15 Storeys High

15 Storeys High
2007 DVD cover
Created by	Sean Lock
Written by	Sean Lock Martin Trenaman Mark Jones[a]
Directed by	Mark Nunneley
Starring	Sean Lock Benedict Wong
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Producer	Phil Bowker
Running time	30 min
Original release
Network	BBC Choice BBC Three BBC Two
Release	7 November 2002 (2002-11-07) – 18 March 2004 (2004-03-18)

15 Storeys High is a British sitcom, set in a tower block in south London. Created and co-written by Sean Lock, it originated as two radio series broadcast in 1998–2000, transferring to television in 2002–2004. The television series starred Sean Lock and Benedict Wong.

Vince is an anti-social eccentric who wants to live by his own peculiar set of rules and ensure that his henpecked lodger/flatmate Errol abides by them too. They live in a drab flat in a tower block with a collection of seemingly crazed residents. Working as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool and with an acute phobia for being touched, Vince does his best to avoid dealing with other people. Due to his lack of social skills, he manages to get himself into a succession of awkward situations: from teaching a swimming student with a psychotic husband; to helping a neighbour look after his new pet (a horse); to conducting a bitter feud with a gang of kids intent on destroying him.^[1]

• Sean Lock as Vince Clark:
  A misanthropic sardonic recluse who shares his flat with Errol in a tower block. Lock described him as a particular type, "There's a lot of people in London who kind of get washed up in a place, and they don't really necessarily take part in normal life. They don't have families, they don't interact socially, they lose touch with their friends, people move on in life ... they kind of get left somewhere on a shelf. That's what Vince was like. He continually was finding new ways to isolate himself – protect himself from actually recognising what his life was like."^[2]: 14:32
• Benedict Wong as Errol Spears:
  Vince's naïve but optimistic flatmate/lodger. Errol's relationship with Vince is similar to classic double acts and described as "comic foils ... a little bit Laurel and Hardy ... the idiot who knows everything and the idiot who knows nothing". Peter Serafinowicz, who played Errol in the radio series, was actually doing an impression of Wong and suggested the role to him. The part was not specifically written for a Chinese actor but Lock was unable see anyone else in the flat with Vince saying, "when Benny [Wong] came in, he seemed to make sense of it".^{[3][4]: 13:25}

Additional cast members included Aml Ameen, James Bachman, Bill Bailey, Perry Benson, Cavan Clerkin, Felix Dexter, Simon Godley, Michael Greene, Melanie Gutteridge, Toby Jones, Mark Lamarr, Dan Mersh, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Paul Putner, Pearce Quigley, Peter Serafinowicz, William Tomlin and Steven Webb.^[5]

The show's original incarnation was a radio series entitled Sean Lock's 15 Minutes of Misery. It was broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 in the "Late Night on 4" comedy slot at 11.00pm. It ran for six episodes between 30 December 1998 and 3 February 1999. The show was written by Sean Lock and produced by Dan Freedman, and starred Lock, Kevin Eldon and Hattie Hayridge.^[6][7][8]

Lock's second series was entitled Sean Lock: 15 Storeys High, and it was also broadcast on Radio 4's "Late Night on 4" comedy slot and written by Sean Lock and Martin Trenaman and produced by Chris Neill. Each series had five half-hour episodes. Series one aired from 24 November 1999 to 22 December 1999, and starred Lock, along with Felix Dexter, Jenny Eclair, Tim Mitchell, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Chris Pavlo and Peter Serafinowicz. Series two aired from 24 November 2000 to 22 December 2000, and included roles from Dan Freedman, Alex Lowe, Dan Mersh, Paul Putner, Rob Rouse and Chris Neill.^[9] The 15 Storeys High radio series used a different method to present the events going on in other flats in the tower block. It dispensed with the idea of Sean listening in on others using "Bugger King", replacing it with a voiceover simply announcing the flat number of the subsequent scene. The show introduced Sean's flatmate Errol (played by Serafinowicz in series 1, episodes 2–5).^[10][11]

Both radio series (Sean Lock's 15 Minutes of Misery and Sean Lock: 15 Storeys High) were recorded in front of a studio audience. The theme tune used for both series is the 1960s song "England Swings" by Roger Miller.^[7]

In 2002, 15 Storeys High was made into a BBC Television show which ran for two series; each series had six half-hour episodes. The show was filmed on location and therefore without a live audience.^[12]

The 15 Storeys High TV series was written by Lock with Trenaman and Mark Lamarr credited with his real name Mark Jones.^[12]

Each series took six to seven months to write. Lock's view was, "The hardest thing to write is sitcom. 15 Storeys High is the hardest thing I've worked on. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. To do a decent sitcom. To do a shit sitcom, you can do that without much effort, and there are plenty of those around". The writing process did not follow a particular structure or pursuit of a story arc. Trenaman recalled that Lock would come in the office one day and say, "I want to do something about an airport, something about travelling ... We'd just set off. There was no plan of action."^[13][14]

During filming Lock allowed some improvisation that made scenes funnier. At other times, Lock's attention to detail would be more restrictive when some actors felt they could improve a line. Lock was adamant about retaining certain dialogue, explaining the effort taken to write something would be wasted, but also that the pay-off on a later joke related to the plot would be compromised.^[15]: 3:20

Lock and Lamarr found they could avoid unnecessary exposition dialogue between scenes when director Mark Nunneley showed they could simply use wipe transitions during the film edit.^[16]: 5:50

Trenaman's other recollection about writing the show, "... is laughing a lot in that office – I mean really rip-roaring laughs. The other memory I have is both of us staring at the wall in silence for hours and going, 'I can't think of anything'".^[14]

15 Storeys High is noted for its drab, grainy, washed-out style to reflect the mundanity of the characters' lives.^[17] Directed by Mark Nunneley, the series was filmed unlike any show at the time, including the in-vogue mockumentary style.^[14] Lock was influenced by arthouse films and considered Andrei Tarkovsky's science-fiction Stalker (1979) as a film that affected him profoundly.^[18] Trenaman said, "[Lock] wanted it shot like a Swedish art film. At the time I thought it was a brilliant idea. But people at meetings were going, 'Really...? What, a sitcom on the BBC shot like that?!' It was really Sean's vision".^[14]

Filmed mainly on location, the interior rooms of the tower block were filmed in a studio. The exterior view from the 15th floor was a huge photograph and the lighting was done in such a way that it could appear to be day or night. ^[19]: 2:38 A joke on set was, "Can we not afford any lights? Mark, are there any lights in the budget?!"^[14]

Brandon Estate tower block featured in the series

Exteriors for the tower block are located in the Brandon Estate, Kennington, London. The swimming pool for the first series, where Vince works as a lifeguard, is in the Ladywell Leisure Centre in Lewisham, London. In the second series, the swimming pool is situated in the basement of the Shell Centre next to Waterloo station. The former Elephant and Castle shopping centre was also a location in several episodes, including the Sundial restaurant and the bowling alley.^[12][20]

The opening title theme music varied with each episode and included Tito Puente's version of "On the Street Where You Live", alluding to the lyric in the first verse "All at once am I, several stories high, knowing I'm on the street where you live"; and a backwards remix of Madness's "House of Fun".^[12][21]

The series was the victim of poor scheduling and did not get the attention given to other successful turn-of-the-millennium era British comedies, such as The Office, Phoenix Nights and The Royle Family. These sitcoms similarly moved away from the traditional live studio audience and laugh track format using multiple cameras to a single-camera setup visual style.^[22][14][23]

The show was originally broadcast on the digital channel BBC Choice, which was later rebranded to BBC Three, from 7 November 2002 to 12 December 2002. It was not promoted to a mainstream terrestrial channel with a larger prime time audience the same way Little Britain transferred from BBC Three to BBC One.^[12][22][24]

The second series, broadcast from 12 February 2004 to 18 March 2004, ended up being programmed on Sundays late at night on BBC Two.^[12][22] One episode was delayed even further due to the overrun of the preceding live "badger watch" show hosted by Bill Oddie who exclaimed, "There are some sitcom fans who are going to be disappointed ... but we're going to see some badgers in a minute!"^[14]

The show was not recommissioned for a third season and has never been repeated for broadcast on the BBC since 2005. It was subsequently repeated on digital channel Gold in the "After Dark" graveyard slot from 2014 until 2016.^[25][26][27]

The hard work making the series, followed by the inept management in programming, left Lock disillusioned by the experience. He then steered his TV career to appearances on panel shows.^[22] In contrast, Wong recalled his experience with fondness and has progressed to a Hollywood career starring in big budget streaming shows such as Marco Polo playing Kublai Khan and appearing in Marvel movies.^[3][28] As to why the show was badly handled by the BBC, Lock opined, "I think I must have spilt a drink somewhere once at a BBC party. Or called someone a cunt. That's more likely. I was drunk and called someone a cunt".^[26]

15 Storeys High has since been reappraised after Lock's death in 2021. The show gained a new cult audience on DVD. In memory of Lock, a campaign for its return resulted in the series becoming available again on BBC iPlayer.^[14][29][30]

In 2003, 15 Storeys High was nominated for a BAFTA in the "Television Craft: New Director - Fiction" category for Mark Nunneley.^[32]

• 15 Storeys High at BBC Online Comedy Guide
• 15 Storeys High at BBC Online
• BBC THREE – 15 Storeys High at the Wayback Machine (archived 6 October 2006)
• 15 Storeys High at IMDb