Jo Brand co-writes and stars in this downbeat but lovely social workers comedy. The third episode sees Al (Alan Davies) being sent to help a gay couple who are being hassled by locals, and Nitin (Himesh Patel) managing to get stuck in an air vent while trying to handle a hostage situation. The subject matter allows the scattering of some very real-world grit in among the frequent laughs, with Isy Suttie's jarring temp a particular highlight.

Damned, damn it, didn't quite get going. It features Jo Brand, Alan Davies, Kevin Eldon, which should be enough for most, and is a kind of amalgam of Brand's Getting On and The Office. Set in a social work centre.

Much of the first episode had, perforce, to establish scene and characters: the arsewit idiots, the kind idiots and the thudbucket incompetents. Wincingly funny in parts, but the whole has yet to surpass the sum of its parts. Social workers don't exactly need a bad press these days, but Brand might just have pulled off a neat little trick, a la W1A, by getting us through laughter to acknowledge the flawed humanity that inhabits any specific world. There is much hope, though I fear for the moment when it gets labelled in TV Quick or somesuch as a "documentary series".

Damned review

Brand is back with another celebratory, respectful, mucky sitcom.

Damned: Jo Brand strikes comedy gold

This set-up could easily disintegrate, unless the cast keep working on ways to make us like their unlovable characters. So far, they're giving it everything.

Damned is the third comedy drama in what could be termed Jo Brand's social/healthcare triptych (after Getting On, set in a geriatric hospital ward, and Going Forward, in which she appeared as care-home worker); Damned, in which she also stars, is set in a child protection social services unit.

Co-created with Morwenna Banks (who appears as co-worker Ingrid), Damned follows in Getting On and Going Forward's tracks by being low-key, dark-humoured and full of throwaway lines, but - on the evidence of last-night's opening episode (of six), has yet to reach the former's superb heights of pathos and bathos.

The opener was essentially an office comedy, with the social services aspect merely a faint hum in the background. The people staffing this department alongside Brand and Alan Davies as caring and care-worn social workers Rose and Al would be recognisable in any workplace; Ingrid, telling everyone about her upcoming hysterectomy, ditzy temp Nat (Isy Suttie) - "they call us interim workers now" - well-meaning busybody Martin (Kevin Eldon); office snitch Nitin (Himesh Patel) and manager Denise (Georgie Glen), fluent in management-speak, as she has been "tasked with" creating "streamlined cluster teams".

Add to the mix Aisling Bea's single mother, who has a stalkery crush on Al, and Rose's waste-of-space ex (Nick Hancock), and there are any number of permutations to be worked. The writers certainly nailed the irritations of office life - broken lifts and out-of-order loos, incomprehensible phone systems and smelly communal fridges - but there was very little in the way of social commentary or bittersweet comedy.

It's early days, though, and it could be that Brand, Banks and co-writer Will Smith are softening us up for some comedy with a real emotional punch, glimpses of which we saw only very late in the first episode, when Rose came into contact with an old flame, whose family is now mired in ill health and drug abuse. I certainly hope so as the performances, perhaps needless to say with such a talented cast, were wonderful.

TV review Damned, Channel 4

A very funny show, thanks to bravura performances from Jo Brand, Himesh Patel, Kevin Eldon and Isy Suttie.

Damned review - social worker comedy missed the mark

I was looking forward to Brand's take on our profession and the gallows humour that comes with it but the opening episode left me underwhelmed.

Damned: Jo Brand and Himesh Patel excel

Ultimately I feel that Channel 4 have struck gold with Damned and airing it directly after the equally brilliant National Treasure means that I know which channel I'll be tuning into every Tuesday night.

Damned: could have packed a bigger punch

Damned was originally commissioned as a one-off by Sky Arts, who declined to order a full series, enabling Channel 4 to snatch it. Sky won't be kicking themselves just yet. Damned was warm and well-observed but it should have been scabrously funny. Like most sitcoms, it will surely improve over its six-episode run as characters grow and the script loosens up. Until then, its case notes read "promising but more jokes required".

Damned paints social workers as laughably hopeless

Unlike Twenty Twelve, W1A and Borderline, this summer's latest fly-on-the-wall mockumentary from Channel 5, there is little humour to be had in the work itself. Other than one line about being "tasked with making streamlined cluster teams", there is little jargonised nonsense to laugh at. But with five more episodes to come, we can only hope there will be more to look forward to.