Following his untimely passing earlier this year, the BBC returned Sean Lock's cult sitcom "15 Storeys High" to the Iplayer. I felt the first season finds its feet after a couple of shaky episodes but the second season is much improved, hitting the high mark early on and maintaining it throughout.
Vince (Sean Lock) and Errol (Benedict Wong) continue to share a flat in South London. Vince attempts a holiday, decides to apply for the managers role at the swimming pool and accidentally steals a plough from a pub. Errol takes up smoking, has trouble standing up for himself and becomes irresistible to women. Their neighbours though have their own lives to worry about.
I should say, at the moment, one of the episodes isn't available on the iPlayer, the second episode of the run, it is available on Youtube though. There's nothing in the content that suggest that might be the reason for its absence, but there is a licenced song at the end, so I wonder if the issue has something to do with that.
As I said, it's a funnier season straight from the off. The comedy style remains varied, mixing in absurdist notions alongside observational stuff. This season has Mark Lamarr join the writing team and he appears as a character in one episode. Kevin Eldon, Pearce Quigley and Bill Bailey also appear across the run, though the cameo of the run must go to Geoff McGivern, for his bold performance as Vince's naturist father, who's happy to let it all hang out.
It's a very funny season and makes it even sadder than during Sean's time he didn't write more narrative based comedy.
