Absurdist comic one of the best
Sean Lock Comedian BORN APRIL 22, 1963 – DIED AUGUST 18, 2021, AGED 58
SUCH was the quality of Sean Lock’s material that audiences were often laughing long before his punchlines. The awardwinning comic – a TV star and team captain on Channel 4’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats and spin-off 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown – was an absurdist storyteller with a deadpan delivery. One writer compared his comic timing as “second only to the Greenwich Meridian”.
Lock was a veteran of the standup circuit and wrote material for Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr. Behind his glasses he wore a bewildered expression to exemplify his observational humour, often accompanied by a wry smile.
In 1998, he scripted popular BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High about tower block residents, in which he played recluse Vince Clark.
In 2010, he came 19th on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.
Lock was born in Chertsey, near Woking in Surrey, the youngest of four children to Mary and Sidney Lock, who worked in the building trade.
After attending St John the Baptist school, he left education with one A-level.
He spent six weeks working as a goat herder on a French farm before moving on to a kibbutz in Israel. He also had stints as a toilet cleaner and an office worker for the Department of Health and Social Security.
After working on building sites, he developed skin cancer but made a full recovery and later moved into comedy.
His first TV appearance came in 1993 opposite Rob Newman and David Baddiel on their TV show Newman And Baddiel In Pieces.
From there he scripted Is It Billy Bailey? for BBC2 before landing his own Radio 4 show, 15 Minutes Of Misery, the precursor to 15 Storeys High.
As well as 18 series of 8 Out Of 10 Cats, he appeared on panel shows including Have I Got News For You, QI and They Think It’s All Over.
Lock won Best Live Comic at the British Comedy Awards in 2000 and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award that same year.
A statement from his agent said: “Sean was one of Britain’s finest comedians, his boundless creativity, lightning wit and the absurdist brilliance of his work, marked him out as a unique voice in British comedy.”
Lock died of cancer at his home, surrounded by his family.
He is survived by his wife Anoushka Nara Giltsoff and their three children.