Graham Linehan

There can't be many sitcom characters as lovably innocent as Moss, the bespectacled nerd in The IT Crowd.

The problem is that innocence so easily shades over into stupidity and then our affection becomes a different, compromised thing. Bubbles, the dimwitted PA in Absolutely Fabulous, was lovable, I guess, but part of what we loved about her was her unerring ability to grasp the wrong end of the stick. Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Ave 'Em was also lovable in his way, but there was a whisper of contempt somewhere in the mix. In both cases, we fondly felt our superiority enlarged by their cluelessness. Moss, though, is significantly different. We're still laughing at him, rather than with him most of the time; but it's not because he's stupid exactly, just that his intelligence operates in a world several degrees to the left of the one the rest of us are in. There's something touching about how unbesmirched he is, so that even jokes about his sexual inexperience confirm his standing as a holy fool. I love him anyway - and feel more cheerful as soon as I see his face.

He was on good form in the first of the new series of Graham Linehan's comedy, sweetly attempting to be knowing and manly in order to help Roy through a bad relationship breakup, but flubbing it hopelessly because pretence of any kind is quite beyond him: "Women, eh!" he said, adopting his own weird version of a laddish posture, "Can't live with them... Can't find them sometimes". And whereas both Roy and Jen are funny in ways that you can imagine inserted into more conventional (and lesser) comedies, Moss could only really exist here. He is, in Linehan's script and Richard Ayoade's brilliantly naïve delivery, a unique comic creation. It isn't easy to back this up with evidence, to be honest. There are quotably funny lines in The IT Crowd (such as the boorish executive who is grievously disappointed to find that The Vagina Monologues isn't a sex show: "You get there and it's just women talking... it's false advertising!"). But far more often, the laughs sit in the junction between dialogue and expression. I can't think of any way to effectively paraphrase the long and delightful sequence in which Moss employs a game of Dungeons & Dragons as emotional therapy, since most of it consisted of jokes not being made and the absurdity simply being relished. But it was very funny.

Graham Linehan's brilliant celebration of all things nerdy reaches its fourth series, and as Moss details to Jen the intricacies of Dungeons & Dragons she realises that she would really like to get another job. Roy is heartbroken after becoming, as Moss describes him, Dumpo, the elephant that got dumped. As ever, Moss gets all the best lines. But Matt Berry shines as the ultra-sexist boss Renham, who admits to a group of feminists that nobody could mistake him for Gok Wan. This may not be sophisticated comedy, but it's still hilarious.

A welcome return for the Bafta-winning sitcom set in a corporation's dingy computer department. This is the start of series four. Many would have wielded the axe after a patchy debut run. The show's stay of execution was largely down to affection for writer/director Graham Linehan - the man behind Father Ted and Black Books, Chris Morris collaborator and recipient of comedy's Ronnie Barker Award last year. His creation is now worthy of those credentials, going from strength to strength. Tonight's opening episode is entitled Jen the Fredo, after the weak Corleone brother in The Godfather, and is crammed with knowing nods to the revered Mafia movie. Desperate to escape IT, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is made Entertainments Manager by unreconstructed boss Douglas (Matt Berry) - a man given to pronouncements such as, "I like my women how I like my toast. Hot and consumable with butter." Jen's new job means showing braying businessmen a good time - and a theatre trip to The Vagina Monologues isn't quite the ticket. Back in the bunker, geeky Moss (Richard Ayoade) is devising Dungeons & Dragons-style role-play games and heartbroken Roy (Chris O'Dowd) keeps weepily guzzling white wine at his desk. All these plot strands come together ingeniously. Most laughs come from Berry and Ayoade's more cartoonish characters, but Linehan isn't too proud to write in the odd pratfall and it's so well-acted, one scene is genuinely touching, despite its silliness.

I haven't been a fan of The IT Crowd in the past, so either this funny opener to season four has climbed a couple of rungs up the comedy ladder or I was totally wrong.

The four leads all seem to tot­­ally inhabit their characters much more than they did when we last saw them 18 months ago and ­everything about it feels that much more relaxed.

A fifth series has already been commissioned which only makes sense - at only six episodes a piece, it would take four British series to make one full-length series in the US.

And that alone could be another reason why it has taken until now for this show to really bed in enough to regularly provide laughs.

Creator Graham Linehan has said he'll write the next series with a team rather than on his own, which should also keep the quality right up there.

Tonight Jen (Katherine Parkinson) has applied for the job of Entertainments Manager at Reynholm Industries, unaware that the role traditionally involves the messy business of procuring hookers for business clients. Happily, Moss (Richard Ayoade) and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) come to the rescue with some alternative amusements - and a sub-plot involving Roy's freshly broken heart that will have geeks sobbing on to their keyboards like babies.

On a special edition of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe a couple of years ago, Graham Linehan revealed some of his writing secrets: For instance at the time he was writing an episode of The IT Crowd entirely based around a random thought he'd had: 'Wouldn't it be funny if for some reason Roy was topless in the office?' When the episode eventually aired we got the answer to that age-old question: No, actually it wouldn't be particularly funny. But the same series introduced us to the insane genius of Friendface, the social networking site that's like a diseased face of friendship.

So yes, that was basically an entire paragraph to say that The IT Crowd can be very hit-and-miss. And so it is with the opener to Series 4 (a fifth series has already been commissioned.) Despite everyone advising her against it, Jen's got her heart set on being the new Entertainment Manager at Reynholm Industries, only to find out that taking Douglas' guests to The Vagina Monologues isn't what they had in mind. There's some slow patches in the episode but some big laughs as well, like Roy's mementoes of a doomed love affair, and how Jen deals with some horny businessmen who fancy a bit of role-play. And with upcoming weeks promising Moss on Countdown and a geek throwdown, the new series should be worth turning off and on again.

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Video Clip: Greatest Song from a Rubbish Artist?

Here's a bit of web-exclusive fun for you: a clip filmed during the recording of Episode One. Who deserves the Lucas for Greatest Song from a Musical Artist Who is Otherwise Rubbish? Graham Linehan, James Corden and Katy Brand must decide...

Matt Lucas (Little Britain, Shooting Stars) with a new panel game. It's an awards show, the Lucases being awarded for the best, worst, ugliest, scariest, etc. Tonight's guests, comedian Katy Brand, actor and writer James Corden (Gavin & Stacey) and TV writer Graham Linehan (the immortal Father Ted, the sublime Black Books and the underrated The IT Crowd) nominate contenders then hand out Lucases for The Lamest Excuse of All Time, Most Pointless Member of the Royal Family and Greatest Song By a Musical Artist Who Is Otherwise Rubbish.

Hive mind! Engage!

...and we're off! Three weeks to go, five and a half scripts done, casting begun, location scouting next week...it's all happening! And once again, we're asking for your help in populating The IT Crowd office with cool bits.