Browse episode ratings trends for Lead Balloon. Simply click on the interactive rating graph to explore the best and worst of Lead Balloon's 27 episodes.
Best Episodes of Lead Balloon
Lucky
S2 Ep8
7.9
3rd Jan 2008
Rick is sick of doing endless corporate gigs and accuses his writer Marty of lacking ambition, but a call from Hollywood changes everything. One of Mel's clients is going through a divorce, Ben and Sam start their own dog-walking business and Michael the cafe manager has started going to 'cuddle parties'.
Blade
S4 Ep5
7.8
28th Jun 2011
Having accepted funding from the local council, Rick reluctantly agrees to teach a Stand-up Comedy Workshop in Belford Prison. But this turns out to be one of Rick's worst gigs: he is taken hostage, trapped in the prison library by a knife-wielding prisoner, Donald. Donald is a worrying mixture of charming and psychotic - and worse still for Rick, has a pathological hatred of liars. Can Rick talk his way out of trouble? Will the governors give in to Donald's demands? Or will this be the end of Rick's less-than-stellar career?
Fatty
S1 Ep6
7.8
8th Nov 2006
Rick is publicly humiliated on TV by daytime chat-show host Adam Green. He also has an unfortunate encounter with an acquaintance at the gym, and Ben manages to destroy Rick's brand new DVD player by taking the back off.
Wayne
S1 Ep2
7.8
11th Oct 2006
A teaspoon crisis in the Spleen household leads Rick to petty theft. Meanwhile, Rick's sleep is disturbed by the paperboy, Wayne, who is very punctual, very noisy and has a brain the size of a walnut.
Hero
S2 Ep2
7.7
22nd Nov 2007
Rick becomes a local hero when he stops someone from committing suicide. He gets even more excited when, as a result, a TV executive agrees to come to dinner to talk about Rick s career. Magda prepares a traditional dish from her country for the evening, but when the guests finally arrive, Rick gets an unwelcome surprise
Allergic
S1 Ep4
7.7
25th Oct 2006
Rick discovers he may have inadvertently killed one of Britain's best-loved entertainers, but he's preoccupied by a missing shoe-organiser. Meanwhile Rick prepares for upcoming appearance on topical news panel show Bullet in the News.
Rita
S2 Ep7
7.7
26th Dec 2007
Rick gets a part in a film starring cinema legend Rita Stetler. Michael's father is a huge fan of Rita's and when Rick offers to get the star to sign his vintage poster he gets less than he bargained for.
Debacle
S2 Ep6
7.7
20th Dec 2007
Rick hosts an event for a pharmaceutical company. His stand-up goes down surprisingly well, but some of his ill-advised gags have far-reaching consequences.
Worst Episodes of Lead Balloon
Sick
S2 Ep5
6.7
13th Dec 2007
The women in Rick's house are sick and he is forced to take over. Rick promises to field his partner Mel's work calls, but does more harm than good. Magda makes matters worse by arriving with her home made soup. All these distractions are stopping Rick from working with Marty on the game show they want to pitch to a broadcaster: 'Lying or Flying'.
Shoddy
S4 Ep3
6.8
14th Jun 2011
Rick's new job as a presenter on The Bargain Channel is going well but after his writing partner Marty takes a shine to his co-presenter Donna, Rick is not happy. Clive is on the warpath wanting a refund for an ornamental windmill that his mother bought from The Bargain Channel. Rick's behaviour at a funeral sees him getting into trouble and threatens to kill off his career.
Pig
S4 Ep1
7.1
31st May 2011
Rick's career is at an all-time low: even his idea of writing a novel gets stuck on page one. So when a Sunday newspaper wants to do an 'At Home With' feature about his partner Mel, Rick naturally tries to muscle in on the action. But when he decides that having a pet pig would look good in the photos, Rick proves that if nothing else, he's the prize-winning author of his own downfall.
Spikey
S3 Ep5
7.1
11th Dec 2008
Rick is forced to go and see a play which turns out worse than he could've imagined as the writer used to be the same level as Rick. He is happier though, to learn that his daughter is single once again until he realises who her latest love interest is.
Fax
S3 Ep3
7.3
27th Nov 2008
Rick has a bad day after doing poorly on a radio quiz and then finding out his email is broken and has to search for a fax machine. To make matters even worse his daughter and her boyfriend and rehearsing their music loudly which he isn't too keen on. His mindset changes though when he hears they could actually make some money out of it.
Dead
S4 Ep2
7.3
7th Jun 2011
Rick lands a job as a presenter on the Bargain Channel - it's Britain's premier shopping channel, as he points out to anyone who will listen. For once, his new job impresses surly East-European help Magda, who is a big fan of the show. His writing partner Marty and local cafe owner Michael are not so easily convinced, but Rick is determined that he's finally found something he's good at.
Meanwhile, Rick's daughter Sam and her boyfriend Ben are allegedly looking for work - without ever getting up from the sofa.
Panda
S3 Ep2
7.3
20th Nov 2008
Magda has begun settling in, to the extent of infiltrating her fridge magnets and watching The Jeremy Kyle Show in the afternoons; meanwhile Rick has signed up for a television programme to trace his ancestry. Ben and Sam have formed a pop duo, "Ben and Sam." who are shown performing a track called "Tragic" on Youtube. Michael is inexplicably missing after the revelations about his father, but Rick and Marty find him working out in his garage, seemingly unconcerned. Rick has discovered his Scottish ancestry for the programme, but since his family name is Shaw, the confused Magda thinks he may be Chinese. It turns out, however, that his family history is not interesting enough for the television programme, and is rejected.
Points
S2 Ep3
7.4
29th Nov 2007
Three more points on his licence will be a ban, so he tries to persuade Mel, Marty and Madga to take the blame. Meanwhile, the local cafe owner railroads Rick into doing a fundraiser to save the town library. On top of it all, his daughter Sam has decided to get a tattoo.
Lead Balloon Episode Guide
Rubbish
S1 Ep1
7.6
4th Oct 2006
Rick fronts a lame government TV recycling campaign which backfires spectacularly. He falls out with café-owner Michael over a homemade fruitcake, and has a full-on row with unhinged baby-present shopkeeper Maureen.
Wayne
S1 Ep2
7.8
11th Oct 2006
A teaspoon crisis in the Spleen household leads Rick to petty theft. Meanwhile, Rick's sleep is disturbed by the paperboy, Wayne, who is very punctual, very noisy and has a brain the size of a walnut.
£5000
S1 Ep3
7.5
18th Oct 2006
Rick gets in a punch-up at an awards ceremony and ends up with a black eye. Marty is preparing to pitch a programme to the BBC and Michael is delighted that Rick has accidentally sponsored him a small fortune for his Skipathon.
Allergic
S1 Ep4
7.7
25th Oct 2006
Rick discovers he may have inadvertently killed one of Britain's best-loved entertainers, but he's preoccupied by a missing shoe-organiser. Meanwhile Rick prepares for upcoming appearance on topical news panel show Bullet in the News.
Pistachio
S1 Ep5
7.6
1st Nov 2006
Rick buys himself a scooter but worries that it makes him look gay. Hosting the Air Conditioning and Climate Control Awards goes disastrously, and a trip to the local dry cleaner ends in a heated argument.
Fatty
S1 Ep6
7.8
8th Nov 2006
Rick is publicly humiliated on TV by daytime chat-show host Adam Green. He also has an unfortunate encounter with an acquaintance at the gym, and Ben manages to destroy Rick's brand new DVD player by taking the back off.
Lead Balloon is a British television series produced by Open Mike Productions for BBC Four. The series was created and is co-written by comedian Jack Dee and Pete Sinclair. It stars Dee as Rick Spleen, a cynical and misanthropic comedian whose life is plagued by petty annoyances, disappointments and embarrassments. Raquel Cassidy, Sean Power and Tony Gardner also star. The first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC Four in 2006, with the first episode achieving the highest ratings for a comedy on the channel. Repeats of the series were run on BBC Two and BBC HD, bringing it to a larger audience. A second series of eight episodes aired on BBC Two in November 2007, and a third series began airing in November 2008. A fourth and final series commenced broadcast on 31 May 2011 on BBC Two and ended on 5 July.
Comparisons were made by critics to the successful American comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, and positive comments were made about Lead Balloon's characters, particularly Magda, the Eastern European housekeeper. The first series was released on DVD in November 2007. The show's theme tune is a cover version of "One Way Road", written by Noel Gallagher and performed by Paul Weller.
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The best rated episodes of Lead Balloon are:
Lucky S2E8 rated 7.9
Blade S4E5 rated 7.8
Fatty S1E6 rated 7.8
Wayne S1E2 rated 7.8
Hero S2E2 rated 7.7
Allergic S1E4 rated 7.7
Rita S2E7 rated 7.7
Debacle S2E6 rated 7.7
The lowest rated episodes of Lead Balloon are:
Sick S2E5 rated 6.7
Shoddy S4E3 rated 6.8
Pig S4E1 rated 7.1
Spikey S3E5 rated 7.1
Fax S3E3 rated 7.3
Dead S4E2 rated 7.3
Panda S3E2 rated 7.3
Points S2E3 rated 7.4
The first episode of Lead Balloon aired on October 04, 2006.
The last episode of Lead Balloon aired on July 05, 2011.
