15 Storeys High

Vince Clark

Vince is a miserable misanthropic, gormless man with no sense of embarrassment and no social graces. He has a fierce aversion to being touched and seems determined to lead a maudlin, forlorn existence. He also seems to have no capacity for original thought, recycling stories he has been told and claiming they happened to him. He often repeats these stories back to the people who originally told him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they know he's lying. Vince works as a lifeguard at the local swimming baths.

The reality is that Vince is one of those people who has spent too much time living on his own and as a result is completely intolerant of anybody else. Imagine a cantankerous, slothful, mean-spirited old man packed into the body of a 37-year-old and you've pretty much got the idea.

Errol Spears

Errol is a a naïve man of Chinese extraction, hailing from a huge, mixed northern family from Salford. Living with Vince is no picnic, but Errol somehow makes a fist of it.

Errol's only crime however is that he's a nice, considerate, thoroughly decent bloke. Errol is a sweetheart. An innocent abroad. He's moved down to London to get a taste of the real world and to work his way through a list of things he wants to achieve in life. (Number 36: drink a cappuccino, number 37: work with fish). Errol is the sort of bloke who would do anything for you, the kind of person who, sadly, in a place like London is bound to be taken advantage of.

Darren

Darren is the other lifeguard at the Fun 'N' Splash leisure centre. In the first episode of the second series, Stacey, the aqua aerobics instructor, organises a surprise birthday party for him in a local Italian restaurant.