The Job Lot

A comedy set in a job centre in the Midlands - doesn't exactly sound like a bundle of laughs, does it? And while the script doesn't aim to pump out one-liners like Vicious, The Job Lot has sharply observed characters played by a classy ensemble cast. Among them are Sarah Hadland (Stevie from Miranda) as neurotic manager Trish; Russell Tovey as daydreamer Karl, so fed up with his dead-end job he'd almost rather join the dole queue; and Jo Enright as Angela, the Rosemary West of careers advisers.

The shadow of The Office looms over this new sitcom, set in Brownall Job Centre in the West Midlands, and it largely delivers, thanks to a cracking script and some winning performances. Brittle, nervy Trish (Miranda star Sarah Hadland) runs the office, aided by frustrated graduate Karl (Russell Tovey), and the marvellously dour Angela (Life's Too Short's Jo Enright), among the regular staff and jobseekers. This week sees a display of petty bureaucracy from Angela, while Karl uses his degree in an ill-judged manner.

The Job Lot joins the office sitcom collection

The job centre setting sees the cast turning the unemployed into the funemployed, or trying to at any rate.

I feel ever so sorry for ITV's second new sitcom of the night for having to follow a tough act like Vicious... The Job Lot, set in a job centre don'tcha know, can't help but pale in comparison to the savage brilliance of Ian McKellen and Co.

And that's a shame because while it's not going to win any prizes for originality (League Of Gentlemen's job-seeker sketches set the bar pretty high on that score), it's a perfectly respectable addition to the clutch of office-based sitcoms.

Plus it's from Big Talk, the company that gave us Spaced, Black Books, Rev, Friday Night Dinner and Him & Her, so it knows about sitcoms.

Sarah Hadland, Russell Tovey, Martin Marquez and Emma Rigby are among the staff turning the unemployed into the funemployed, with varying degrees of success.

But the biggest surprise of the night must be actress Sophie McShera being cast as a job-seeker who's turned being work-shy into a something of a full-time career. It's Downton's Daisy Mason as you've never seen her before.

The cast of The Job Lot talk first jobs and worst jobs

The stars of The Job Lot talking about their previous jobs.

The Job Lot, ITV, review

To premiere one dud new sitcom may be regarded as misfortune, but to screen two, back to back on the same evening, looks like the kind of carelessness that derails careers. If The Job Lot, which followed Vicious on ITV last night, was a less spectacular failure, it was also a less interesting one.

Review: The Job Lot

Well, you can't win them all. ITV1 might be on a bit of a roll at the moment, but I'm not convinced that new sitcom The Job Lot is going to keep up their hit rate.

The Job Lot, which, while nowhere near as sharp as Vicious, is a perfectly amiable and amusing sitcom set in a drab job centre (is there such a thing as a bright, welcoming job centre?).

Despite being a single-camera comedy with no laugh-track, it's essentially a traditional sitcom populated by dysfunctional characters and daffy situations. It is, however, blatantly influenced by The Office, not because it's a workplace comedy - Gervais and Merchant didn't invent that genre - but because of the exceedingly Tim-like lead played by Russell Tovey. A bright, likeable everyman trapped in a job he detests - his feelings for an attractive female colleague stop him from leaving - the similarity is compounded by the fact that Tovey appears to have partially based his acting style on Martin Freeman.

While Tim-bot 2000 is mildly distracting, he doesn't detract overall from a show which, given the danger inherent in its recession-fuelled premise, mercifully refrains from sneering at the unemployed. Granted, one of the regular job-seekers is portrayed as a harmless oddball, but it's significant that the villain of the piece is a rude, sadistic and actively obstructive job centre employee played by the excellent Jo Enright.

This character has an obvious antecedent in the monstrous Pauline from The League of Gentleman. She also shares a few genes with Little Britain's "Computer says 'No'" grotesque. And yet despite these visible origins, Enright imbues her with a distinctive, deadpan venom.

What this all adds up to is a derivative yet serviceable sitcom with a smattering of potential. But it undoubtedly succeeds in being an ITV sitcom that's Not Appalling. I still can't quite believe it and Vicious exist at all.

Interview: Russell Tovey's work experience

The star of ITV's new sitcom The Job Lot tells Gerard Gilbert of his rise to fame.