Lead Balloon (2006) is a comedy web series in English. On MovieLinkBD: full story, cast, ratings, season & episode guide, official trailer and where to watch Lead Balloon online in HD.
Lead Balloon — Storyline
Lead Balloon is a British television series produced by Open Mike Productions for BBC Four. The series was created and is co-written by comedian Jack Dee and Pete Sinclair. It stars Dee as Rick Spleen, a cynical and misanthropic comedian whose life is plagued by petty annoyances, disappointments and embarrassments. Raquel Cassidy, Sean Power and Tony Gardner also star. The first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC Four in 2006, with the first episode achieving the highest ratings for a comedy on the channel. Repeats of the series were run on BBC Two and BBC HD, bringing it to a larger audience. A second series of eight episodes aired on BBC Two in November 2007, and a third series began airing in November 2008. A fourth and final series commenced broadcast on 31 May 2011 on BBC Two and ended on 5 July.
Comparisons were made by critics to the successful American comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, and positive comments were made about Lead Balloon's characters, particularly Magda, the Eastern European housekeeper. The first series was released on DVD in November 2007. The show's theme tune is a cover version of "One Way Road", written by Noel Gallagher and performed by Paul Weller.
Cast & Crew
- Created by: Jack Dee
- Starring: Jack Dee, Tony Gardner, Rasmus Hardiker, Anna Crilly, Raquel Cassidy, Sean Power
Lead Balloon — Series Details
| First Air Date | 2006-10-04 |
| Seasons | 4 |
| Episodes | 27 |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Language | English |
| Network | BBC Four |
| Status | Ended |
| Rating | 7.6/10 (16 votes) |
Lead Balloon — Episode Guide
Season 1
- E1: Rubbish (2006-10-04) — Rick fronts a lame government TV recycling campaign which backfires spectacularly. He falls out with café-owner Michael over a homemade fruitcake, and has a full-on row with unhing
- E2: Wayne (2006-10-11) — A teaspoon crisis in the Spleen household leads Rick to petty theft. Meanwhile, Rick's sleep is disturbed by the paperboy, Wayne, who is very punctual, very noisy and has a brain t
- E3: £5000 (2006-10-18) — Rick gets in a punch-up at an awards ceremony and ends up with a black eye. Marty is preparing to pitch a programme to the BBC and Michael is delighted that Rick has accidentally s
- E4: Allergic (2006-10-25) — Rick discovers he may have inadvertently killed one of Britain's best-loved entertainers, but he's preoccupied by a missing shoe-organiser. Meanwhile Rick prepares for upcoming app
- E5: Pistachio (2006-11-01) — Rick buys himself a scooter but worries that it makes him look gay. Hosting the Air Conditioning and Climate Control Awards goes disastrously, and a trip to the local dry cleaner e
- E6: Fatty (2006-11-08) — Rick is publicly humiliated on TV by daytime chat-show host Adam Green. He also has an unfortunate encounter with an acquaintance at the gym, and Ben manages to destroy Rick's bran
Season 2
- E1: Giraffe (2007-11-15) — Tonight, Spleen appears on a quiz show as a guest celebrity and manages to talk a contestant out of winning a car. As usual it's Rick's hopeless attempts to lie and wriggle his way
- E2: Hero (2007-11-22) — Rick becomes a local hero when he stops someone from committing suicide. He gets even more excited when, as a result, a TV executive agrees to come to dinner to talk about Rick s c
- E3: Points (2007-11-29) — Three more points on his licence will be a ban, so he tries to persuade Mel, Marty and Madga to take the blame. Meanwhile, the local cafe owner railroads Rick into doing a fundrais
- E4: Idiot (2007-12-06) — Rick's agent Mel's other client, ex-ice skating champ Gina Therese, has a new series coming up. Rick scoffs at the idea of an ice skater hosting a chat show until she asks him on a
- E5: Sick (2007-12-13) — The women in Rick's house are sick and he is forced to take over. Rick promises to field his partner Mel's work calls, but does more harm than good. Magda makes matters worse by ar
- E6: Debacle (2007-12-20) — Rick hosts an event for a pharmaceutical company. His stand-up goes down surprisingly well, but some of his ill-advised gags have far-reaching consequences.
- E7: Rita (2007-12-26) — Rick gets a part in a film starring cinema legend Rita Stetler. Michael's father is a huge fan of Rita's and when Rick offers to get the star to sign his vintage poster he gets les
- E8: Lucky (2008-01-03) — Rick is sick of doing endless corporate gigs and accuses his writer Marty of lacking ambition, but a call from Hollywood changes everything. One of Mel's clients is going through a
Season 3
- E1: Gas (2008-11-13) — The episode opens with Rick at a celebrity charity auction trying to attract bids for the waistcoat of an ex-rock star. To start the bidding, he opens with a bit of £500 but with n
- E2: Panda (2008-11-20) — Magda has begun settling in, to the extent of infiltrating her fridge magnets and watching The Jeremy Kyle Show in the afternoons; meanwhile Rick has signed up for a television pro
- E3: Fax (2008-11-27) — Rick has a bad day after doing poorly on a radio quiz and then finding out his email is broken and has to search for a fax machine. To make matters even worse his daughter and her
- E4: Karma (2008-11-27) — Rick decides to change his ways after an accident and will only see the positives in people from now on. He is pushed to the limits by Magda as she looks to offload some of his mos
- E5: Spikey (2008-12-11) — Rick is forced to go and see a play which turns out worse than he could've imagined as the writer used to be the same level as Rick. He is happier though, to learn that his daughte
- E6: Mistake (2008-12-18) — Rick and Marty have to make extra room around the house when Mel has to work from home. Rick is annoyed by Marty's liking of Mel's assistant and the constant disruptions, until he
- E7: Nuts (2008-12-23) — Rick is looking forward to spending a quiet Christmas at home with Mel. It will be a well-earned break from the challenging acting role he is currently immersed in – playing the pa
Season 4
- E1: Pig (2011-05-31) — Rick's career is at an all-time low: even his idea of writing a novel gets stuck on page one. So when a Sunday newspaper wants to do an 'At Home With' feature about his partner Mel
- E2: Dead (2011-06-07) — Rick lands a job as a presenter on the Bargain Channel – it's Britain's premier shopping channel, as he points out to anyone who will listen. For once, his new job impresses surly
- E3: Shoddy (2011-06-14) — Rick's new job as a presenter on The Bargain Channel is going well but after his writing partner Marty takes a shine to his co-presenter Donna, Rick is not happy. Clive is on the w
- E4: Off (2011-06-21) — Rick is at his lowest ebb. With no other work on offer, he decides to set up his own stand-up comedy workshop. But the first week's class attracts just five students. Worse still,
- E5: Blade (2011-06-28) — Having accepted funding from the local council, Rick reluctantly agrees to teach a Stand-up Comedy Workshop in Belford Prison. But this turns out to be one of Rick's worst gigs: he
- E6: End (2011-07-05) — In the concluding episode, Rick has at last found the fame and success he so desperately craved. Thanks to his ordeal as a hostage, the 'Prison Siege Comic', as he is now known in
Frequently Asked Questions
How many seasons does Lead Balloon have? 4 season(s) with 27 episodes.
Who created Lead Balloon? Jack Dee.
Where can I watch Lead Balloon? See the Where to Watch section above for current streaming options.
