to pull. Crompton then goes entirely too far, e.g. shooting a woman in the leg, or telling her that he's committed a murder. Upon realising that he has made a faux pas, he returns to Frost and asks "Too mean?", to which a shocked Frost fervently agrees "Too mean!".

Theme music

The theme is a song called 'Dive' by a London-based band called The Sanderson Pitch.

DVD releases

The first series of Man Stroke Woman was released in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2007 and in the United States on 7 August 2007. The second series of Man Stroke Woman was released in the United Kingdom on 19 November 2007.

External links

• Man Stroke Woman at IMDb
• Man Stroke Woman at IMDb American version