Lab Rats

If the feedback I get is anything to go by, there are two things viewers dislike above all else. One is orchestral Muzak in wildlife programmes. The other is canned laughter in sitcoms. The latter is particularly bad because it sets up an old-fashioned style of comedy with one character dollying up a feed-line and someone else hitting it for six. Unfortunately this new sitcom, set in the laboratory of an English university, uses a laughter track. It is a pity, because the characters are an entertaining lot who would benefit from the chance to escape from this straitjacket of comic conformity, while Chris Addison - last seen on our screens in The Thick of It - has a wonderful line in engaging, deadpan delivery.

What better place to try to reinvent the studio-based sitcom than in a science laboratory? If you're stuck for the next surreal joke or lethal punchline you can always just set about whipping one up in a Petri dish.

Your man in the white coat here is Chris Addison (who played the hapless special adviser Olly Reeder in The Thick Of It) and co-wrote this with Carl Cooper.

His co-workers - including Selina Caddell, Jo Enright and Dan Tetsell - all come from the school of You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here, But It Helps.

And perhaps science-fiction lab would be a better description of the setting because this is a place where pretty much anything is possible - cloning, giant molluscs - anything really, except hiding your chocolate from your workmates.

Childishly inventive and frequently just silly, it's not a bad first impression.

Chris Addison Interview

The Independent interviews Addison on swapping satire for sitcom and why he is leaving The Thick Of It behind.

Graham Linehan on the Lab Rats critics

Father Ted writer Graham Linehan hits out at the critics who have slated Lab Rats so quickly

The plot of last night's episode was pleasantly absurdist, the jokes were commendably odd and wide-ranging. Somehow, though, it didn't quite gel, largely because of the studio audience, whose laughter, as so often, slowed things down and underlined jokes that needed to be thrown away.

It may be, too, that the cast is a little too large, so that the stories lack a focus (compare the similar but funnier The IT Crowd, with only three regulars and a couple of frequent walk-ons). Worth giving it a week or two, though.

Lab Rats is a big, daft, cartoony sitcom, filmed before a studio audience. Although set in a laboratory, it is less about science and more an excuse for stupid jokes, endearingly chaotic characters and fast-paced, farcical plots.

Eureka!: Lab Rats

Broadcast magazine asks Chris Addison how Lab Rats was created. Note: registration to Broadcast may be required to see the article.

Can Addison's Lab Rats revive the ailing sitcom?

The results of all this effort, are often, as Chris Addison describes - 'stupid' - but not often funny. Chris co-wrote the show with fellow radio scriptwriter Carl Cooper, so at least we know it wasn't all his fault.

Where science and silliness collide

A preview of Lab Rats, including a short interview with Carl Cooper and Chris Addison.