Free Agents

Talent agents Alex and Helen start this new sitcom having sex. But all is not well - Helen is getting over tyhe death of her fiance and scruffbag Alex's pursuit of her becomes more desperate as she pleads that he get over his divorce first. Episode one shows huge promise; Mangan is a likeable foil to Helen's cynical world view, there's some great knoc-em-dead visual gags and Chris Neil's punchy script drives things along with unflinching honesty. Plus, there's the ever marvellous Anthony Head playing the highly sexed agency boss.

A convincing new sitcom about a pair of ditzy talent agents, Alex (Stephen Mangan) and Helen (Sharon Horgan), who become romantically involved while contending with their bizarre, sexually charged London workplace. At morning meetings, Stephen (Anthony Head), the company boss, expects his agents to stump up lurid stories of their sexual exploits. In reality, Alex and Helen are rather sadder and much more ordinary. Alex has been sleeping in the office ever since his divorce, and Helen is getting over her fiance's recent death. Mutual loneliness leads the two of them into bed. Part farce, part satire, Free Agents has a sweetly understated tone.

'Free Agents' defend show's language

Sharon Horgan and Stephen Mangan have apparently justified the use of swearing in their new show Free Agents.

Free Agents is a new romantic comedyseries, wallowing in obscenity, about a dysfunctional couple failing to have an affair. Personally I enjoyed it a lot, although I probably wouldn't recommend it to my 84-year-old mother. The couple concerned are a divorced father-of-two (Stephen Mangan) and a work colleague (Sharon Horgan) whose fiance dropped dead at the age of 34.

The Mangan character is broke, homeless and about as sexually sophisticated as a 15-year-old born-again Christian, while his nongirlfriend is suffering from posttraumatic death disorder. They work together in an actors agency run by a cynical old goat (Anthony Head), out of whose mouth poursa stream of uncensored filth. It works because, deep beneath the brittle layer of self-conscious trendiness, it is an old-fashioned love story with its own perverse brand of charm.

Rude, but very funny in parts, this new comedy centres around Alex (Stephen Mangan) whose marriage has broken down. He's fallen into a relationship with co-worker Helen, played by Sharon Horgan, who still can't get over her dead ex. And their sex-crazed boss - Anthony Head - is a complete nightmare.

Free Agents - I'll make you a star

Channel 4's caustic new comedy series follows the tumultuous work and love lives of three showbiz agents. The Independent meets the show's cast-iron talent.

If you get deja vu at the sight of Stephen Mangan sobbing in bed, you either know him very well (in which case, lucky you) or, more likely, you've seen him doing it before, in the pilot that went out in November 2007.

Mangan and Pulling star Sharon Horgan return playing talent agents who though they are technically single come with phenomenal amounts of emotional baggage. He's divorced and desperately missing his kids and her fiance has recently died.

It's not the most promising premise for a sitcom, I'll grant you. What it sounds like is the formula for a not very good Hollywood weepie: In a World Where Love Has Died... Can Two Broken Hearts Become One? etc.

Still, we'll just have to make the best of these raw ingredients and a relationship based on expediency (he has nowhere else to sleep) rather than any great spiritual or physical attraction.

The main problem I had with the pilot was that their kinky foul-mouthed boss (played by Anthony Head, enjoying himself enormously) was given so much rope they might as well have shoved a satsuma in his mouth while they were at it.

He's been reined in slightly in the re-write, but it's the watchableness of the two leads that rises above any weaknesses in the script and makes this worth a second date, with Sharon Horgan's cool cynicism nicely balancing Stephen Mangan's weepy wetness. They make a great couple - on screen anyway.

New comedy starring Stephen Mangan as a talent agent who's smitten with his colleague. You could never trust an agent to give 100 per cent to a relationship - after all, they'd be looking to skim off between 12 and 20 per cent for themselves. Therefore, a romance between two of them will be less than committed, and showbiz agents Sharon Horgan and Stephen Mangan certainly have a stand-off affair in this new comedy. Mind you, Sharon's mourning and Stephen's divorce don't really help matters...

Free Agents is crude but funny

If you liked Spaced and Black Books, then you'll like this new comedy, which boasts a great cast.

Free Agents is a new romantic comedy series, wallowing in obscenity, about a dysfunctional couple failing to have an affair. Personally I enjoyed it a lot, although I probably wouldn't recommend it to my 84-year-old mother. The couple concerned are a divorced father-of-two (Stephen Mangan) and a work colleague (Sharon Horgan) whose fiancé dropped dead at the age of 34.

The Mangan character is broke, homeless and about as sexually sophisticated as a 15-year-old born-again Christian, while his nongirlfriend is suffering from posttraumatic death disorder. They work together in an actors agency run by a cynical old goat (Anthony Head), out of whose mouth pours a stream of uncensored filth. It works because, deep beneath the brittle layer of self-conscious trendiness, it is an old-fashioned love story with its own perverse brand of charm.