The Job Lot

Sarah Hadland, Angela Curran, Laura Aikman interview

I spoke to Sarah Hadland who plays the manager of Brownall Job Centre, Angela Curran who plays security guard Janette and Laura Aikman who joins the cast for Series 2 playing deputy manager Natalie. Here's what they each had to say...

This low-key sitcom set in a job centre potters along to its penultimate episode and yet again nothing much happens, though it remains mildly diverting and good-hearted. The terrible Angela (Jo Enright) buys a new coffee machine with lottery winnings, while sweet-natured Karl (Russell Tovey) falls for a minx of a barmaid who also turns out to be a claimant. And she likes taking risks, as he finds out to his mortification.

Meanwhile, manager Trish (Sarah Hadland) is doing appraisals, which means she insists on close proximity to her employees...

An email from the higher-ups suggests a surprise undercover jobseeker inspection for the centre, prompting Trish to advise the staff to keep an eye out for "people who don't look unemployed". Karl and George play good cop/bad cop with a benefits cheat who's also cheating on his wife, and surly Angela keeps delivering her trademark service with a glare. The Job Lot is a perfectly serviceable sitcom, though one can't help feeling it could and should be even better than it is.

The clutch of new mainstream comedies that have been foisted on us recently haven't exactly had us holding our stomachs with laughter. Just holding them because they make us feel sick, more like.

But The Job Lot is definitely the best of a bad bunch. It has an advantage as the writers have been a bit sneaky and actually included some funny situations and amusing lines, which is cheating a bit don't you think?

The characters are pretty strong, too. Haven't we all met a totally cold, unhelpful so-and-so like Angela (Jo Enright), the last person you would want "helping" you at a jobcentre.

Tonight she threatens to call the police when someone tries to use the office printer! The fun starts when under-pressure boss Trish (Sarah Hadland) receives a tip-off that an inspector is on the way - disguised as a claimant.

The Midlands job centre comedy still shines as Trish warns her team to be on the lookout for an inspector posing as a jobseeker. She's been tipped off that this person will ask for a GL24 form and need an induction loop for the hard of hearing.

There are obvious steals from Fawlty Towers here, not just with an incognito inspector, but with a deceased punter on the premises. Rising above the fallout is Jo Enright, brilliant but terrifying as Brownall's brick wall, Angela.

The Job Lot (ITV) is one of those comedies I want to make me bellylaugh because of the people in it but I'm not really getting beyond the odd wry smirk.

Despite boasting a great cast - Russell Tovey from Him & Her (and much besides), Miranda's Sarah Hadland and Adeel Akhtar from Utopia - squeezing amusement out of the daily grind of life in a job centre is proving an uphill struggle.

The problem partly stems from the feeling that the characters haven't got anywhere to go. Tovey's desk monkey Karl is the equivalent of Martin Freeman's Tim in The Office, both stuck in dead-end jobs and not quite sure how they got there, both niggled by the idea they're worth something better. But with Tim you could envision a life beyond; Karl ceases to exist the moment he steps outside the door.

It's that lack of credibility that makes The Job Lot just a journeyman old-school sitcom, cranking the odd easy laugh out of secret websites and unwipeable whiteboards - drawings of bottoms always crack a smile - but the lack of ambition makes it a candidate for early redundancy.

In a break from tradition (ooh, get me) I'm going to revisit a show I spoke about last week. I did mention that I thought that The Job Lot would probably need at least another episode to warm up. So here we are.

The second episode of The Job Lot was a more promising offering than the last. I did chuckle a bit which is a good start. Not having to faff about with character setup and backstory, the show was able to bring us a proper episode.

Guest starring Sean Pertwee playing an Army recruiter, it focuses on the job centre's drive to get people off their books and into service. As well as their drive to get jiggy and/or justify and uphold their masculinity. As episodes go it was okay. You know. Okay. It is watchable, most of the characters aren't entirely hate-able and it pokes fun at the job centre system and its signer-onners in a gentle and non-discriminatory way.

This is probably never going to be revered as a classic sitcom, but if you have half an hour to kill and you've exhausted everything on Netflix, then you might as well give it a go. Or not. I don't really mind.

Oh, but bad news: Hannah off of Hollyoaks was only in last week's show. I am very disappointed about this.

Sarah Hadland interview

Sarah Hadland, 42, is best known as Stevie in sitcom Miranda. She can now be seen as Trish in The Job Lot, a comedy set in a West Midlands job centre.

And I'm afraid I wasn't too impressed with another new sitcom, The Job Lot, which came on straight after Vicious. It had the air of The Office about it, following the lives of those working at a job centre in the West Midlands. But it was nowhere near as good as Ricky Gervais' classic series.

The show was about work - or the lack of it - and the characters in the office and their relationships - or lack of them - and, though it started with the Morecambe & Wise song Bring Me Sunshine, it did anything but. It left me as disillusioned as the employers.

In fairness, the performers were likeable enough, such as Miranda's Sarah Hadland's turn as neurotic Trish, and Russell Tovey as Karl, the frazzled manager.

The one shining light in an otherwise average sitcom was Jo Enright, brilliantly irritating as Angela, an unsmiling jobsworth and borderline psychopath.

Sadly, two vital ingredients were missing from the half hour show - laughs and the plots, both of which are pretty important when it comes to making good TV. Add to that the annoying background music and I've got another reason not to tune in again.

An army sergeant (Sean Pertwee) arrives at Brownall job centre in the hope of diverting some of their "customers" towards a career in the forces. His presence inflames the desire of boss Trish, and the ire of overzealous security man Paul. The former has an unfortunate run-in with a hand dryer, while the latter takes his jurisdiction a little too far. Despite the talent on show here - Adeel Akhtar, Russell Tovey - this is frequently less funny than spending an actual day at a job centre.