Binging: Phoenix Nights

You've finished The Wire, Breaking Bad and The Killing but you're still hungry for more boxsets. Fear not, Standard Issue writers are on the case with some gems you might not yet have seen. Karen Campbell rises like an inflatable penis to sing her praises for Peter Kay's celebration of working-class northern night spots.

Back for a second series was ITV2 comedy The Job Lot. Starring the excellent Russell Tovey (Him & Her, HBO's Looking) as Karl, an art history graduate working in a Midlands job centre. It could, you suppose provide an interesting conceit. Therein lies the problem. The high jinx contained in the wacky world of a job centre sounds so much like a neat pitch for a sitcom that it makes everything a bit too, well, sitcom-y. Tovey is straight man, longing to escape, Sarah Hadland's Trish Collingwood is a boss who actually says the line "I'm your boss. I also want to be your best friend". Stand-up Jo Enright is the supercilious jobsworth with ambitions for a promotion. It's all a bit assistant to the regional manager in its ambitions.

The opening episode is also littered with sex. And I use that verb literally. We begin with Trish having slept over at Karl's flat, we later saw her having sex behind a bin. She said: "After the drought comes the flood, and I am ready to get soaking wet." Trish also introduces a new member of staff thus: "She's a virgin [long beat] a job-centre virgin!" HAHAHAHA SEX!

Which is a shame because it has the basis of something that could be quite rewarding. If only it had a bit more confidence in its characters, like the deadpan nerdism of Adeel Akhtar's George.

Line up for Women In Comedy Festival 2014 revealed

Running in Greater Manchester from Saturday 11 until Sunday 26 October the 2014 Women in Comedy Festival features more than 80 shows across an incredible 16 venues. The festival is full to the brim with female comedic talent with over 125 acts confirmed including big names such as Jo Caulfield, Zoe Lyons, Janey Godley, Luisa Omielan, Felicity Ward, Jo Neary, Barbara Nice, Kate Smurthwaite, Tanyalee Davis, Dana Alexander and Jo Enright.

This low-key sitcom set in a job centre potters along to its penultimate episode and yet again nothing much happens, though it remains mildly diverting and good-hearted. The terrible Angela (Jo Enright) buys a new coffee machine with lottery winnings, while sweet-natured Karl (Russell Tovey) falls for a minx of a barmaid who also turns out to be a claimant. And she likes taking risks, as he finds out to his mortification.

Meanwhile, manager Trish (Sarah Hadland) is doing appraisals, which means she insists on close proximity to her employees...

The clutch of new mainstream comedies that have been foisted on us recently haven't exactly had us holding our stomachs with laughter. Just holding them because they make us feel sick, more like.

But The Job Lot is definitely the best of a bad bunch. It has an advantage as the writers have been a bit sneaky and actually included some funny situations and amusing lines, which is cheating a bit don't you think?

The characters are pretty strong, too. Haven't we all met a totally cold, unhelpful so-and-so like Angela (Jo Enright), the last person you would want "helping" you at a jobcentre.

Tonight she threatens to call the police when someone tries to use the office printer! The fun starts when under-pressure boss Trish (Sarah Hadland) receives a tip-off that an inspector is on the way - disguised as a claimant.

The Midlands job centre comedy still shines as Trish warns her team to be on the lookout for an inspector posing as a jobseeker. She's been tipped off that this person will ask for a GL24 form and need an induction loop for the hard of hearing.

There are obvious steals from Fawlty Towers here, not just with an incognito inspector, but with a deceased punter on the premises. Rising above the fallout is Jo Enright, brilliant but terrifying as Brownall's brick wall, Angela.

And I'm afraid I wasn't too impressed with another new sitcom, The Job Lot, which came on straight after Vicious. It had the air of The Office about it, following the lives of those working at a job centre in the West Midlands. But it was nowhere near as good as Ricky Gervais' classic series.

The show was about work - or the lack of it - and the characters in the office and their relationships - or lack of them - and, though it started with the Morecambe & Wise song Bring Me Sunshine, it did anything but. It left me as disillusioned as the employers.

In fairness, the performers were likeable enough, such as Miranda's Sarah Hadland's turn as neurotic Trish, and Russell Tovey as Karl, the frazzled manager.

The one shining light in an otherwise average sitcom was Jo Enright, brilliantly irritating as Angela, an unsmiling jobsworth and borderline psychopath.

Sadly, two vital ingredients were missing from the half hour show - laughs and the plots, both of which are pretty important when it comes to making good TV. Add to that the annoying background music and I've got another reason not to tune in again.

Sean Pertwee guest stars this week as an army sergeant drumming up new recruits from among the jobseekers - and having a hot man in uniform in their midst gets the entire staff in a bit of a tizz.

Manager Trish (Sarah Hadland) is making gooey eyes at him, Karl (Russell Tovey) wants to be his new best friend, security guard Paul (Martin Marquez) is put out that he's no longer the manliest man there, and Angela is doing something suggestive with a breadstick.

In her head this is probably seductive but to everybody else it's just disturbing.

Comedian Jo Enright is wonderful again this week as office oddball Angela, and on the receiving end of her unhelpful behaviour tonight is the boss from C4's PhoneShop.

Actor Martin Trenaman plays an estate agent looking for new employment.

Sadly he doesn't want to work in mobile phone retail, but he does spend an awful lot of time on a landline.

The Job Lot is a second sitcom premiere from ITV, airing directly after Vicious. This is quite a different beast: an ensemble cast (featuring names such as Sarah Hadland, Russell Tovey and Jo Enright), filmed single-camera, focused around the employees of a West Midlands Job Centre.

The Job Lot is filmed in a style which will be reminiscent to most viewers of modern sitcoms (in particular, The Office), right down to the slight focus readjustments on closeups. This is a bit of an odd one, as the style feels at odds with the writing, which didn't feel as real as the environment we were being shown. The main failing of the opening episode though, was that it focused too heavily on background and not enough on laughs. I counted actually laughing only twice, and they were just the 'light expulsion of air' sort of chuckles rather than actual belly laughs. In its defence, one trapping that is doesn't fall into is demonising the unemployed and 'lower' classes in that familiar way that a lot of mainstream comedy tends towards.

I will give the next episode a go; it wasn't awful but I'm certainly yet to be impressed. I might just watch more for Hannah off Hollyoaks. I like Hannah off Hollyoaks.

The Job Lot is slightly better [than Vicious] but still no great shakes. Once again, from Jo Enright's thwarted office shrew Angela to Russell Tovey's charmingly gormless Carl, it's the performances that save the day. The job centre setting is used to making a few sneakily pertinent points about targets culture and the disregarded human implications of unemployment - tonight featuring the always-amusing Martin Trenaman as an estate agent who baulks at commuting six hours a day to work in a bar. But otherwise, it's a simple workplace comedy recast for the austerity age.