Martin Trenaman

The third series of this offbeat observational comedy set in a mobile phone store gets under way in surreal fashion. Lance (Martin Trenaman) has finally been accepted into a special club, but his celebratory "reggae cakes" threaten to turn his fellow employees into zombies. Ashley, Jerwayne and Janine become disconnected from reality, and the normally shy Christopher has turned into a crazed contract-phone bandit on a rampage through Sutton. This riotous opening episode has been worth the near two-year wait.

The third series of the wilfully wacky comedy set - in case you hadn't guessed - in an emporium for the purveyance of mobile communications technology gets off to a high old start when boss Lance (Martin Trenaman) brings some ganja-filled reggae cakes in for a tea-time nibble. In the blink of a spliff, the joint is tripping big time, with the laid-back Chris (Tom Bennett) stealing the show as a crazed junkie with trouser issues and delusions of Gil Scott-Heron. Don't do drugs, kids.

Sean Pertwee guest stars this week as an army sergeant drumming up new recruits from among the jobseekers - and having a hot man in uniform in their midst gets the entire staff in a bit of a tizz.

Manager Trish (Sarah Hadland) is making gooey eyes at him, Karl (Russell Tovey) wants to be his new best friend, security guard Paul (Martin Marquez) is put out that he's no longer the manliest man there, and Angela is doing something suggestive with a breadstick.

In her head this is probably seductive but to everybody else it's just disturbing.

Comedian Jo Enright is wonderful again this week as office oddball Angela, and on the receiving end of her unhelpful behaviour tonight is the boss from C4's PhoneShop.

Actor Martin Trenaman plays an estate agent looking for new employment.

Sadly he doesn't want to work in mobile phone retail, but he does spend an awful lot of time on a landline.

The Job Lot is slightly better [than Vicious] but still no great shakes. Once again, from Jo Enright's thwarted office shrew Angela to Russell Tovey's charmingly gormless Carl, it's the performances that save the day. The job centre setting is used to making a few sneakily pertinent points about targets culture and the disregarded human implications of unemployment - tonight featuring the always-amusing Martin Trenaman as an estate agent who baulks at commuting six hours a day to work in a bar. But otherwise, it's a simple workplace comedy recast for the austerity age.

David Nobbs, wonderfully comic writer whether on radio, TV or in print, begins a three-part series talking to an audience about his work and some people he's worked with over the years. As he's written for Frankie Howerd, David Frost and The Two Ronnies, invented such TV comedies as A Bit of a Do, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and (for Radio 4) The Maltby Collection, it's a rich field. Mia Soteriou and Martin Trenaman are the readers, Andrew McGibbon produces for independents Curtains for Radio.

The second sitcom try-out in C4's Comedy Showcase season, and this one packs some more heavyweight comedy credentials. It boasts Ricky Gervais as script editor - a solid gold seal of approval. Disappointingly, there's no sign of former EastEnders Dean Gaffney or Shaun Williamson who manned the phone shop in Extras. This one is staffed by Ashley and Jerwayne (Andrew Brooke and Javone Prince).

Emma Fryer's in it too, still wearing that dazed, sleepwalker expression that she used in BBC2's Home Time.

Tom Bennett is new boy Chris, trying to make his first sale in the cut-throat world of 24-month contracts and impress his sex addict boss (played by Martin Trenaman).

Written, directed and produced by Phil Bowker (who also produced Sharon Horgan's Pulling) I hope this one gets the go-ahead as a series too.

The cast gel together as if they've worked together for years and even manage to turn BNP leader Nick Griffin into joke fodder.