Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

The former 41st Best Stand-Up Comedian ever (and current 12th) is back in Stoke Newington's Mildmay Club for the second outing of his Comedy Vehicle. If the first series was a test drive for Stewart Lee's suitability for television, this is him taking the wheel, ditching the rather unnecessary revving at the lights (we're talking about the sketches - this is a metaphor...) and taking us for a more assured drive through, er, Comedytown.

Even StewLee fanboys like tvBite will admit that the cut-aways in the first run didn't always hit the mark. Instead, in their place we have clips from an interview with Armando Iannucci, as found last year on the Red Button. So this second run is more stripped-down and, presumably, less expensive for the Beeb.

At the beginning, Lee explains that he intends to add more jokes to make himself more appealing to a wider public and to the BBC themselves ("They wanted me to put more jokes in as a condition of this being recommissioned."). The only joke is - there are no real jokes ("Not in this show"). They've actually allowed him to be more Stewart Lee-y; he's contrived to make himself less appealing to a wider public. So the pauses are longer, the repetitions more pronounced, the deconstruction more constant. He implores the audience to keep up and then scolds them for anticipating jokes or even laughing at them ("They're sycophants, basically. I despise them"). With the new 11.20pm time slot, it's as if the BBC are saying, "Go mad - no one'll mind."

Will you like it? Would you find a 29-minute routine about a man's grandfather eating crisps where the punchline is "the reconstruction process was time-consuming but not expensive" funny? If not, you may be best waiting for a ride in Russell Howard's Good News Party Limo, which is bigger and more comfortable, but ultimately leaves you feeling a bit cheap. This is still a metaphor.

"Alternative comedian" is a misused term, but it's one that can quite accurately be used to describe Stewart Lee. By his own admission, he doesn't really do jokes. As he starts up his Comedy for a second series, he's preoccupied by complaints about the absence of jokes in the first. So there's a deconstruction of his routine to ensure we get the comedy, and playful interludes where Armando Iannucci tries to teach him how to tell a gag. It's artful, intelligent comedy that doesn't rely on idle reminiscences for laughs, even though it mostly revolves around crisps. Lee toys brilliantly with the audience - both at home and at the Mildmay Club in north London - deploying awkward pauses so pregnant they should be drinking raspberry leaf tea.

Stewart Lee ('Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle')

It was with some glee (and no little surprise) that we at DS welcomed the news that Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle had been given a second series. He may have been proclaimed the 41st Best Stand-Up Ever in 2007, but we'd struggle to name many comics we'd rather see on stage than him. Before his show returns tonight, we spoke to Stewart about his new late-night TV slot, why Channel 4 are "moronic cynics" and the long-awaited DVD release of his and Richard Herring's '90s classic Fist of Fun.

Stewart Lee's comedy vehicle moves into second

Comedy's finest Squashed Morrissey is back for a second series with his comedy vehicle on BBC2 on the 4th of May, so we look back at some of his finest moments so far...

Preview: Tedious. Problematic. Brilliant

Steve Bennett previews the first two episodes of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.

The bitingly sardonic comedian remains beloved by stand-up aficionados but sadly under-appreciated by TV schedulers, which perhaps explains why this returning series of his idiosyncratic ramblings/rants is on so late. Though at least Lee, "officially the 41st best stand-up ever", can still be found on terrestrial TV. Tonight's theme is charity, about which Lee will presumably be hilariously uncharitable.

Stewart Lee: Joking apart

When the BBC came to pull out clips from my 2009 TV series, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, for trails, they found it impossible to snag anything compact enough to use.

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle to return next month

A new series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle will air from Wednesday May 4th on BBC2.

'Nobody banned Christmas': Lee on political correctnees

Comedian Stewart Lee tells Radio 5 live's Richard Bacon why he's prepared to defend political correctness as part of his comedy act.

Lee sights the example of 'Winterval', an initiative by Birminham City Council to combine religious celebrations which some believed was an attempt to ban Christmas.

The star of 90's cult comedy show 'Fist of Fun' claims society is in 'a better place' for following the values of political correctness.

Listen to the full interview with Richard Bacon's podcast.

Escaping Our Certain Fates

I was in a meeting recently when someone who makes more money than me told me not to be cynical, and to hold fast to original ideas and not make my ideas fit into holes that I may have perceived commissioners and controllers think they have in their schedules.