Imagine landing a coveted BBC television slot and then writing an anonymous review tearing your own performance to shreds, or printing a critic's brutal insult in giant letters on your promotional posters. That is exactly the kind of self-sabotaging genius that defines Stewart Lee, the man the Times once dubbed the comedian's comedian and the face of the decade.

This deep dive traces how a self-described outsider from Solihull rejected the Oxford Revue pipeline, survived the Jerry Springer the Opera blasphemy scandal, and reinvented stand-up into a high art form of repetition and meta-commentary. It is a master class in artistic integrity, reinvention, and the strange business of building a multi-decade career by refusing to play by the rules.

• How Lee sidestepped the famous Oxford Revue to form his own rival group, the Seven Raym ...