It stars Dee as Rick Spleen, a cynical and misanthropic comedian whose life is plagued by petty annoyances, disappointments and embarrassments.

The show's theme tune is a cover version of "One Way Road", written by Noel Gallagher and performed by Paul Weller.

Following a meeting with his agent, in which he turned down the lead role in a series, Dee began writing the character that would become Rick Spleen.

[3] A pilot, commissioned by BBC Four and recorded in December 2005, received positive feedback and led to a full series of six 30-minute episodes being ordered in January 2006 for broadcast later in the year.

The two worked for two weeks developing the characters and forming storylines from them, which prepared them for writing the series proper when it was commissioned.

[3] The two were strongly influenced in their writing by the "paradigm shift" of The Office that made "natural conversation" funny without a studio audience being present.

[5] Dee cites the early films of Woody Allen, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm as other "cultural influences" that helped set the tone of the series.

Dee's character Rick Spleen (born Richard Shaw) is a stand-up comedian living in London who struggles to get decent gigs and makes ends meet by hosting corporate events such as the Frozen Goods Awards Evening.

His partner Mel (Raquel Cassidy) is a talent agent whose clientele of everyday people getting their 15 minutes of fame serves to highlight Rick's failing career.

Rick's daughter Sam (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) attends sixth form college and regularly extracts money from her father, often by expressing sympathy at his misfortunes.

Magda (Anna Crilly) is the Spleens' morose Eastern European housekeeper, who is often puzzled by British attitudes, language and, in her view, softness.

[8] Ian Johns of The Times "obsessed" over the similarities to Curb, though singled out Crilly and Gardner for their performances, and described Dee's characterisation of Rick as "turning childish pettiness into something almost endearing".

[10] Hermione Eyre of The Independent on Sunday called it "a delectable comedy of everyday embarrassment", but "unfortunately, Lead Balloon shows awkward joints where Curb Your Enthusiasm has invisible seams"; the reviewer cited Larry David as being a good man driven to obnoxious behaviour, whereas Spleen is just obnoxious.

In Australia, series one and two were first aired back-to-back on ABC1 each Tuesday at 8pm from 3 February 2009 until 7 April when the network shifted the remaining episodes to the later 9:30 p.m. slot until 5 May 2009.