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The Worst Episodes of Lead Balloon

Every episode of Lead Balloon ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Lead Balloon!

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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,

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 1 - Rubbish
    6.3/10(64 votes)

    #1 - Rubbish

    S1:E1

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 5 - Pistachio
    6.8/10(39 votes)

    #2 - Pistachio

    S1:E5

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 4 - Allergic
    6.9/10(38 votes)

    #3 - Allergic

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 6 - Fatty
    7.0/10(35 votes)

    #4 - Fatty

    S1:E6

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 2 - Wayne
    7.2/10(43 votes)

    #5 - Wayne

    S1:E2

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Lead Balloon Season 1 Episode 3 - £5000
    7.2/10(42 votes)

    #6 - £5000

    S1:E3

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 4 - Idiot
    7.2/10(29 votes)

    #7 - Idiot

    S2:E4

    Rick's agent Mel's other client, ex-ice skating champ Gina Therese, has a new series coming up. Rick scoffs at the idea of an ice skater hosting a chat show until she asks him on as a guest. At home, Magda asks his advice on where to take her friend sightseeing when she visits England.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 5 - Sick
    7.2/10(27 votes)

    #8 - Sick

    S2:E5

    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'.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 6 - Debacle
    7.4/10(27 votes)

    #9 - Debacle

    S2:E6

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 1 - Pig
    7.4/10(35 votes)

    #10 - Pig

    S4:E1

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 8 - Lucky
    7.5/10(27 votes)

    #11 - Lucky

    S2:E8

    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'.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 4 - Off
    7.5/10(27 votes)

    #12 - Off

    S4:E4

    Rick is at his lowest ebb. With no other work on offer, he decides to set up his own stand-up comedy workshop. But the first week's class attracts just five students. Worse still, the second session includes a new wannabe comic - deranged cafe owner Michael. A disastrous session on how to deal with heckling backfires spectacularly, but hope is on the horizon - in the form of an earnest council executive, Libby. Meanwhile Magda is trying to claim compensation after tripping on a paving stone, but it turns out that Rick is the one who's in danger of serious injury.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 3 - Points
    7.6/10(28 votes)

    #13 - Points

    S2:E3

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 2 - Dead
    7.6/10(29 votes)

    #14 - Dead

    S4:E2

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 3 - Shoddy
    7.7/10(27 votes)

    #15 - Shoddy

    S4:E3

    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.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 1 - Giraffe
    7.9/10(31 votes)

    #16 - Giraffe

    S2:E1

    Tonight, Spleen appears on a quiz show as a guest celebrity and manages to talk a contestant out of winning a car. As usual it's Rick's hopeless attempts to lie and wriggle his way out of disaster that are the meat of the comedy. But the sauce is the fine supporting characters, notably gloomy eastern European home-help Magda (who tonight announces she is "unheppy" and wants to quit) and Spleen's hilariously vague teenage daughter Sam.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 7 - Rita
    7.9/10(27 votes)

    #17 - Rita

    S2:E7

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Lead Balloon Season 3 Episode 2 - Panda
    7.9/10(25 votes)

    #18 - Panda

    S3:E2

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 6 - End
    7.9/10(31 votes)

    #19 - End

    S4:E6

    In the concluding episode, Rick has at last found the fame and success he so desperately craved. Thanks to his ordeal as a hostage, the 'Prison Siege Comic', as he is now known in the tabloids, is on an all-time high. He is inundated with offers - from appearing as a hostage expert on the national news, to featuring in a celebrity survival series. When he is asked to host The Brave Britain Awards in front of a live television audience of millions, Rick thinks all his dreams have finally come true. But, as he prepares to go on stage, it seems that the dream is about to turn into a nightmare.

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Lead Balloon Season 3 Episode 1 - Gas
    8.0/10(27 votes)

    #20 - Gas

    S3:E1

    The episode opens with Rick at a celebrity charity auction trying to attract bids for the waistcoat of an ex-rock star. To start the bidding, he opens with a bit of £500 but with no takers, he ends up with it. Seeing Michael's father at the auction with a man, he assumes that they are a gay couple and resolves to protect Michael from this revelation. Meanwhile Magda has had to move out of her flat as the gas boiler is faulty and moves into the Spleen household. It is clear that Michael believes his father's companion is solely a business colleague, however, when he relaunches his cafe as a chic restaurant, with less than complete success, it becomes clear that this is not the case; Rick's suspicions had been correct. The waistcoat bought by Rick turns out to be worth considerably more than he paid for it, but he has given it to his daughter, whose boyfriend has cut it up for a textiles project at college.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Lead Balloon Season 3 Episode 4 - Karma
    8.0/10(26 votes)

    #21 - Karma

    S3:E4

    Rick decides to change his ways after an accident and will only see the positives in people from now on. He is pushed to the limits by Magda as she looks to offload some of his most treasured items, and Marty is sure it won't last. Elsewhere, Ben and Sam begin to move in a different direction and may have to split up.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Lead Balloon Season 2 Episode 2 - Hero
    8.1/10(31 votes)

    #22 - Hero

    S2:E2

    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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Lead Balloon Season 3 Episode 5 - Spikey
    8.2/10(29 votes)

    #23 - Spikey

    S3:E5

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Lead Balloon Season 3 Episode 6 - Mistake
    8.2/10(27 votes)

    #24 - Mistake

    S3:E6

    Rick and Marty have to make extra room around the house when Mel has to work from home. Rick is annoyed by Marty's liking of Mel's assistant and the constant disruptions, until he realises he might be able to get a job through Mel.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Lead Balloon Season 4 Episode 5 - Blade
    8.3/10(33 votes)

    #25 - Blade

    S4:E5

    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?

    Director:Alex Hardcastle
    Writer:Unknown

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Worst Episodes Summary

"Rubbish" is the worst rated episode of "Lead Balloon". It scored 6.3/10 based on 64 votes. Directed by Alex Hardcastle and written by Unknown, it aired on 10/4/2006. This episode scored 0.5 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Pistachio".