Lead Balloon - Characters

Characters

Dee's character Rick Spleen (born Richard Shaw) is a stand-up comedian living in London who struggles to get decent gigs and makes ends meet by hosting corporate events such as the Frozen Goods Awards Evening. Dee and Sinclair based the character on the "comedians who hated being comedians" who performed alongside Dee in his early years of stand-up. Rick is a habitual and incompetent liar who often attempts practical tasks himself in an attempt to avoid paying professionals.

His partner Mel (Raquel Cassidy) is a talent agent whose clientele of everyday people getting their 15 minutes of fame serves to highlight Rick's failing career. Her calm, perceptive and considerate personality contrasts strongly with Rick's.

Rick's American co-writer, Marty (Sean Power), writes the majority of Rick's material, often working with him at Rick's home or Michael's café. Though he tries to moderate Rick's desperate behaviour, he is quietly frustrated with him, and conspires against Rick's interests.

Michael (Tony Gardner) owns and runs the café that Rick and Marty frequently visit to escape the chaos of Rick's home. He is socially awkward, possibly to the extent of having a mental disorder, although he was actually a high-flying city banker who suffered from burn-out. His father turns out to be gay in later series, to which Michael reacts negatively.

Rick's daughter Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) attends sixth form college and regularly extracts money from her father, often by expressing sympathy at his misfortunes.

Sam's slacker boyfriend Ben (Rasmus Hardiker) goes through numerous jobs and interests in the first series, such as taking a circus skills course, and a short-lived shelf-stacking job.

Magda (Anna Crilly) is the Spleens' morose Eastern European housekeeper, who is often puzzled by British attitudes, language and, in her view, softness. She is a willing worker and generally suffers Rick's selfish eccentricities in sullen silence.

Neighbour Clive (John Biggins) had a part in a single scene in the first series, but had a larger part in an episode of the second series; by the third series he had become a prominent character, concerned about the well-being of his elderly mother who is very delicate and has had problems with losing her cat and having teenagers throwing rubbish over her wall.