Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle - Series 2

You either love Stewart Lee's work. Or you hate it. I don't hate it. Sharp, intelligent, satirical, quick-witted. I'm all of these. And so is he. No, really. Fantastic mind. His, I mean.

If you like Stewart Lee, then this is for you. If you don't it's probably best to avoid it. Series 2 retains most of the elements from Series 1. There is the occasional 'illustrative' sketch and the talks with Armando Iannucci that provided most of the 'red button' extras in the first series now punctuate Lee's stand up; but for the most part, it's Stewart Lee performing stand up in a room. Where it differs from Series 1 is that it lacks the opening titles and has far less sketches so you won't see the likes of Paul Putner, Simon Munnery, Kevin Eldon and Tony Law popping up. This isn't neccesarily a bad thing - I complained that the sketches really just acted out what Lee had just said, but there does seem to be a sketch-shaped hole if you've grown used to them. With essentially 3 hours worth of comedy, some of the material is recycled from his stand up shows (also available on DVD), some of it may have been viewed live on last year's Vegetable Stew tour (which was explicitly promoted as being a testing of these shows) and some it just feels familiar. There are probably better places to start if you haven't seen him before, but this does a good job of setting out his approach, philosophy and, self-proclaimed, short-comings. A slightly disappointing thing, for me, was the lack of 'red button' extras. These featured stand up and music from Lee's support acts. One has been included - Lee performing 'Russell Brand's Wedding' with Nick Pynn - and there is an extended version of Lee and Alan Moore looking around Churchill's secret bunker, but it's a shame they couldn't have put more on this disc or included a bonus disc. Maybe we've come to expect too many extras with our DVDs, but it seems a shame to have wasted them.

I didn't LOL. My chest contracted involuntarily and real noises came out of my mouth (and occassionally more embarrassingly my nose). Given that I was watching this on screen at work with headphones on pretending to be doing something else this was problematic. Stewart Lee is brilliant. His aloof style, combining a degree of self-deprecation with that sense that maybe he should be more successful than he is perfectly suits his musings on the world and especially on comedy. There's one episode where he improvises a conversation between two librarians for whom he worked (as unsurprisingly a librarian) imaging how he would turn out as a comedian. "He'll talk about comedy but in a style that suggests it's beneath him." "So he'll have his cake and eat it?" "Yes!" He has detached rambling and forensic dissection of comedy and his unbounded contempt for people like Michael McIntyre and unlike anyone else on the comedy scene at the moment. And somehow this self-analysis, bile and resignation is just very, very funny. There aren't many people who can say "All the flavours of crisps" over and over again and actually make people laugh but he manages it. But if you are reading this you probably already know that. You probably already know his backstory and you probably already have a lot of his DVDs and CDs. And that may be an issue. This series consists of six half hour episodes shot in the same style and (I think) location as the first series but with slightly fewer but more elaborate sequences outside the studio. The interviews with Armando Iannucci which were used as extras in the first series are shot through the episode but are quite short and are not intrusive. But if you are a fan you may have heard the material before. The epsidoe on identity includes his William Wallace routine. The episode on democracy includes a reworked version of his why I hate Richard Hammond routine with David Cameron as the subject. The journey is different but the destination is the same. And there are a fair few sections of "47th best standup" and "If you prefer a milder comedian.." in this. That siad everything is reworked and it is as much about how he delivers the lines as the lines themselves which makes them funny so it's not a huge issue. There are two extras. The first is a song about Russell Brand's wedding - which is good. The second is Lee and Alan Moore (the comic book writer) breaking into a WWII bunker to uncover a national secret - which isn't so good. Overall I loved this but, given Lee's status and following, I suspect any positive review is preaching to the choir.

The shows are great, possibly even as good as series 1. Several moments had me absolutely in stitches. There are some notable format changes compared to series 1: 1. The intentionally disparaging Armando Iannucci interviews are included within the show itself. 2. Gone are the cut-away sketches with the likes of Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner. 3. The opening titles and theme music are gone. The show just starts with Stew on stage. 4. Each show ends with a filmed sequence punctuating one or more of the ideas in the show. These are often quite dark. The DVD menu is strikingly sleek and professional; much love has gone into this. But where are the wonderful red-button extras? When broadcast, each episode show-cased a different underground act in a ten-minute show as Stewart Lee Presents... I was really looking forward to being able to watch these again, especially the Nick Pynn and Kevin Eldon ones. In the way of DVDs extras there is only a single Nick Pynn/Stewart Lee collaboration and an extended version of the Allan Moore scene from one of the episodes. The first series of this show included all six-episodes plus all the red-button stuff spread across two disks. Shame on you, BBC. PAL UK: Region 2 & 4. SUBTITLES: English for the Hard of Hearing NB. The missing Kevin Eldon set was recorded at a show in Cardiff and released as Kevin Eldon is Titting About by GoFasterStripe. Highly recommended.

There is no better comedian working today, in Britain or otherwise. Buy a region-free player, and get everything of his you can.

Not his best DVD but there are some classic moments and it has me consider buying more of his material

This man is a gem.

Comedy God.

I like Stewart Lee so, for me it was great:)