Just like the inventors of true 'new' 'alternative' comedy, aka The Goons and Monty Python, when you thought it was safe to come out into the 'normal' TV comedy world, along came Alexei Sayle's Stuff. Straight out of the alternative comedy basket and into his own series here.Of course, just like the latter stylised types, his humour could be hit and miss, but when it hit, he could manage some good laughs with his political affiliations on 80's/90's blighted 'Thatcherite' Britain via his monologues in the tight suits and arm-flapping rantings. However, that was his style and it suited the period well. Coupled with numerous bizarre sketches, sometimes as I say with a beleaguered 'miss' on the punchlines, but often still funny, this three-series (six episodes in each) was welcome and still, although dated in places can hit the right note.The openers to the episodes, the 'Mickey Mouse' one and of course the 'Who's that fat bastard!?!' one were classics in their own right, however easy-going the basis of them were. Of particular interest was one show where Leslie Crowther imitated Sayle in his monologue-persona. Leslie Crowther actually died just before screening of the show which was to feature him and I remember at the time, the BBC mentioned it was being screened with the Crowther family's permission and blessing as a kind of blaze of glory for the ex-game show host.Notable also for including a new wave of comedy actors into his sketches (Mark Williams, Angus Deayton and old stablehands like Tony Millan from 'Citizen Smith' some years before, showed a wealth of good talent to act out the mad sketches).I actually bumped into Alexei Sayle and his wife and asked him for his autograph which was great - this was in the famous Soft Furnishing chain in the UK 'DFS' - proving he really was a man of the people! (I don't think it's fair of anyone to summise that he hadn't made it as he was in there!). I managed to see all three series of 'Stuff' on sale in HMV, two years ago and although together they cost me £45 - an extremely rare sight anywhere even then as now. I thought it was a bargain indeed - but alas, it was a Christmas present for my brother! I have a downloaded copy of just the first series and am scouring for a copy of my own of the other two series - it's well worth the bother!

Alexi Sayle's style is extremely political, and if you listen to his audio-book of early comedy club recordings, you'll hear the prototypes for many of the gags which appear in Stuff. Marshall & Renwick have a distinctly different style - they came from the world of radio comedy - "The Burkis Way to Dynamic Living" was one of theirs (that mutated into a short-lived TV version on ITV with the same cast, but it was too surreal to last on the low-brow ITV). They also wrote the extremely funny "Whoops, Apocalypse!" (the TV version), and the famous "One Foot In the Grave". They also spoofed Lord of the Rings in the year that the epic BBC Radio 4 production aired, with "Hordes of the Things", a wickedly observed lampoon with first rate cast and writing. This is a very strong pedigree.If you want to "spot" which is Marshall and Renwick, and which is Sayle, it isn't hard to do. The more Pythonesque it gets, the less likely it is to be Sayle, and the more political it is, the more likely it is him.If you want some great examples of sketches which other reviewers haven't mentioned, I'd put the extended sketch/concept episode "Seal of the Soothsayer" as one of my favourites. The Mickey Mouse/Steamboat Fatty spoof is also priceless. One of my personal favourites is the "Who's a Jew?" sketch, where a businessman discovers that not only is HE Jewish, but so is Thomas the Tank Engine (original name: Thomasovitch Tankenstein)! The School Outfitter sketch rings true to anybody buying school uniform, even today. There are so many treasures in this series that it is a crime to be selective. I am glad that the BBC have finally allowed/negotiated rights/whatever to get this out on DVD in the UK - the whole series as opposed to the original compilation shown on the title page for this entry.The "All New Alexi Sayle Show" appeared after a few years off, and Alexi had mellowed - no more ranting, but it just felt that he had lost his sharp comic edge. Most of the material revolved around perhaps 6 characters whom you would see in every episode in the same predictable order (Harry Enfield fell into the same trap, as does "Little Britain" today), and if the joke wasn't really funny once, it certainly wasn't funny twice, or six times, and when the series ended, I recycled the VHS recordings I'd made from the TV immediately rather than saving them. Stick to "Stuff", and you're in safer, if stranger territory, and it's much funnier there.

This has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. My local PBS station aired it late on Friday nights over ten years ago and I was hooked. I can't remember much about it now, except for a few of the songs, such as the one in the title (to the tune of Mickey Mouse) but I know it was hilarious! I would love to see this again!

Alexei Sayle and his writers somehow managed to make several series of surreal humour and not be compared to Monty Python, even with Cleese-a-like Angus Deyton in the days before he disappeared up his own smug a**e.Largely unnoticed at the time and widely unrepeated, this was a series that deserved more credit than it was ever given. By the time the BBC had woken up to what they had, the series had turned into something resembling light entertainment instead of the confident and unapologetic oddness in "Stuff".A few too many song and dance routines though. And more often than not they just weren't funny, as clearly demonstrated in his mid-80s LP "Panic".Is it fat, bald and jewish in here or is it just me...?