Lead Balloon



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.

Premise
Rick Spleen is a successful but disillusioned stand-up comedian. He spends his days hosting corporate events such as The Heating and Ventilation Awards, arguing with his co-writer Marty and trying to hide his incompetence from Mel, his partner.

Rick is a habitual liar, but as he is not a very good one it is a trait which more often than not lands him in a deep hole... which he invariably then digs himself into even deeper when he piles more flimsy lies on top of the previous ones.

Being out of pocket is something that particularly riles Rick, but with his laid-back daughter Sam and her equally lazy boyfriend Ben always coming up with excuses for needing money, his wallet is rarely full.

Ironically it is Rick's tightfistedness that causes him the biggest financial losses though; eventually he always ends up paying for the damage his lies have caused.

Scenes for the fourth series of Lead Balloon feature an awards ceremony - Rick is mistakenly identified as a hero, and asked to present the Brave Britain Awards as a result.

Characters
See also: Characters


 * Rick Spleen
 * Mel
 * Marty
 * Sam
 * Ben
 * Michael
 * Magda

Episodes
See also: Episode Guide

Lead Balloon has run from the 4th of October 2006 – the present day. The show has had a total of Three series consisting of over 27 episodes so far.