Sean Lock

Sean Lock
Born	(1963-04-22) 22 April 1963 Woking, Surrey, England
Notable works and roles	15 Storeys High 8 Out of 10 Cats TV Heaven, Telly Hell

Sean Lock (born 22 April 1963) is an English comedian and writer. Born near Woking, Surrey, in Chertsey, he began his career in comedy 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 also written material for such comics as Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr.

Early career

Lock's first television appearance was in 1993, when he appeared as a supporting artist in Rob Newman and David Baddiel's 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 reported as being the first comedians to have performed at Wembley, but in his capacity as their support act, Lock actually takes this honour. However, Lock has denied this on several occasions, including on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends.

15 Minutes of Misery

Continuing with stand-up as the mainstay of his workload, he also made regular appearances on various radio panel shows, script edited for Bill Bailey'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 Sean 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, which was known as "The Bugger King" (which 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 Sean'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 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.

Sean Lock Live

Sean Lock Live is his debut live performance DVD, recorded at London's Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday 10th May 2008. The DVD is due to be released on 17th November 2008. Although it is his first DVD release, it is Sean's second live release, the first being Sean Lock: Live, an audio CD live show released in 2005.

Other television work

In 2005 he became a regular team captain on the panel game 8 Out of 10 Cats, which returns for a sixth series in June 2008, and has also appeared on the comedy quiz programme QI. He has also appeared on Have I Got News for You, both as a guest and a presenter. Lock also appeared on Room 101, where he argued to put Jeremy Clarkson into the room (although he has appeared on QI with Clarkson).

In spring 2006, he hosted his own entertainment show on Channel 4 called TV Heaven, Telly Hell (the second series of which began production in November 2006), and has also guested on the World Cup special edition of They Think It's All Over.

Lock also appeared in the Johnny Vaughan and Ed Allen series Top Buzzer, took part in an episode of the BBC Radio 4 panel game The 99p Challenge and still gigs regularly. He has two daughters, is an avid football fan and like the rest of his family he holds a Chelsea football season ticket.

Quotes

• "A bit of advice: never read a pop-up book about giraffes."

• On the art vs pornography debate: "If you can't masturbate to it, it's Art."

• On the chances of winning the lottery: "It's a statistical fact that you're more likely to crawl over a council tip and find a magic fridge."

• "In 1926 the Queen Mother laid the first block of stone in our tenement. After a month or so the Council realised she was going to take forever so they had to let her go and get the builders in."

• "The hardest job I ever had was doing the horoscopes for the Big Issue."

• "They say a woman's work is never done, maybe that's why they get paid less."

• From QI: "Those crafty Cumbrian bastards."

• If you permed a fox I think it'd look a bit like Mick Hucknall. I actually think it'd be kinder to perm them than hunt them. And they'd be too embarrassed to go out and bother the sheep.

External links

• Sean Lock at IMDb
• Sean Lock writes the foreword for the novel Nappy Rash by Mark Kotting on Wrecking Ball Press ISBN 1-903110-16-5