Alvin Steele is the owner of the Windermeres Hotel, where he works with his wife Sunny who uses the location for sex parties, which upsets Alvin no end, but after one fateful episode his live is turned upside down.
Concept[]
Alvin was based on a hotel owner in Brighton, the League noticed how he would try and make conversation with the guests as they ate but the stories had no point, there wasn't anything noticeable about him but he had a glamorous wife, so the League took this and created Alvin and Sunny borrowing the Robin Hood story aswell word from word.
Appearances[]
Series Two[]
Alvin is at work in the Hotel's Dining Room notifying the guests that there is to be a private event in the hotel and so the guests need to vacate by 12, he then make a conversation with a man about a one man playing Robin Hood with the guest looking at Alvin bored and after finishing Alvin takes his order for coffee saying his Jump Leads catchphrase.
Alvin then gets a call from his wife Sunny, the attractive woman who has Alvin wrapped around her finger but at the same time is annoyed by his flaws thinking he's trying to ruin her event, before he can make a excuse she gives him the shopping list when he leaves she places Condoms on the bed.
He goes to the supermarket, where Iris gives him a dirty look when she sees the bottles of Baby Oil. Back home Alvin announces his return when Sunny asks for him to turn on the immersion, he goes into the cupboard where several sex toys are. Later on the event is in full swing it's a orgy as several middle aged couples are having sex Alvin is more awkward than ever, the man he is chatting to is more interested at the couple in front of him, than Alvin's Robin Hood story, Alvin departs to the kitchen to refill the buffet table where he sits sadly in his Rubber clothes.
Series Three[]
The Medusa's Touch[]
The episode has Alvin getting the hotel ready for a very private event, when he is daydreaming about his garden Sunny tells him to stop and get to work. The event is very private, in fact the guest of honour wants the guests to have alibis and they are using fake names. The guest Daddy (as he wants to be called) is an expert in autoerotic asphyxiation, Alvin during the drinks, chats to the Grandmother that brought a dildo from Lance Longthorne but his conversion about plants is spoiled when the toy cums on him and while Sunny asks him if everything's prepared for tomorrow's demonstration, he tells her that it is but asks to be excused due to his asthma and he reveals he wants to visit the garden centre, Sunny is ticked off as he is regularly going to the centre and so she tells him that he can't.
That next day, he goes anyway to meet Judith Buckle an employee that he truly loves and she returns the feelings, but their flirting in the plant section is spoiled by Alvin remarking of Sunny, however he reveals to Judith of Sunny's trip to Rotterdam that he plans to miss. The two makes plans dinner, boardgames and a video of Watercolour Challenge.
Alvin returns to an quiet house, he goes into the Function Room where he discovers that Daddy, Sunny and the party are dead, as Daddy turned off the air supply of the Medusa (a machine for group breath play) he had a fatal heart attack and the group suffocated before they could turn on the air supply. Alvin was about to call for the police and ambulance, but he remembers his date with Judith, he hides the bodes around the hotel and manages to tidy the rooms before she arrives. Alvin entertains Judith with the Robin Hood story which she loves but he clearly is nervous, he apologises for the soup which she understands but when he spills his wine, Judith goes to the kitchen for a cloth but he stops her before she finds Daddy's corpse, they return to the table with Judith remarking that one day Sunny might disappear and they can be a couple. However just as the dinner carried on, one of the dead's arm pops out Alvin tries to kick it back but the rubber sounds like farts, Alvin pretends to say it's him, but after the rubber suit makes a loud noise Judith can detect the smell also, she then discovers the bodies as they all appear around her and when Sunny's body lands on her Alvin tells Judith what happened. While Alvin wants to call the police Judith remarks that even with the truth, the police might find them guilty of murder, as the scene could be a crime of passion, Judith the mistress, Alvin the unhappy henpecked husband and the time they spent at the Garden Centre could be used against them.
That night they decide to bury the bodies in the back garden, since everyone came with fake names they can't be traced and they will dispose of them the next night. As Alvin feels sad about Sunny, Judith then asks what she ever did for him, he realizes he can't. As they leave Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and the BBC come to do a revamp of the garden, it turned out Sunny was going to surprise Alvin with it, however as they enter the back garden, the ending that replayed took effect, Pauline's scream is heard and Geoff's van crashes into the Back Garden crushing Bowen to death.
In the ending montage, of the final episode we see Alvin having a BBQ with the guests in the hotel's Patio which was made in memorial of Bowen, Judith is seen as well they clearly are happy together and look happily at Barbara's twin babies.
Live Show Appearance[]
Alvin appears in the Pantomime during Act 1's dress rehearsal of Legz Akimbo's Naivety, he appears and after the unseen Mary and Joseph ask for a room, he discovers that the Premature Ejaculation party have left early, he can fix them up in the Stable Suite and describes what it contains included is Tea/Coffee Making, a bed for them and the donkey and Nipple Electric Clamps.
Trivia[]
- Alvin doesn't have the Neck Brace on for any real reason, he is seen in the opening of the Medusa's Touch without it, when he does put it on he arranges it like tie.
- During the Supermarket scene of Series Two, Alvin interacts with Iris, this was done in homage to Dick Emery who's characters occasionally did and while Mark Gatiss did this before in Series One (Al gives Les McQueen a magazine) the difference was the shots are so tight that no double was seen.
- Alvin was going to be part of the Christmas Special he was going to strangle Sunny and then she came back from the dead with this group of Rubber Zombies to chase Alvin, it was never done because the other stories were more believable.
- In the Audio Commentary for Series Two the League said that they returned to the B and B of the real Alvin in Brighton, however he refused to tell the Robin Hood story.
- In the Commentary for Series Three the group joked that Alvin would never settle with Judith as he would find a new Sunny, also that him and Judith sex included him removing his neck brace, but one of them remarks that he needs the Neck Brace as liken the Ringed Women in Africa.
- During the Pantomime's run Mark sometimes had seconds to go from Iris to Alvin's costume, sometimes he would appear as Iris wearing the Neck Brace and some nights it got laughs.