Damned pulls off feat of being both funny & poignant

Jo Brand's new sitcom Damned stars herself and Alan Davies as overworked employees in a Children's Services department who employ black humour to help them get through each day

Damned preview

I can only imagine the delight Jo Brand felt when Damned was finally given the proper green light. And thank god it did, because the end result proves that Damned has all the ingredients for a long-running comedy.

TV preview: Damned, C4

Not wall-to-wall laughs but then it isn't meant to be because life isn't like that. But this is definitely a comedy. There are a lot more gags here than I've ever come across working in offices, some excellent performances and a cameo from rising star Aisling Bea. Looks good to me.

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The professional social services depicted in Playhouse Presents: Damned, the latest in Sky Arts 1's series of one-off comedy-dramas didn't seem to care.

Written by Morwenna Banks and Jo Brand (who also starred), this was Brand's mordant hospital sitcom Getting On transferred to the offices of a council's children's services.

The tropes of this type of comedy were all in place, including restless camera work and naturalistic acting. Brand and Alan Davies played social workers who have been round long enough to instantly recognise a prank call when someone phones in to say they've found a baby in the meat section of Tesco.

Also involved were Rebekah Staton and Kevin Eldon, the latter as Martin, who used to work in the office before suffering "mental health issues" but who's now invited himself back and making himself so useful that no one cares.

Yes, it's formulaic in its way - but when the constituent parts are The Thick Of It, Twenty Twelve and Getting On then it's my kind of formula. Damned is so primed to be made into a full series that it might detonate of its own accord - I hope Sky (or someone else) is there to record the explosion.

Radio Times review

Jo Brand applies her mordant wit to the fraught world of child protection as she typecasts herself as "the fat, bad-tempered one", Rose, in an office of social workers. She and her fellow socials, Al (Alan Davies) and Nitin (Romesh Ranganathan), are a fairly disarrayed bunch, as likely to be arguing over who should answer the phones as taking kids into care - Rose herself is a harassed single mum, trying desperately to arrange childcare before she leaves for work in the morning.

It all plays disturbingly naturally, with excellent support from Kevin Eldon, Pulling's Rebekah Staton and Brand's Getting On co-star Ricky Grover. The dark humour fizzes along - with a delicious kick at the end.

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It's a grim old life as a social worker. I've always felt rather sorry for them because of the awful reputation they seem to have.