Jessica Hall

  • Actor

Press clippings

The young, feckless admin team who work in the post room of a firm of lawyers is the setting for a not particularly original new comedy series. Revelling in the mundane and the useless seems to be the staple of comedy shows these days. Nevertheless Lunch Monkeys does have its moments. These mainly involve new girl Shelley (Rachel Rae), libidinous solicitor Charlie (Steve John Shepherd) and the dim-witted Asif (Abdullah Afzal). Nigel Havers stars as a partner but looks rather out of place. In this first episode, Kenny (Christian Foster) tries to ask Tania (Jessica Hall) out on a date.

Simon Horsford, The Telegraph, 10th September 2009

Sadly, the instant you hear the name Admin you know it's going to be a dire Office rip-off.

The slender plotline centres on a promotion when a paralegal position comes up for grabs, inspiring hilarious lines such as, I'd love to be a paraglider. Oscar Wilde got it wrong, sarcasm is not the lowest form of wit - that would be hard-of-hearing idiots with regional accents.

Of the two moments that challenge your smile into a face-off with your frown, the joke about faeces is funnier than the joke about bumming but, on the whole, Admin just gallops forward, for half an hour, like a blind horse.

There is one believable character, a pregnant admin drone, Tania (Jessica Hall), who hides a brain behind her blondeness and swelling bosom.

The rest are caric-atures: the man-eating female boss Gloria (Sian Reeves); a ditzy Scouse who, while filling in her job application, asks, Is smoking an interest?; an 'I'm mad me' dork who goes around the office singing Katrina and the Waves and humping the photocopier; an annoying Asian character, Asif; and a wimpy bloke who pretends he can play the sax but can't (laugh? I nearly did) and who looks like an even more dentally challenged Johnny Borrell.

I blame Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps - that show ran for seven series, without anything other than its fiendish regularity to recommend it.

The message is out there that us plebs will watch anything and, damnit, we probably will. I don't care how hilariously unfunny Admin is, if the Beeb make a full series, we should seriously consider asking for a licence fee rebate.

Malcolm Mackenzie, The London Paper, 12th May 2008

This story, about the bad attitudes of a bunch of surly school leavers in their first jobs, will strike a chord with anyone who's tried to order paperclips from the post room. The 'no win no fee' Manchester law firm Fox Carter and Co has its fair share of sharks, but that's nothing compared to the machinations in its admin department.

It's rough at the edges, but the storyline has potential, and there are some good performances, particularly Jessica Hall as Tania.

TV Guide, 10th May 2008

Neil Fitzmaurice and Scallywagga cohort Jessica Hall make a bid for dominance of the BBC3 comedy scene by popping up in their second humorous offering for the channel in a week.

There are lively, engaging turns from Hall as a ditsy blonde who's far sharper than she's given credit for and ex-bit part Corrie waiter Chris Hannon as a childish employee harbouring delusions of career grandeur, and both give these characters enough depth to wonder how they'd fare in future episodes. One of the better offerings from this series of pilots.

Time Out, 8th May 2008

Share this page