Alexei Sayle's Stuff

Infobox Television
show_name = Alexei Sayle's Stuff


caption =
aka =
genre = Sitcom
creator =
writer = Andrew Marshall
David Renwick
Alexei Sayle
director = Marcus Mortimer
creat_director =
developer =
presenter =
starring = Alexei Sayle
Angus Deayton
Tony Millan
voices =
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country = flagcountry|United Kingdom
language = English
num_seasons = 3
num_episodes = 18
list_episodes =
executive_producer =
co_exec =
producer = Marcus Mortimer
sup_producer =
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editor =
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runtime = 30 minutes
channel = BBC Two
picture_format =
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first_run =
first_aired = 13 October 1988
last_aired = 7 November 1991
preceded_by =
followed_by = The All New Alexei Sayle Show
related =
website =
production_website =
imdb_id = 0094412
tv_com_id =

"Alexei Sayle's Stuff" is a comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 18 episodes over 3 series from 1988 to 1991.

It stars stand-up comedian Alexei Sayle, with a recurring cast including Angus Deayton, Mark Williams, Arabella Weir, Tony Millan, Jan Ravens, Owen Brenman, Harriet Thorpe, and Felicity Montagu.

The sketches (which Alexei sometimes did and sometimes didn't appear in himself) were interspersed with Sayle's trademarked angry monologues delivered from increasingly odd locations about England, which he traversed on a moped in a vague attempt to catalogue and comprehend all the STUFF about him. The style of humour was often surreal, blunt and offensive to many, with the bulk of the content written by Alexei himself, with Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Additional material was contributed by long time collaborator David Stafford and comedian and promoter Huw David Thomas.

At the beginning of series 2 (in a sequence spoofing the creation of Disney's Mickey Mouse) it was revealed that Alexei Sayle was in fact a cartoon character. Viewers were shown a short extract from the very first animation from 50 years previously, named 'Steamboat Fatty' (spoofing, also, Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon), as well as Mouseketeer-esque children dancing around wearing bald wigs. An edited down version of this sketch becomes the title sequence for series 2.Series 1's titles feature a young fit hunk being turned by prosthetics into Mr Sayle, to the accompaniment of Dion's hit "The Wanderer". Series 3's were a pastiche of Zorro meets Juke Box Jury - the theme song being sung mariachi style ("This fat renegade / Carves a 'B' with his blade / A 'B' that stands for 'Bastard'.")

One episode in series 2 begins with a lengthy spoof of Juliet Bravo featuring the JB number 2 Anna Carteret.Viewers were fooled into believing that the first few minutes of the programme was a real Juliet Bravo episode, the illusion being broken only when one of her male colleagues appears not to "know what a woman is". There was much other similar blending and bending of the boundaries of TV formats throughout the series.

As one might expect from the "Marxist" comedian and "Godfather of Alternative Comedy," sketches involved many historical characters (particularly socialist ones) interspersed with biting comments on contemporary British politics. Large volumes of venom were projected in the direction of the "arch-nemesis of 1980s Alternative Comedy," Margaret Thatcher.

Memorable sketches included:

* Beauty Miss - Personal Beauty products as used by George Bernard Shaw and Berthold Brecht
* Oscar Wilde's "The Noble Art of Verbal Abuse" - for protection against Millwall fans
* An operatic interview with Sir Freddy Krueger
* Joan Alone - Joan of Arc's personal biography, plugged during torture
* Unemployment and Teletext - twin scourges of the 1990s
* Issues - A treatise on Islamic politics with Samantha, Tina and Babs of the Toby Carvery, Oswestry
* Hooray for British Films - a satirical attack on the then dire state of the British film industry
* International Olympic Committee looking round a council house in London with a view to staging the Olympics inside it
* A drinks party with Triffids
* Firemen get dainty new uniforms and prance around like fashion models while out on the job
* Santa Claus : Polar Czar - World At War-style expose of Father Christmas as murderous dictator.
* A Few Moments With Lord William Rees-Mogg - in episode 2 of series 3, on seven occasions throughout the show a photograph of Rees-Mogg was displayed on screen while burlesque-style music (with an audience clearly audible in the background) was played over the top. After the first time it was shown, the BBC2 voiceover (Angus Deayton) apologised and assured the viewers at home that it would not happen again. It was then immediately brought back to the screen.
* A man who was decapitated and had to have an artificial head attached, in a documentary called "Man or Chess Piece?". (inexplicably, this was shown twice - in the third episode of the first series, and at the very end of the second series.

Some of the sketches on the DVD releases have been edited resulting in minor losses of material to the original broadcast versions.

Most episodes in Series 3 feature the recurring character "Monsieur Aubergine", a mime artist who is part Mr Bean and part Marcel Marceau.

"Alexei Sayle's Stuff" was a prelude to his 1994 series "The All New Alexei Sayle Show", which was remarkably similar in content and was likewise followed by "Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round" in 1998.

ources

*imdb title|id=0108690|title=The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994)
* [http://www.eskimo.com/~rkj/a.htm Johnson RK, "British TV Show Reviews"]
* [http://www.memorabletv.com/britcom/britishcomedy1.htm "UK Comedy" on "Memorable TV"]

External links

*bbc.co.uk|id=comedy/guide/articles/a/alexeisaylesstuf_66602990.shtml|title="Alexei Sayle's Stuff"
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1020695/index.html British Film Institute Screen Online]