Chris Morris (I)

It's hard to think of an office-based comedy more different from The Office than this. Graham Linehan's absurdist sitcom feels nearer in spirit to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin: off in a mad world of its own, yet uncomfortably familiar, even at its maddest. The IT Crowd even used to have its own 'CJ'-type figure in Denholm Reynholm, the overbearing boss of Reynholm Industries played by Chris Morris. Although Reynholm jumped out of a high window in the last series, his playboy son Douglas (Matt Berry) shows every sign of carrying on the family name (plundering the pension fund, putting flakes of gold in the drinking water, etc) and more or less takes over tonight's very funny opening episode. That leaves our IT-department trio of geeky Moss, lazy Roy and uptight Jen slightly overshadowed. But the sweet scene where Moss and Roy try some role-play to help Moss deal with park bullies just about makes up for it.

In a recent newspaper column, Charlie Brooker hinted at a Damascene conversion to compassion as he argued against looking down 'on the genuine misery of those you consider beneath you' - something of a speciality for the Brooker of old. So, as BBC Four schedules six more parts of the critic's telly-bashing series Screenwipe (TV Burp for Chris Morris fans), can we expect it to be fronted by the pop-eyed, acerbic, ranting celebricidal Brooker, or a new touchy-feely incarnation? Thankfully, it looks like being the former, as tonight he explores what effect 'Manuelgate' could have on BBC programming, and sticks the boot into the plethora of job-based shows clogging the channels.

Chris Morris Announces Jihad Film / Needs Money

Last week, a mass email apparently originating from Warp Films, producers of Chris Morris's new project tentatively titled Four Lions, asked interested parties for monetary contributions to the cause of quality British satire.

New Statesman Review

These late-night stories echo the bleak humour of Chris Morris.

Off The Telly Series 2 Review (Link expired)

It remains to be seen how the series will fare without Chris Morris, he's clearly going to be missing out on a lot of fun. The audience, meanwhile, aren't. The IT Crowd has gone beyond the novelty value of being a breath of comedic fresh air, and is establishing itself - or in fact probably already has - as a great series in its own right.

The IT Crowd is the new Graham Father Ted, Black Books Linehan sitcom, and therefore of major importance to anyone who habitually throws themselves on the sofa and sighs, "Ah, I love telly". The ludicrously talented Richard Ayoade finally gets a lead role, Chris Morris returns as a wholly satisfying parody of manhood, and the whole thing seems comfortably bedded in within 15 minutes. All in all, no reason to lose faith in humanity just yet.

In many ways, one of the most disappointing things about Nathan Barley was that it - deliberately - missed the opportunity to ridicule that world. Morris and Brooker were so keen to avoid the 'Hoxton satire' label that, for all its strengths, Barley will never rank with Morris' other achievements.

But Nathan Barley is unfocused, both structurally and in its satire. Personally, I suspect that as Chris Morris -- along with his co-writer Charlie Brooker, who originally created the Nathan Barley character on his peerless website TVGoHome -- did their reputed three years of research on Hoxton, they found that Hoxtonites' main obsessions (new technology, unlistenable music, the boundaries of acceptability, silly slang) were, in fact, pretty close to many of their own.

Nathan Barley is not spectacular television, but neither is it appalling. It simply fails to do what it clearly set out to do. It has ended up in entirely the wrong bracket, resulting in a dull thud when it should - an indeed quite easily could - have sounded a loud fanfare.

At the end of the day, though, My Wrongs #8425-8249 & 117 is refreshingly offbeat for a present day television presentation, and definitely the sort of project that Channel 4 should be supporting rather than just relying on repeats of Friends.