PhoneShop

Two Phoneshop stars (Javone Prince and Steve Brody) have already popped up tonight in Life's Too Short, but this is a bad night for a returning sitcom.

After the first series, you'll already know if Phoneshop's mix of overblown urban patois and crude sexual references is your cup of tea, but tonight's episode starts strong with Jerwayne and Ashley riffing on the theme of lunch options.

If you don't speak street-slang, the few English phrases you do recognise like "M&S Simply range" and "Taste The Difference," leap out at you from the babble to hilarious effect.

You'll also notice there's absolutely no mention of the actual business of selling phones. (Don't tell me they've exhausted all the Pay As You Go jokes already!)

Instead, the male staff become escorts while Janine (Emma Fryer) takes her social life upmarket. You'll have no trouble spotting the moment it ends up back in the gutter.

Mocking mobile phone salesman is an amusing idea for a series although, as PhoneShop returns for a second season, it may be stretching a point. That said, it is funny - sometimes - in a laddish kind of way, as the staff of the Sutton branch of PhoneShop try to make some extra cash in recessionary times.

Back for a second series, the mobile-flogging crew are feeling the effects of the economic downturn, with their mantra - to "shift units, make money, smash targets" - increasingly difficult to realise. In this opener, Ashley, Jerwayne and Christopher angle for ways to make money on the side, while Janine finds herself mixing with Croydon's own creme de la creme. Some consider PhoneShop to be a funny but grotesque exaggeration of south London mores, with its Office/Ali G shtick. Those who have lived in the Croydon/Sutton area, however, assure us that this is a scrupulously naturalistic depiction.

A species of comedy has lately triumphed on the stage and on Channel 4, PhoneShop celebrates the mediocrity of middle-class life. Think Michael McIntyre. There is nothing greatly wrong about this, and much moderately right. In this sitcom, for example, there were some hilarious moments as another crack squad went to work with a new recruit. They all wear drab suits and the gag lies in their realisation of just how mundane their life is. It's like Tim from The Office, but stretched into a whole cast.

What didn't work, alas, were the accents. The manager talks in a soulless Slough accent, but two of the central characters riff in possibly the most unconvincing roodboy patois Channel 4 has yet been blessed with. This was a shame, because these actors could really act; they'd simply been told to deliver their lines in a "street" manner. It ended up sounding like Ali G, without the attendant bling to tell you this was a joke. For all that, this comedy aimed to capture the tedium of many modern working lives, and did so well.

A product of C4's Comedy Showcase, PhoneShop is set in the high street world of mobile phone sales. Despite its improvised feel, there is a broad anti-realist, improbable tone. Most of the characters talk in the faux patois of the wannabe black, including, curiously, the black character. This, amid the spivvy salesmanship, becomes a pretty dominant motif, and how funny you find it will determine how much you enjoy this series.

A terrestrial debut for this promising sitcom, which started out as a pilot in the channel's Comedy Showcase season before earning a full series on E4 last autumn. In the first of six episodes, graduate recruit Christopher (Tom Bennett) starts work in a high-street phone shop. Viewers who have dealt with a sales rep recently will be shuddering with recognition.

I'd probably put Phoneshop (E4) - the new retail-outlet-based comedy - in with Him and Her and The Inbetweeners. It's, like, proper insane funny. And it also, like, educates you on the correct protocol for speaking, on the high street, innit. Like, you can put up with all manner of madnesses, if you're getting your tings, ain't that right bruv? Sorry, it's embarrassing I know. But that's cos I need to masterclass it still, before I can represent, know what I'm saying? You need to check it out bruv, d'you hear? Ecoutez?

PhoneShop Episode 1 review

It's like they had a basic idea worked out and then Dappy walked into a script meeting, said something stupid and urban and everyone at 4 laughed; thinking it was very post modern.

PhoneShop: Episode 1 review

The admittedly talented comic cast manage to be consistently entertaining from the off. Unfortunately, however, the show then descends into the treatment usually associated with BBC Three's comedy output.