Is It Legal?

This very English sit com contains a series of under-performing human beings who spend 8 hours a day together in a small law office. We all recognise elements of them either in ourselves or in others yet how to describe them? Why do the English not have the exact words? Because we would consider it unkind to give harsh labels to the harmless. The Dalmation-dotty hopeless young Colin. Bumbling Bob - permanently paralysed by a mixture of passion and embarrassment. Stella: the real engine of the establisment but never getting work and a love-life in sync. Young Darren - his school friends would be out stealing cars but Darren has, relatively, a conscience and some ambition, and has risen to the level of office dogs-body. Alison a bored, beautiful bitch. Dick - posh senior partner, clever, clubbable and terminally lazy. An excellent and often accomplished cast.

This is at times hilarious comedy. Its because we don't have the words to precisely categorise every kind of fool that it remains kind and not judgemental. We get to like them all in different ways. There is a self-effacing quality about Simon Nye's writing too - clever but never flashily so.

Oddly it reminds me a little of "King of Queens" - entirely different setting but similarly human and not unkind.

Not as anarchic as I like to see for England but funny all the same.

A low key approach to a local Solicitor's office in England. A handful of main characters to keep the interest. Along with their personalities.

We have senior partner Dick who seems more interested in golf and sherry.

Stella, the main character and while she's very likable, she can't seem to get her life in order.

Bob the office manager. Same as Stella. Only male.

Colin is the young upstart lawyer full of enthusiasm and ideals. And also a train wreck.

Allison is the office secretary with the permanently bored look and snotty attitude. (And while nice to look at....VERY inappropriately dressed for a law office.)

And Darrin. The wannabe soccer hooligan. He just seems to be a lackey.

These folks just seem to annoy each other to no end. With constant references to Dick's cluelessness, Allison's bitchiness, and Darrin's almost deliberate trouble-making. Bob and Stella were the only normal ones. And the ones we had any feeling for.

Again, a low key Brit-com. But you'll find plenty of laughs. This played in Japan for a while on late night TV.

I thought the show would be worse without Dick, the wonderfully smug and posh senior partner, but Is It Legal was great right to the end. I like the way Nye isn't afraid to make class jokes, which are pretty rude, but perfectly charming. Every character was a weird twist on an apparent stereotype, so they were all weird and funny and vulnerable and more complicated than they first appeared. But at the same time, the scripts were excellent, with genuinely great one-liners. This is some of the best comedy ever made.

This is a comedy I happened on by accident on the original airing of the third series in 1998. Now, thanks to the explosion in channels that is satellite/cable TV, I discovered it tucked away on ITV3 and have been enjoying it all over again.

Simon Nye is known primarily for "Men Behaving Badly" and often when a writer has a huge hit, their other work is sometimes buried. I always felt this was true also of John Sullivan, whose monolithic "Only Fools and Horses" has caused the excellent "Dear John" to be almost forgotten.

"Is it Legal" benefits from a cast strong in comedic talent. I don't think I can ever remember Imelda Staunton being off her game. Patrick Barlow is a superb comedy actor and even when in a small role, shines through, witness "Bridget Jones Diary" as the 'Orange Baboon' TV shopping host and brief love interest of Bridget's mother. Richard Lumsden is the perfect "drip" and Jeremy Clyde just how one imagines a senior partner in a law firm to be. If there is one slight criticism it must be that the Darren character seems out of place. He's funny, but you cannot ever imagine how he got a job there. But hey, this isn't supposed to be the real world.

This all said however, the aspect of "Is it Legal" that struck me when I first saw it and still does when I watch the re-runs is that I sit spellbound and swooning whenever Kate Isitt is on screen. 'Beautiful' just doesn't come close. Later to have greater recognition in "Coupling" (Ben Miles her love interest in that series also appears in one episode of "Is It Legal"), she excellently portrays the unapproachable, unattainable office bitch Alison. Any single male that has worked in an office will recognise the character. The type of girl that if she were ever so give you a smile or kind word, would turn you to jelly. She never does though and she never will. You just know she has a boyfriend that is absolutely loaded and you will never be in her league.

An understated sitcom of the type Channel 4 used to make but sadly don't anymore, happy as they seem to be to spend money on bilious rubbish like "Big Brother" and endless tenuously themed "Top 100" shows

English sitcoms always seem so much fresher than American ones, and this is a perfect example of why.

There is very little slapstick or visual comedy in the series, but what they do have works. The real strength of 'Is it Legal?' is in the characterisations, and this is typical of English sitcoms.

Most American sitcoms that try to create comedic characters tend to go overboard. The word 'subtlety' appears to have gone missing from the US dictionaries. Let's look at some examples here.

Bob is such an understated and self-effacing character, but without making it depressing. He is naive, shy and lacks self-confidence - very much the bumbling English nobody that Hugh Grant used to specialise in. Only here, Bob is believable, worthy of our sympathy, and funny.

My favourite character though is Alison. The essentially talentless but scheming and bitchy secretary that many of us have probably seen in a thousand workplaces. Yet at the same time we know exactly what her weaknesses and vulnerabilities are, and they are used to perfection in many scripts. By the way, if anyone has any more details on Kate Isitt, the beautiful actress who plays Alison, then I would love to hear from them.

This is not English comedy in the style of Monty Python (which I dearly love). It is subtle, quiet, unassuming, but nevertheless extremely amusing. Not belly laughs or gross-outs but a pleasant, undemanding and wholly entertaining comedy.