Lunch Monkeys - Character Guide - British Comedy Guide

British Comedy Guide - Skip to main content

Asif Khan

Kung fu-loving joker Asif is always messing about. He has a lack of knowledge in some areas and too much knowledge in others.

Asif works in the post room, but his family have a totally inflated idea of what his role in Fox Cranford actually is. His demanding dad thinks he is a solicitor, and he is finding it increasingly difficult to live the lie much longer.

He is bored by his job and, like the others, is desperate to escape Fox Cranford... particularly now his dad has started bringing clients in to see him!

Darrel Wadsworth

Played by: Chris Hannon

Slimy Darrel is 20 and ambitious. He is different from the others in the post room... he wants to progress himself at Fox Cranford.

Sadly Darrel is continually let down by his utter lack of ability and his complete absence of any people skills. He is always trying to ingratiate himself with management. He thinks he is funny but isn't.

Darrel dresses like a solicitor, or rather like he thinks a solicitor would dress. This involves bad suits and cheap ties.

Darrel fancies Shelley and cannot understand why she does not return his affections. Darrel also loves Mike and is always sucking up to him.

Kenny Graham

Played by: Christian Foster

Kenny is 18 and just wants to get by. Ideally he would like to skive his way through the working day as much as possible. But in reality it is usually him who ends up doing all the work on his own.

He gets very bored by the mundanity of his job and is easily led into trouble by Asif. In fact Kenny always seems to accidentally find himself in trouble.

Kenny would like to be promoted to a paralegal position in the office 'cos its something to do'... just as long as it doesn't involve too much work!

Kenny has a crush on Tania, but she seems more interested in Charlie.

Tania MacGuire

Played by: Jessica Hall

Tania is 18 and is the brightest button in the Lunch Monkey button box. She is also dyslexic so people (mainly Gloria and Charlie) think she's thick. She is a tough working-class girl who wants a better life. She lost her parents when she was a baby and has been brought up by her nan. Consequently she has a penchant for older men, father figures, which is why she ends up with the smooth talking office lothario, solicitor Charlie Brierson.

Shelley Benson

Played by: Rachel Rae

Shelley is 17. She is a rough girl with a very rough boyfriend, Swanny. She likes drinking, smoking and fighting. Shelley has left school with no qualifications and been sacked from every job she has ever had. She would quite like not be sacked from this one... although how long she'll manage to remain at Fox Cranford remains to be seen as we've yet to see her actually do any work. She's more likely to be found on a four-hour lunch break in the bookies, than she is stuffing envelopes with Kenny and Co.

Gloria Stevens

Played by: Sian Reeves

Gloria is the Office Manager. She thinks that she runs the office and is constantly badgering Mike for a promotion, pay rise, car park space etc. She is a sexual predator who flirts outrageously with all the men in the office. Except Darrel.

Gloria is desperate to get Mike into bed. She is madly in love with Mike and she thinks anything he says is wonderful. She actually believes one day that she could have a future, marry and have a home with him. There is no way of that happening, she is so common and crude, and she is really a girl from nothing who thinks she has made herself into something with make-up and hair and awfully tight-fitting clothing.

Mike Cranford

Played by: Nigel Havers

Mike is a senior solicitor in the firm, who has the unenviable task of trying to marshal the backroom staff to actually do some work.

Mike is the object of office manager Gloria's affections. He was obviously drunk at the office party once and something happened, but he now can't remember it and certainly isn't interested in Gloria now.

Charlie Brierson

Played by: Steve John Shepherd

Charlie has heighted sexual desires towards women, he literally wants to have it with every attractive woman he finds. However, he has no intimate and social skills.

In a way Charlie is not much different to the post room lot as he is in a job that is probably below him. He hasn't achieved as much as he probably should have, even though he is in the upper echelons of the firm.

Charlie has a very troubled relationship with his father who is a High Court judge. It transpires that his father is very disappointed that Charlie hasn't achieved something higher than a lowly 'No Win, No Fee' solicitor.

In the series Charlie has what he thinks will be a quick fling with Tania. But she has different ideas.