[2][3][4] The programme consists of Brodkin (in character as Nelson throughout) hosting a studio show before an audience, which includes audience interaction, games (which contain unusual prizes, such as a pair of sunglasses, a victory belt and a tree), and features involving the characters Omelette, and Nelson's nan.

The insert sketches are: Some of the characters have appeared previously in Brodkin's earlier TV work: sketches featuring the Jason Bent character appeared in Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder, an Avalon production first broadcast on ITV1 in 2009; these featured Murray as a sports reporter conducting post-match interviews with Bent.

The same Al Murray series also featured the Lee Nelson character in a run of comic monologues.

Presumably someone at BBC Three saw that he looks a little like Kevin Bishop, noticed that Ali G hasn't been around for the best part of a decade and calculated success on that shaky basis.

Despite the negative reviews, ratings were such that the BBC commissioned a second show, Lee Nelson's Well Funny People.