The Smoking Room

The Smoking Room (TSM) is only ever compared with The Office because both are set in workplaces! Where TSM differs is that the daily grind of worklife does not drive the story.

In TSM, office discussions are banned. Our regular set of smokers skive off their working day and discuss biscuits, holidays, Eskimos, crosswords, and any number of other topics. Characters wander in and out of the room, and leave their day job outside.

It's part of the joy of the series to try to piece together what the characters do: Annie and Sally are graphic designers; it's clearly a major company with several different branches. Occasional glimpses of the outside world are provided: a vitally important Japanese client visits, and is in need of a cigarette. No lighter or matches can be found. The tension rises as the regulars try to keep their VIP happy, and she demonstrates her dislike of all things British (notably Penguin bars and Jim Bowen's gameshow Bullseye).

There are plenty of asides regarding unseen characters (Lil's friend Tess Pownall is described as having a chest like "a pair of wizened yams"), plenty of huge laughs, scathing one-liners, running jokes, and some great ongoing stories. The story of Ben from the post room, hints about a past relationship for Sharon the non-smiling boss, Janet's desperation to be included leading her to a not-necessarily happy ending ... two series and a Christmas special have been made, and I can only hope for a third. The second series ends with a number of colossal cliffhangers: the characters are so believable and their situation so genuine that I can't wait to see them again.

This show is just what witty dialog should be. If you don't have a attention span then you probably wouldn't like it, but if you can really listen, it will have you in stitches. It's just so funny because it's what someone would really say without trying to be funny. There's no real plot, its just hilarious people who are very relate-able in a setting that's very relate-able. You can really get to like the characters after a while with a lot of running gags. The punchline at the end of the first episode is pure gold. Why can't there be more shows like this, i mean Clint is one of the funniest characters ever. Just good actors and great lines in very down to earth situations.

Like some other similar British sitcoms of this type, you may decide to try and plug it to a friend, perhaps by retelling a joke on it, you'll find it wont have the same affect on them as it did on you. Because they are different types of jokes. There are not beautiful people sitting around, glamorous, making jokes about life, they are regular people, talking about life. The characters are ordinary, the situations they are in are ordinary, but it is the way they are portrayed and their outlook on all of this that makes the smoking room so funny.

I will not slander this hilarious show by comparing it with 'the office' or 'the royale family' because, being honest, them shows had there high points, but were never as constantly funny as the smoking room.

Go watch it. NOW!

Located somewhere between The Royle Family and The Office, The Smoking Room has it all. Although many of the characters are stereotyped the jokes come thick and fast. As in The Royle Family the episode usually starts with a joke and ends in the punchline. For example in the first episode the characters were trying to remember the theme from Little House on the Prarie and in the end someone remembered it and in the most recent one everyone was looking for a light and in the end they found one. Robert Webb seems to be proving himself as a breakout sitcom star after starring in the underrated Peep Show. While veteran actors such as Paula Wilcox and Leslie Schofield are joined by lesser known actors who are just as funny. In the end this isn't as good as The Royle Family or The Office but better than most of the sitcom dirge that is churned out at the moment.

Well done BBC!!!

In every workplace there is a place where the shunned go – a place where people go who have only one thing in common but spend several times a day together nonetheless. They are the office smokers; some hang around outside the building but in this office they have a room together. As the smokers come and go on their various breaks we are treated to all manner of inane discussions, banter and office politics.

Although it doesn't help to compare this show to the vastly superior The Office it is hard not to. Not only is it set in the 'real work' much more than most BBC sitcoms but the marketing for it all tried to make sure that we came to this off the back of The Office's fame. Initial disappointment is pretty much guaranteed because this is not as sharp as the observation from The Office and is funnier in a different way. Once I realized that this had been mis-sold and is really just a normal sitcom then I was able to settle into it a lot more. As a sitcom it is better than the norm as it is at least recognisable (as opposed to forced family sitcoms) and the jokes are quite good and pretty much match the sort of banter you wish you could have. In reality most smoking room conversations are just small talk and b*tching but that wouldn't make for much of a series, so the pop culture references and the amusing dialogue keep it moving much better.

The lack of a sharp edge on the material is a problem and I didn't feel that the series managed to build characters and stories as well as it should have done. The cast are all OK but I was never really sold on them as 'real' people – rather they were always actors albeit actors delivering some funny lines. In The Office (sorry to keep comparing – but the BBC started it!) the people were all recognisable and the laughs were tempered by the horror of seeing our workplaces slightly condensed into this one. Here performances are OK from Ayres, Webb, Marshall and the others but they feel like a sitcom cast and it is only the funnier than normal material that makes them rise above the genre.

Overall this is not The Office and it is important to know that and not be sucked in by the attempts by the show and the BBC to align it with that. Rather this is a sitcom that is set in an office environment – it is not as sharp or as well observed as it could have been but it still manages to be funny. Watched as a sitcom it is funnier than the genre and blessedly free of canned laughter but this is just a sitcom and comparisons to The Office will only help it get an audience at the start – not keep it.