TVRocket

People Like Us

Mon 20/9/99, BBC2
Audience: 1.55m (29th) © BARB

People Like Us

Based on a radio show this comedy begins as just another docusoap but you soon realise that it is in fact a funny pastiche of the genre. Chris Langham is the unseen documentary-maker whose narration is full of clever remarks and appalling writing but delivered in such a dead-pan style that it's indistinguishable from others of its kind. The characters in the Nottingham Factory featured in this episode were well-developed: the Managing Director with younger wife and new baby falling asleep at his desk; the secretary obsessed with keeping the visitor spaces in the car-park free (because otherwise they wouldn't be spaces); the Sales Director's total incompetence at giving a demonstration; the delivery driver with no deliveries totally misreading the MD's attempts at making him redundant. Next week, a typical estate agents. I'll be watching. ****

[The Power List - Real Women - The Royle Family - Scrapheap]

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