Sean Lock

Sean Lock

Sean Lock at The Hexagon, Reading, 2008
Born (1963-04-22) 22 April 1963
Chertsey, Surrey, England[1]
Medium
Nationality British
Years active 1993–present
Genres
Subject(s)
Influences Eddie Izzard, Frank Skinner, David Baddiel
Website offthekerb.co.uk/sean-lock/

Sean Lock (born 22 April 1963)[1] is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian, and won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award.

Lock is well known for his appearances on television and radio. He has written material for such comics as Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr and was voted the 55th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007 and again in the updated 2010 list as the 19th greatest stand-up comic. He is possibly best known for his role as a former team captain on Channel 4 comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats since it began in 2005 up to 2015.

Personal life and career

He attended St John the Baptist School, Woking, Surrey. Prior to becoming a comedian, he was a labourer[2] on building sites.[3] During this time, he developed skin cancer.[4][5]

Lock's early television work included a supporting role alongside Rob Newman and David Baddiel in the 1993 series Newman and Baddiel in Pieces including touring with them as their support act. Lock credits Frank Skinner and Eddie Izzard as major influences on his comedy.

Lock is an atheist.[6]

In 1995, Lock played an escaped murderer in an episode of The World of Lee Evans, alongside Lee Evans and Phil Daniels.

15 Minutes of Misery and 15 Storeys High

Lock 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 4, 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 Lock 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, "Hot Bob" (Eldon), which was known as "The Bugger King" (and 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 Lock'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 dark, 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.

Other work

Lock wrote the screenplay for Andrew Kötting's 2001 feature film This Filthy Earth, based on the novel La Terre by Émile Zola.

In 2004, Lock had a guest appearance in television's first ever "dope opera", Top Buzzer, written by Johnny Vaughan. In 2005 he became a regular team captain on the panel game 8 Out of 10 Cats.

In spring 2006, he hosted his own entertainment show on Channel 4 called TV Heaven, Telly Hell. Lock narrated the BBC production World Cup Goals Galore in 2006. In 2008 he appeared on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, on a team with James Corden. Lock has also appeared on many popular British TV panel shows including Have I Got News for You, QI and They Think It's All Over. He was also a celebrity guest in The Last Leg. Lock became "The Curator" for the second radio series of The Museum of Curiosity, in 2009, taking over from Bill Bailey. During an interview on This Morning in 2013, Lock announced he would now only appear on 8 Out of 10 Cats, as he felt he had become typecast for appearing on panel shows, joking that people had started approaching him in the street asking "Are you Dave?"

In 2010, Lock took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena. He has also appeared in a spoof video produced by Shelter, the housing charity, to highlight the problem of rogue landlords.[7] In 2011, Sean Lock took over from John Sergeant as the host of the Dave comedy panel show, Argumental.

Before going into comedy Lock drifted through a series of odd jobs including three months spent as a goatherd for a hippie in the mountains of central France.[8]

Stand-up DVDs

Title Released Notes
Live 17 November 2008 Live at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Lockipedia Live 22 November 2010 Live at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Purple Van Man 18 November 2013 Live at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo

References

  1. 1 2 "A word with comedian Sean Lock". The Courier. 27 October 2010. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Comedy – People A-Z – Sean Lock". BBC. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
  3. ↑ Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, 25 June 2010
  4. ↑ "Comedian Sean Lock's one night stand saves his life". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  5. ↑ "The one-night stand that saved my life! How Sean Lock made an alarming discovery". Mail Online. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Lockipedia Live (2010 stand-up show)
  7. ↑ "Evict Rogue Landlords (video)". Shelter. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  8. ↑ Catherine Jones. "Entertainment – ECHO Entertainment News – Comedian Sean Lock heads for the Southport Comedy Week". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 14 August 2012.


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