The IT Crowd

IT CrowdWritten and directed by Graham Linehan of Father Ted, Brass Eye and Black Books fame, The IT Crowd is set in the basement of Reynholm Industries and based around a small IT department consisting of three disparate characters: Jen, Roy and Moss. Roy and Moss are typical IT geeks and have the reluctant Jen foisted upon them as a new manager by big boss Denholm Reynholm, played by Chris Morris. Jen, played by Katherine Parkinson, is not an IT person but gets the job by bluffing. Roy and Moss spot her lack of ability straight away but fail to turn her in, as Reynholm likes teamwork. Denholm Reynholm commits suicide by jumping out of a window in the middle of a meeting when the police turn up about discrepancies in the pension fund. His lecherous son, Douglas, played by Matt Berry, replaces him as the boss.

Roy, played by Chris O’Dowd, is lazy and obnoxious. He will do anything to avoid work but appears to be generally competent. He lacks social skills and is constantly having trouble getting a woman.

Moss, played by Richard Ayoade, is an insular geek with talents for many strange things but finds communication extremely difficult. He cannot understand normal things but can comprehend the most difficult technical situation.

This week’s episode has Douglas trying to recruit Jen as his PA, with an eye on extra-curricular activity, as he has a tincture to try on her. Jen explains to Moss who completely misinterprets the situation before Roy and he realise that Jen is leaving the department.

When she does leave they get out the list of “Things they can’t do when Jen is there”. After four hours they have gone completely through the list and get bored. Meanwhile, Douglas has tried it on several times with Jen and she has tired, he tries to convince her otherwise and makes a cup of tea, with the tincture in it. He then shows her a computer presentation that has an unexpected “glitch”, which is a not very subliminal cut of a naked Douglas.

Jen calls up Moss and Roy, who rush up to the office wearing their boxer shorts (banned under Jen), as they are so bored they are even willing to do some work. As they arrive Roy asks if he has turned the laptop off and on and Moss notices the smell of Rohypnol in Jen’s tea and asks her why she is taking it. Moss can even break it down into its component parts and confirms that it is an unacceptable drug. Jen forces Douglas to drink it, who becomes decidedly randy. Jen escapes and locks her colleagues in with Douglas who has become less fussy on the Rohypnol.

The IT Crowd has its moments and is packed with IT in jokes but keeps it open enough to be enjoyed by the less geeky audience. The characters are well defined; the storylines are fair and the humour sharp. It has the potential to go on well after the end of the current, second, series.

Saxondale

SaxondaleThursday night is definitely comedy night on BBC2. Sandwiched between Mock the Week and That Mitchell and Web look is Saxondale. This is a comedy programme written by Steve Coogan (better known as Alan Partridge or Pauline Calf) and Neil Maclennan, and is now in its second series. It follows the life of Tommy Saxondale, a former roadie who now drives a yellow Ford Mustang and lives in a suburban well-to do housing estate in Stevenage. He lives with this girlfriend Magz (Ruth Jones, Nessa of “Gavin and Stacey” and the Welsh barmaid in “Little Britain”) and runs a pest control company.

This is definitely not a programme for the feint hearted and the humour could be quite offensive as it features stereotypical characters. As with Alan Partridge, the humour is knowing the behaviour of the central character is not quite right. The programme has the shock car-crash humour of the Office.

Tonight’s episode started with Tommy in a group therapy session speaking about homosexuals in a non-PC manner. He then went on to have an argument with a ticket inspector (played by Mike off The Young Ones) at his local train station and called him a Nazi and refused to pay for his ticket. This led to a court appearance for Tommy where he defended himself and needed to obtain character witnesses.

The ticket inspector arrived in the court room accompanied by a walking stick and Tommy cross-examines him to find that he can indeed walk. He tells the jury that they should not be swayed by “stick-based impediments” He calls his star character witness – in the shape of “Keanu Reeves” who says the ticket inspector is mean . Tommy then assassinates his character by revealing that he is a rent boy!

If you can attune to the humour, this programme is a “grower”.

Gavin and Stacey

Gavin and StaceyGavin and Stacey is one of a new breed of British sitcoms such as Ideal, Roman’s Empire and Help, which have a great storyline, good casts and entertaining, yet vulnerable characters. It stars comedy actors Mathew Horne as Gavin, and James Corden as his best friend, Smithy, and also includes Alison Steadman playing Gavin’s mum and Rob Brydon as Stacey’s “ Uncle Bryn”.

The sitcom follows Gavin and Stacey, an engaged couple in their home towns of Billericay in Essex and Barry Island in South Wales, respectively. Thy have been having a long-distance romance and this is the first time that nice guy, Gavin has been in love. Last night’s episode featured the pair’s Stag and Hen nights. Stacey was clearly worried about what fiancé Gavin would get up to and insisted on him keeping is phone on and being available. It was a true lads’ night out as they all got drunk and ate kebabs. Stacey’s night was more interesting as, egged on by best friend, Nessa, she was subjected to the delights of PC Lovelength, a stripper-gram, who proceeded to but squirty cream on his manhood for Stacey to lick off.

After their nights out Gavin travelled to Cardiff to see Stacey and Uncle Bryn insisted that he had a stag party (he had not been invited to the original party and so thought that a night had not been organised). Gavin’s friend Smithy (and soon to be best man), turned up. The three – Gavin, Bryn and Smithy sat in a weakly populated pub with furry antlers on their head – a joy to see! An ex-boyfriend of Stacey’s turned up at the stag night and asked Gavin what it was like to be the 6th. Apparently Stacey had been engaged 5 times before Gavin and he thought that it was the first time for both of them. He was clearly upset that he did not know the truth. With the wedding only a week away, is it all off? What next for Gavin and Stacey?

Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights

Phoenix NightsPeter Kay’s Phoenix Nights is one of those comedy programmes that has fast become a comedy classic. Written by popular comedian Peter Kay alongside Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice, it has a mixture of both visual comedy and play on words. We were treated to a double bill from the start of the second series of the programme.

Peter Kay plays two characters – Brian Potter, owner of the Phoenix club and Max, the bouncer. His sidekick is Jerry St. Clair (Dave Spikey), would-be entertainer. Brian is sometimes known as “Ironside” and he spouts orders from the comfort of his wheelchair. He also introduces song lyrics into his conversations , for example “ridicule is nothing to be scared of”(Prince Charming, Adam and the Ants), and “Woaah woaah woaah woaah sweet child of mine”, (Sweet Child of Mine, Guns ‘N Roses).

The episode started with Den Perry (Brian’s nemesis) burning down his beloved Phoenix Club with a cigar. Brian appeared in court – he had forged insurance documents, was not complying with fire safety regulations (he had no working smoke alarms), and he was deemed as unfit to trade alcohol. Thus that was the end of the Phoenix Club and the staff went on to other jobs which included:

• Driving Asian Elders to the local mosque whilst singing along with “Amarillo” on Chorley FM – Paddy and Max
• Selling meat – Les the drummer
• Acting as lollypop man - Kenny
• Supervising a kids’ fairground ride whilst pretending to act as a DJ “Shabba” – Ray Von
• Promoting goods in a supermarket. Jerry and Alan were selling black bin bags using the lyrics of

“Come and get your black bin bags – they’re long and black and slender”

“Heavy duty black bin bags, not matter what your gender”

“Heavy duty black bin bags, bi or straight or bender”

After spending time with his friend, Frank Cartwright (Jim Bowen) in Blackpool, Brian decided to reopen the Phoenix Club. This would be tricky as he had no money, license nor brewery. However he got over this obstacle by having only bottled beer and cans and asking Jerry to me licensee. At a meeting of the staff, Brian said that we wanted the Phoenix to be a complete experience serving food “Garlic bread, it’s the future, I have tasted it!”.

The second episode saw the gang organising a family fun day, whilst Paddy and Max went to France to buy the booze. The fun day had rides; face painting (which turned out to be with permanent paint), Brian’s Pink Palace (a converted portable toilet which was “modernised” to be a children’s play area and featured a ball pool (footballs from the roof))’ Madame Zelda, psychic; an inflatable (which turned out to be not family friendly in the shape of men’s genitalia and exploded) and Jerry the Berry who looked like an extra from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Phoenix Nights is a laugh a minute!

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