Sean Lincoln

Sean Lincoln is a British television writer who, with his wife and writing partner Beverly, arrives in Los Angeles buoyed by an award and a network's promise to remake their acclaimed show faithfully. Charming, a little vain, and hopeful in a way Hollywood hasn't yet punished out of him, he wants to be taken seriously without losing himself.

Stephen Mangan plays Sean's optimism as a kind of vanity he can't quite see in himself, which makes his slow capitulation to studio nonsense funny rather than sad. The writing gives him just enough ego to be complicit in his own compromises, so his outrage always lands a beat behind his acceptance.