The IT Crowd

While an annoying superwoman type at Reynholm Industries is coming up with ways of transforming the company, much to Jen's annoyance, Moss has had his own eureka moment: he puts his phone in his shirt pocket rather than his trouser pocket. That way his arm doesn't have to travel so far. And Roy's new girlfriend claims that her parents died at a fire - at a sea park. All of this leads, in a roundabout way, to Jen pretending she can speak Italian.

This witty sitcom romps on as Jen surpasses herself in the blagging stakes by pretending she can speak Italian. This gives her the edge on rival Linda but when sleazy boss Douglas wants her to translate at a meeting, she realises it may be a bluff too far.

Back in the basement, Roy's love life turns puzzling. Is new girlfriend Julia tragic or psychopathic? His need to know the truth becomes as obsessive as Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Moss, unbothered by love or office politics, reserves his obsession for the latest gadget - but comes unstuck when old technology fails him.

The writing is as sharp as one would expect from writer/director Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books), but Roy's transformation from head-over-heels in love to pathologically suspicious is beautifully and hilariously portrayed without a word being uttered.

The IT Crowd series 4 episode 4 review

After the disappointing nadir of the last episode, Italian For Beginners, while not achieving the greatness of The Final Countdown, marked a real return to form for the mad auntie that is The IT Crowd.

The IT Crowd series 4 episode 4 review #2

Douglas holds up a magazine and reads out the punchline. Just like he did last week. It feels lazy, coming from someone who has written tons of material that covers the whole spectrum of comedy.

The die-hard fans of the show, of which there are many, will find this enjoyable. The rest of us, passable.

The IT Crowd 4.3 review

I'm just not enjoying the scattershot approach to this series of The IT Crowd. It all feels very uncontrolled and, worse, often leaves a few decent ideas floating around in a sea of tepid subplots.

Missing the Point of IT

Comedy is huge business - and it always surprises me there isn't more of it on television. There is so little comedy now that every new episode of a show is hyped and picked over to an extraordinary degree.

A delightfully juvenile episode in this Bafta-winning sitcom that's improved with time, and is now in its fourth series. Reynholm (Matt Berry) joins a cult, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) joins a band, and Roy (Chris O'Dowd) is unexpectedly kissed on the backside by a masseur. The remainder of the programme largely involves the characters - all corporate misfits - finding different ways to say "bum". It's cheap, puerile... and very funny.

If you're not a lover of The IT Crowd, tonight probably isn't a good time to dip in. Even by writer Graham Linehan's standards, it's a clatteringly silly episode, full of whimsical touches and half-jokes thrown together in a blender and served up as a frothy comedy smoothie. But if you do like the show, the beautifully performed nonsense delivers surreal laughs: Roy goes to a gig and puts his back out dancing in the mosh pit. Meanwhile Jen has fallen in love with the keyboard player of the band and takes to singing. Plus, Douglas Reynholm takes up Spaceology.

The real IT Crowd: how true is the C4 sitcom?

Three computer experts reveal how their office lives compare with the TV comedy.

The IT Crowd series 4 episode 3 review

After a brilliant second episode, Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd misfires with its third... As Moss himself puts it, "There is nothing remotely funny about this."