'''Stella Street''' was a
British television comedy programme originally screened on
BBC2 (1998 - 2001). The show is about the antics of a group of American and British celebrities who all happen to live on Stella Street,
Surbiton (actually
Hartswood Road, London, W12). The main characters in the episodes are played by Scottish comedian
John Sessions and
Phil Cornwell. The characters themselves are
impressions of famous celebrities such as
Marlon Brando,
Michael Caine,
Jack Nicholson and, idiosyncratically, UK football pundit
Jimmy Hill.
Stella Street's depiction of celebrities is mainly rooted in the popular stereotypes surrounding them. For example, Stella Street's Jack Nicholson is an inveterate womaniser, drug taker and has a tacky line in Hawaian shirts. Michael Caine is seen as an awkward wanna-be cognoscente in horn-rimmed glasses and a shock of ginger hair.
Dirk Bogarde is a posh buffoon only interested in his rose garden and
Country Life magazine.
Al Pacino is deluded that he is a "tall actor, like
Danny DeVito and
Dustin Hoffman", despite the viewer knowing that he (and the others) are of short stature.
Joe Pesci is portrayed in the light of his most well known roles in violent gangster films, while Jimmy Hill inevitably looks dull when talking about the
FA Cup Final to plainly disinterested greater celebrities.
Sessions and Cornwell also play other non-celebrity roles including old-world housekeeper, and lifelong Stella Street resident Mrs Huggett, couple-from-hell Pam and Graham Slurry, and the potentially murderous gardener Len.
Themes and Plot
Stella Street depicts its celebrities as finding refuge from the madness of their famous lives in the banality of surburbia and the 'everyday' situations they may come across, albeit tinged with a hint of surrealism and comedy referenced from their own stereotyped behaviour.
Examples include Roger Moore visiting David Bowie at Christmas in order to give him a face flannel as a present. A game of
Monopoly between the celebs. Al Pacino trying to order Len the gardener to build him a swimming pool, and the fact that
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards have taken to running the local corner shop.
Style
The show is mainly fimed in a '
cinema verite' (read: cheaply) style using handheld cameras often with Cornwell as Michael Caine talking to the camera to introduce characters or situations in the same way he does in the
1966 film
Alfie.
Stella Street was originally broadcast in 10-15 minute segments on BBC2. For foreign broadcasts, two or more episodes were truncated into a 15-20 minute format.
When released on
VHS, the series were condensed into feature length programmes with additional link footage added.
In March 2004, Stella Street: 'The Movie', was premiered at the
Aspen Comedy Festival, and it earned Cornwell and Sessions the festival's Best Actor award, shared of course. The film has since been released on DVD.
Celebrity Characters
Links
★
Stella Street - A comprehensive fan site
★
BBC Comedy Guide
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