Lee Nelson's Well Good Show

Lee Nelson's Well Good Show is a British comedy sketch show, written and presented by Simon Brodkin[1] and produced by Avalon Television for BBC Three. It featured Brodkin hosting a studio based show as his comedy character Lee Nelson, a happy-go-lucky chav, and also featured television sketches of Brodkin's other comedy characters.

Lee Nelson's Well Good Show
Title card
GenreSketch show, Stand-up comedy
Written bySimon Brodkin
Directed byPeter Orton
Presented bySimon Brodkin
StarringTerry Noble
Kathy Berry
Ben Willbond
Theme music composerDizzee Rascal – "Flex" (instrumental)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes15
Production
Executive producersRichard Allen-Turner
Jonn Thoday
ProducerSpencer Millman
EditorGraham Barker
Running time30 minutes
Production companyAvalon Television
Release
Original networkBBC Three
Original release10 June 2010 (2010-06-10) –
13 October 2011 (2011-10-13)
Related
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
Lee Nelson's Well Funny People

Production

The BBC commissioned the show in 2009.[2][3] Written by Brodkin, it was produced by Avalon Television.[2][3][4]

Cast
  • Lee Nelson, Dr. Bob, Jason Bent & Chris Young – Simon Brodkin[1]
  • Omelette – Terry Noble[1]
  • Nan – Kathy Berry[1]

Characters and sketches

The programme consists of Brodkin (in character as Nelson throughout) hosting a studio show before an audience, which includes audience interaction, games (which contain unusual prizes, such as a pair of sunglasses, a victory belt and a tree), and features involving the characters Omelette, and Nelson's nan.[5] The programme also includes inserted recorded sketches featuring three other characters also portrayed by Brodkin: due to time limitations, in some episodes only two insert sketches would feature, though in others all three would appear. The insert sketches are:

  • 110% Bent, a spoof of fly-on-the-wall celebrity documentaries featuring Brodkin as the bland and unintelligent Premiership footballer Jason Bent, who was briefly a Manchester City player;
  • Hospital Life, a parody of daytime medical documentaries, featuring Brodkin as the insensitive 'Dr. Bob';
  • Faliraki Nights, a spoof of late-evening 'nightlife' documentaries. This features Brodkin as holiday rep Chris Young, and includes narration by former BBC Three continuity announcer Lola Buckley (who also voices the introduction to 110% Bent)

Some of the characters have appeared previously in Brodkin's earlier TV work: sketches featuring the Jason Bent character appeared in Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder, an Avalon production first broadcast on ITV1 in 2009; these featured Murray as a sports reporter conducting post-match interviews with Bent. The same Al Murray series also featured the Lee Nelson character in a run of comic monologues. In 2008, the Dr. Bob character had appeared (as 'Dr. Omprakash') in BBC Three comedy showcase series The Wall.

Reception

Despite popular appeal, the show has received mainly negative reviews from critics. Liam Tucker of TV Pixie writes, 'Lee Nelson's Well Good Show is less 'well good' and more a pile of irredeemable crap littered with witless demi-jokes, all limping along on the questionable talent of Simon Brodkin. Presumably someone at BBC Three saw that he looks a little like Kevin Bishop, noticed that Ali G hasn't been around for the best part of a decade and calculated success on that shaky basis.'[6] Stuart Heritage of The Guardian remarks in an article concerning the justification behind Television Show names that 'BBC3's Lee Nelson's Well Good Show suffers from the fact that it's almost the exact scientific opposite of well good.' Despite the negative reviews, ratings were such that the BBC commissioned a second show, Lee Nelson's Well Funny People.

DVD release

A DVD was released on 22 August 2011 entitled The Complete Series 1. "Lee Nelson Live" was also released on 19 November 2012 featuring a live stand-up routine from Lee Nelson's live 2012 stand-up tour.

Transmissions
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
110 June 201022 July 20107
225 August 201113 October 20118

Ratings

Series 1
# Airdate Total viewers Audience share
110 June 2010501,000[7]3%
217 June 2010521,000—
324 June 2010——
41 July 2010711,000[8]4.4%
58 July 2010612,000[9]5%
615 July 2010——
722 July 2010——

Series 2
# Airdate Total viewers Audience share
125 August 2011602,000[10]3.6%
21 September 2011462,000[11]2.7%
38 September 2011416,000[12]2.6%
415 September 2011530,000[13]3.5%
522 September 2011523,000[14]3.5%
629 September 2011434,000[15]2.8%
76 October 2011491,000[16]3.3%
813 October 2011486,000[17]3.1%

References
  1. "Lee Nelson's Well Good Show – Production Details". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  2. "Lee Nelson's Well Good Show". BBC Online. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  3. Parker, Robin (7 July 2009). "BBC3 eyes character-based sketch show". Broadcast Now. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  4. "Lee Nelson's Well Good Show". BBC Online. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  5. "Lee Nelson's Well Good Show". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
  6. "Lee Nelson's Well Good Show". TV Pixie. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  7. Laughlin, Andrew (11 June 2010). "'Junior Apprentice' final pulls in 5m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  8. Laughlin, Andrew (2 July 2010). "BBC's fox attack doc pulls in 4m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  9. Laughlin, Andrew (9 July 2010). "BBC drama 'Dive' debuts to 1.5m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  10. Laughlin, Andrew (26 August 2011). "'Show Me The Funny' live final amuses nearly 2.5m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  11. Laughlin, Andrew (2 September 2011). "'Celebrity Juice' return amuses 1.1m on ITV2". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  12. Laughlin, Andrew (9 September 2011). "Paddy Doherty's Celebrity Big Brother win seen by 3m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  13. Laughlin, Andrew (16 September 2011). "'Torchwood: Miracle Day' finale eclipsed by new Billy Connolly show". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  14. Laughlin, Andrew (23 September 2011). "'Glee' dances over to Sky1 with 640k". Digital Spy. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  15. Laughlin, Andrew (30 September 2011). "'Shirley' delights nearly 2.7m, 'Glee' loses viewers". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  16. Laughlin, Andrew (7 October 2011). "'Hidden' is found by 5.2m on BBC One". Digital Spy. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
  17. Laughlin, Andrew (14 October 2011). "'Hidden' fends off 'Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey' in ratings". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
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