'What Does I.T. Really Stand For?'; The Brilliance of The IT Crowd, and why Graham Lineham's Comedy is So Important

There's a marked and primary difference between American and British sitcoms. Most, when asked, would probably say it's the humour, which is a valid point, but not the one I'm aiming at. Others might say that there tend to be more American sitcoms than British ones overall, and they often tend to be more successful, and again this is a great point, but I'm thinking of something else. And that's quality over quantity.

Both American serials and dramas tend to have something of an obsession with the number 20 through 25, because this is often the episode count for a season of production. On the other hand, British shows often only run for six or seven episodes, nine or ten at the most, and while the reason could be pegged to America having a more dedicated platform for media production, I would argue that it's the precedence of quality over quantity in the televisuals that they produce, and one man is at the forefront of this; Graham Lineham.

Graham Lineham - or 'Glinner' to much of his fan base - is the mastermind behind several of the most iconic and popular sitcoms in British television. His career broke out into the limelight in 1995 upon the release of his first full length television series, Father Ted. The sardonic show focused on the exploits of the eponymous Father Ted Crilly and the other larger than life inhabitants of his house on Craggy Isle, a remote and somewhat desolate Irish island seemingly cut-off from the rest of civilisation. Over the last eighteen years it has gone on to become one of the most enduring sitcoms in British televisual history, outlasting just about all of its ilk, and is still broadcast routinely to this day. Shortly after the close of his first hugely popular creation, Lineham's Black Books closely followed. Debuting in 2000, the show ran until 2004 for three hugely successful series, following the obscure day-to-day life of borderline psychotic bookshop owner Bernard Black and his friends Manny and Fran.

With the pre and post millennium-turning sitcom era over, it could have been assumed that Glinner's time as a creator of sitcoms was well and truly over, especially after two such popular television shows. But then, in 2006, Lineham returned with his third concurrent sitcom success. Despite getting off to something of a slow start, The IT Crowd became one of the most popular and iconically relevant programmes in recent years. The premise was simple, and brilliantly so; it followed the employees of the IT department of multi-billion dollar company Reynholm industries, who are confined to an office in the basement. The department is singularly composed of workshy Roy, socially inept genius Moss, and relationships manager Jen, and follows their day-to-day experiences doing the occasional oddjobs for the computer-oblivious workers upstairs, all the while coping with their prodigious ability to get into overwhelmingly awkward and overtly embarrassing situations.

The show succeeds on so many inimitable levels within it's medium. The actors and the characters they portray aren't the make-up drenched type that you'd expect from US production; while they're all very much likable, Moss and Roy are frequently social victims to their line of work and the awkwardness that comes with it, and Jen is, at one point, referred to as 'looking a bit like a man.' That said, the 'beautiful' people tend to exist in the world above, inhabiting the upper floors of the Reynholm Industries building, while the overlooked IT department are confined to the basement; quite literally basement dwellers, in the vein of the stereotyped dungeons and dragons players - an entire episode of which the show is based around. Of course, the characters wouldn't break free so brilliantly from their basic archetypes without one of the shows most important and excellent production aspects, and that's the writing. It's been remarked in the past by Chris O'Dowd that if he phrased a line differently to how it was written in the script, that would be the end of the take; Lineham's writing is careful and minutely controlled, and the comic timing with which the actors execute their lines adds all the more to the sheer presence of apparent quality in the writing and timing of the shows various plots.

However, what separates the IT Crowd most of all from its American sitcom counterparts is Lineham's creative control over it. His admirable quote on ending the series was that he 'didn't want to have the brain be dead but the body still rolling around on the floor.' On the 27th September, just two weeks ago, the show ended with a one-hour special, that being it's 25th episode, tying up the characters stories and bringing it to the close that it very much deserved. Where many sitcoms have a tendency to plow on based on ratings alone, regardless of artistic merit or the quality of production - I'm looking at The Big Bang Theory here, particularly - Lineham chose to end the IT Crowd despite consistently increasing ratings, an original and great premise and a dedicated fan base. It came to an end with its dignity intact and the knowledge that it was smarter than just about all other recent sitcoms.

If you were to watch all 25 episodes it would only take you around 10 hours, likely a little less than that, but those ten hours would be some of the most enjoyable television you could experience in this modern age. The episodes premises frequently revolve around the themes of social awkwardness, embarrassment, humiliation and, on a completely different note, Lineham's seeming obsession with making the concept death comical. They're cringeworthy because of how well they portray embarrassment in the modern age, instead of being cringeworthy for negative reasons - that they might be, simply but, bad. But in ten years time, when The Big Bang Theory enters it's nineteenth season and everyone's praying for something close to a dignified end for the show, one or two people might google the term 'shows like The Big Bang Theory.' And they might just stumble on a seasoned and exceedingly witty sitcom from the UK that ran for just four series before coming to a proper and perfect ending.