Ash Atalla

Ash Atalla: The whole iPad thing has been a revelation

TV producer Ash Atalla doesn't make a move without his trusty iPad on his lap.

This new sitcom pilot about a small-town health and safety team comes from the people behind The IT Crowd and Ash Atalla, who produced The Office. It has elements of both shows: it's loud, bright, brash and has an almost hysterical laughter track, plus there's a David Brent-like figure played by Flight Of The Conchords' Rhys Darby, looking like something out of the 1970s. Fun, in a bulldozing kind of way.

You would not want to put it to her this way, but there is clearly something about Jane Horrocks that says "supermarket". A former star of a long-running Tesco ad, Horrocks stars here in a new sitcom about the employees of Valco supermarket. It's neither surreal nor pathos-filled, instead it forms another addition to producer Ash Atalla's stable of shows that take a slightly edgy look at the utterly commonplace. Mark Addy and cool newcomer Joel Fry are among the other quality comedy talents lurking in the aisles.

David Walliams narrates a history of disability on TV. It's a slightly directionless tour around the archives from the Spastics Society appeal of the 1960s via Joey Deacon's appearance on Blue Peter to Roy's hysterical abuse of a disabled toilet in The IT Crowd. There are even segments on Heather Mills and Big Brother, although the one about Mills mercifully shows no actual footage of her. Interviewees trying not to say the wrong thing include Mat Fraser, Stephen Merchant, Dom Joly, Ash Atalla and Francesca Martinez.

Thank God, then, for Trinity. Ash Atalla puts Footballers' Wives, Inspector Morse and Buffy into a pot, stirs, and out comes this - and what a romp it is. His first non-comedy, and yet I laughed out loud. The casting of Charles Dance is genius; I love the fact the royal tart really is a royal. It is ridiculous, but knowingly so, and I am sure it will be a great hit. The creepy thriller undertones left me wanting more, and although I know it's not meant for me, I will be tuning in.

Ash Atalla - An unholy Trinity

The producer of The Office has moved on from comedy with a new soap described as Gossip Girl meets Buffy via Hogwarts.

How Ash Atalla went from The Office to Trinity

It turns out that Ash Atalla, the man who persuaded the BBC to make The Office when its own head of comedy didn't quite get it, met similar discouragement from his own parents.

Jonathan Pryce and Mark Gatiss in a new sitcom on BBC3? We sat down in eager anticipation, and 30 minutes later, got up feeling intensely disappointed and frustrated. A high concept plot about a failed experiment to create a super-soldier, three or four good lines and an intrusive laughter track do not add up to a decent new sitcom. This first production from Ash Atalla's (The Office) new production company was a real disappointment - and Pryce looked embarrassed to be in it.

The new BBC Three sketch show Man Stroke Woman (Sunday) proved dreary. Despite being helmed by Ash The Office Atalla, it screened about as comfortably as a student review. By students from Norfolk, or Frome. An exploding dog, the words "Natalie Imbruglia" said over and over again, a baby accidentally put in the microwave, a terrible sense of self-conciousness and nervous energy. It is one of those shows where you look at the clock and realise that only 19 minutes have gone by when it feels like 40.