Alexei Sayle's Stuff
Alexei Sayle's Stuff is a British television comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 18 episodes over 3 series from 1988 to 1991. Cast. Alexei Sayle's Stuff 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, Felicity Montagu and Morwenna Banks. Synopsis. Sketches are interspersed with Sayle's trademark angry stand-up monologues, delivered from increasingly odd locations. Sayle is seen traversing the country on a moped in a vague attempt to catalogue and  comprehend all the "stuff" about him. The style of humour is often highly surreal and blunt. The bulk of the content was written by Sayle himself, with Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Additional material was contributed by longtime collaborator David Stafford and comedian and promoter Huw David Thomas. Although Sayle's humour in the programme covers many bases, politics is always a favourite target: "Recently I had to get married, 'cos I got my girlfriend into trouble - got her involved in the civil war in Angola." Various episodes also feature sketches based around BBC2 presentation, including satirical continuity announcers and  faux trailers. At the beginning of series 2, in a sequence spoofing the creation of Disney's Mickey Mouse, a sketch reveals that Alexei Sayle is in fact a cartoon character. Viewers are shown a short extract from Sayle's very first animated appearance from fifty years previously, named "Steamboat Fatty" (spoofing "Steamboat Willie", the first Mickey Mouse cartoon), as well as Mouseketeer-esque children dancing around wearing bald wigs. An edited version of this sketch became the title sequence for series 2. Series 1's titles feature a handsome young man arriving at BBC Television Centre to the accompaniment  of Dion's hit "The Wanderer", with prosthetic make-up and padding being applied to change his appearance to that of Alexei Sayle, followed by a BBC receptionist uttering the phrase "Who is that fat bastard?" which was to become the show's catch-phrase. Series 3's title sequence is a pastiche of Zorro, 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 cold open of an initially straight scene from "Juliet Bravo" featuring actress Anna Carteret . Viewers are fooled into believing that the first few minutes of the programme are a "Juliet Bravo" episode, the illusion being broken only when one of her male colleagues appears not to "know what a woman is". Similar blending and bending of the boundaries of TV formats continues throughout the series. Home media releases. Three complete episodes were included in separate editions of the "BBC Video World", a fortnightly subscription-only service - primarily for expatriates - that delivered a three-hour selection of BBC programming on video tape: A VHS video entitled "The Best of Alexei Sayle's Stuff" was released  by the BBC in 1990 featuring selected clips from the first two series. Series 1 was released on Region 2 DVD by 2entertain in 2005. Series 2 and Series 3 were both released on Region-2 DVDs by the same firm in 2006. Each release was a single-disc edition containing the complete series, and no extra content. Only Series 2 was released on Region 4 DVD. As is common practice, certain sketches were omitted or truncated on the DVD releases, likely due to music licensing rights, or copyright issues. This included the removal of all of the linked "Michelin Film  Awards" sketches from Series 2#2, which were complete on the "BBC Video World" release. Legacy. "Alexei Sayle's Stuff" was a critical success and a prelude to his 1994 series "The All New Alexei Sayle Show", which was broadly similar in content and was likewise followed by "Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round" in 1998.