Popular American stand up comic Kelly Monteith was Seinfeld before Seinfeld and Garry Shandling before Garry Shandling in this quirky self titled BBC sitcom that ran from 1979 through to 1984. The series, which was written by Monteith and Neil Shand, saw the comedian living and working in the UK.
For the first two seasons he was married (his wife was played by Gabrielle Drake) but then co-inciding with Monteith’s real life divorce he was solo. Most of the episodes were really linked sketches but unusually we also got to see Monteith prepping the sketches and discussing them afterwards.
Monteith had become popular in the UK thanks to a couple of appearances on the Des O’Connor Show (Neil Shand was O’Connor’s main script writer)
Cast: Kelly Monteith as Kelly / Gabrielle Drake as Mrs Monteith (Seasons 1-2)
Writers: Kelly Monteith, Neil Shand / Producers: James Muir (Seasons 1-3), Bill Wilson (Season 4), Geoff Posner (Season 5), John Kilby (Season 6)
UK / BBC Two / 36×30 minute episodes / 15 November 1979 – 15 October 1984
