PhoneShop
- TV sitcom
- E4 / Channel 4
- 2009 - 2013
- 19 episodes (3 series)
E4 sitcom set in a mobile phone shop following a dysfunctional sales team of five as they try to reach big sales targets. Stars Tom Bennett, Martin Trenaman, Andrew Brooke, Javone Prince and Emma Fryer
Press clippings Page 5
With a script supervised by Ricky Gervais (though it's not clear whether he helped with the gags or just read it and gave a regal wave), the latest Comedy Showcase pilot takes its cue from the absurdity of mobile phone shops, which will be instantly familiar if you've ever had to go into one for any reason at all. Writer Phil Bowker, who produced Pulling, does a great job of keeping it as quick as the jokes are tight. Should it be turned into a series? Yes please.
The Guardian, 13th November 2009The second of Channel 4's sitcom pilots is written by the man behind Pulling (Phil Bowker) and script-edited by Ricky Gervais - yet though funny in places the humour can be a bit laddish and idiotic. PhoneShop is about the employees of a mobile phone shop, and tonight, new recruit Chris (Tom Bennett) faces the notorious sales trial.
The Telegraph, 13th November 2009Ricky Gervais returns with new workplace comedy
More than eight years after The Office changed British comedy forever, Ricky Gervais has helped create a new television sitcom that finds its laughs in the drudgery and absurdities of another unglamorous workplace.
Ian Burrell, The Independent, 13th November 2009The 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.
Jane Simon, The Mirror, 13th November 2009When TalkbackThames trying to tell outgoing C4 comedy head Andrew Newman something in its pilot PhoneShop? "Throughout the show, they take the piss out of a 'new man', saying 'new man, you're a hopeless fool,'" Newman observed at the Comedy Showcase season launch - his swansong before joining Objective next month. "I suspect that's a glimpse of my future life. Months ago, you'd have all tried to be nice to me; now I can't affod to alienate anyone in this room."
Broadcast, 23rd October 2009