Mick Sergeant - Lifeboat

Mick Sergeant’s hair bears a striking resemblance to that sported by David Beckham in his most recent Armani ads, but there the resemblance ends. Beckham is an international sports celebrity; Sergeant is a 16 years unemployed dockworker who eats Space Raider casseroles.

At first glance Sergeant appears to be yet another stereotypical working class character – embittered, aggrieved and setting the world to rights through expletives. But he proves to be far more complex, with a routine that skilfully balances poignancy with wit, ensuring he always stays on the right side of caricature.

Sergeant acknowledges that some may find him miserable or bitter, but in response he offers up some ‘mood-lifting’ games, stories and songs to show he is not a man broken by failure and rejection. It is here that he is at his best: his metaphor for the disconcertion of redundancy is all the funnier for its accuracy, and his finale ensures the integrity of a multifaceted and perceptive routine. A sage in stonewashed denim, Sergeant insightfully exposes the perversity of contemporary media’s belief that recycling your leftovers, joining a book group and selling your old clothes on eBay can turn the harshness of recession into the glamour of ‘funemployment’.

Outside of the set pieces some of the linking material is weaker, but somehow it suits the character and doesn’t diminish the routine as a whole. It grants Sergeant an air of legitimacy as an also-ran, forgotten by the modern world. Had his routine been too slick, the truths he exposed would have been lost amidst the polish.