# The IT Crowd (2006) Review: Farce in the Basement > The IT Crowd is Graham Linehan's Channel 4 sitcom about two tech-support misfits and their clueless boss, a tightly built farce that is still hugely funny today. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-it-crowd-review/ Published: 2026-07-25 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4.5/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is one of the great British studio sitcoms, perfect for anyone who loves quick, silly, quotable comedy and short episodes to rewatch. ## Is The IT Crowd worth watching? **Yes. The IT Crowd is a near-perfect traditional sitcom, a gloriously silly workplace farce whose best episodes are as tightly engineered as any British comedy of its era.** Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson form a trio with flawless timing, and Matt Berry's arrival adds a gleefully absurd fourth voice. The only real reservation is that a few jokes and one later storyline have not aged well. ## What is The IT Crowd about? In the basement of Reynholm Industries, a large and chaotic corporation, the IT department consists of Roy (O'Dowd), a lazy, sarcastic support worker, and Moss (Ayoade), a brilliant but socially bewildered technician. Their new manager is Jen (Parkinson), who talked her way into the job without knowing anything about computers. Upstairs, the company is run by a hotheaded, self-obsessed boss, and much of the comedy comes from the collision between the nerds below and the corporate world above. [The IT Crowd](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/the-it-crowd/) is a British sitcom created and written by Graham Linehan, the co-creator of Father Ted, for Channel 4. This review covers the complete run: four seasons and 24 episodes broadcast between 2006 and 2010, with the story finished. ## A trio built for farce The show's greatest strength is its three leads. O'Dowd plays Roy as a man who has turned doing the minimum into an art form, and his exasperated reactions are a constant source of laughs. Ayoade's Moss is one of the great British sitcom creations: formal, literal-minded and prone to extraordinary panic, delivered with a precision that makes every line land. Parkinson gives Jen the delusional confidence of a woman bluffing her way through life, and her attempts to fit in with the office elite are some of the show's funniest scenarios. Matt Berry joins from the second season as the company's new head, a booming, entitled, spectacularly vain boss, and he steals nearly every scene he is in. His delivery turns even throwaway lines into something ridiculous and quotable. ## Linehan's clockwork plotting Linehan's writing favours farce over observational humour. Episodes build from small misunderstandings, a lie, a misplaced object, an ill-advised social event, into elaborate chains of disaster that pay off with precision. The show's famous catchphrase about turning a computer off and on again sums up its style: simple, repeatable and funnier each time. The traditional studio-audience format, increasingly rare in British comedy by the mid-2000s, gives the show an old-fashioned energy that suits it. The pacing is quick, the physical comedy is broad, and the basement set, cluttered with geek memorabilia, rewards close attention on rewatch. ## Where the jokes show their age Most of the show remains as funny as ever, but not everything has aged gracefully. Some of the humour relies on broad stereotypes, and a fourth-season storyline involving a trans character has drawn sustained criticism in the years since. The later seasons are also a little more uneven than the first two, occasionally stretching premises further than they can go. These moments are exceptions rather than the rule, but they are worth knowing about. ## Who should watch The IT Crowd? It suits almost anyone who likes fast, silly and quotable comedy, particularly fans of classic British sitcoms and anyone who has ever worked in or around an office. Twenty-four half-hour episodes make it a very easy binge and an even easier rewatch. The humour is mostly mild, with some innuendo, occasional swearing and a few adult themes. If it makes you laugh, try these next from the [comedy](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/comedy/) shelf: - [The Office](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-office-uk-review/) for a more naturalistic, cringe-heavy take on workplace comedy. - [Ghosts](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/ghosts-uk-review/) for another warm British ensemble sitcom built on eccentric characters and escalating farce. - More British comedy on the [Channel 4 hub](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/platform/channel-4/). ## The verdict The IT Crowd is a brilliantly constructed, endlessly quotable sitcom with one of the best comic ensembles in British television. A handful of dated jokes and a weaker final season keep it from absolute perfection, but its best episodes are among the funniest ever made. **Rating: 4.5/5** ## Related title - [The IT Crowd (2006)](https://celluloidscore.com/shows/the-it-crowd/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)