The Job Lot

ITV has a patchy history with sitcoms and here is a great one that didn't get the mainstream exposure which it deserved. A strong well chosen cast playing engaging and believable characters which an audience can easily relate to, no canned laughter and very well written with a high laugh hit rate. Other reviewers have compared it to The Office - the setting may be similar but I find it more gentle with the characters better developed.

I don't get why this was cancelled. There are so many bad, unfunny comedies being churned out (dead pixels etc). So it was refreshing to find one that's actually funny with great characters. Maybe time for Netflix to give us season 4?

It was inevitable that this programme would draw comparisons with "the Office" and "Vicious" (in which it appeared in a double bill.

The first scene has Russell Tovey's character Karl complaining that he has an Art degree, and that he "shouldn't be reduced to this". You think he's a job seeker, but in fact he's "reduced" to working in this sterile ugly job centre.

It's actually quite watchable, and better than the average ITV sitcom.

The most amusing characters are Trish, the neurotic, anxious manager (who has just been through a divorce, and tries to steal her chocolate labs Ferrero and Rocher back from her ex-husband) and the bitchy Angela, who works to rule, generally undermines the others, and throws her weight around. The security guards are laughable - one's a tiny woman, and the other's a nut with military pretensions. Then there are the bizarre job seekers, one of whom is like an English Rab C. Nesbitt, and an undercover agent who attempts to catch benefit cheats. Only trouble being that he's bearded and Asian, and sticks out like a sore thumb in many environments.

Yes, it's another sitcom about tedium, but it's quite fun. I think it suffered from being on too late at night and was overshadowed by its admittedly better sibling "Vicious", but it's worth a look.

Having spent a short time doing work experience in a job centre the crazy stuff the staff get upto is almost spot on. I seen a whole lot of weird and funny stuff but something like coworkers disappearing and the whole office knew that they were going to the toilet to have sex, other crazy things like that so this show isn't really that far from the truth but the comedy factor is just my style of humour so that makes it work for me. Russell Tovey has been in some amazing shows and I started watching after "Him & Her" another similar show but about a couple. Laura Aikman coming in for season 2 really takes it up a notch and adds the office romance between her and Russell's character so that's an added bonus to the comedy. Overall not for everybody but it's my style of humour and I really enjoyed watching it.

The show was cancelled just when the characters were taking shape and one was getting "attached" to them. Somebody new -also potentially interesting- had just been introduced. Pity, it was very good comedy.