The IT Crowd

Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd launched on Channel 4 in February 2006 and ran for four series, twenty-four episodes in all, through 2010, with a one-off concluding special in 2013. It won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2009 and, in 2014, the International Emmy for Best Comedy Series, which came during the show's afterlife in international syndication: an unusually late honour for a British sitcom.

Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson lead the cast, with Matt Berry as the company chairman. Berry, a regular from series two onwards, became one of the show's main comic anchors, and the role effectively launched his career. O'Dowd went on to Bridesmaids and Hollywood; Ayoade has built a parallel career as a feature director (Submarine, The Double) and television presenter. Parkinson has kept working on stage and screen in several major British productions, including The Honourable Woman and The Kennedys.

Linehan, Irish-born and previously co-writer of Father Ted and Black Books, wrote every episode himself, which is rare for a contemporary British sitcom. It was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Teddington Studios in west London. The IT Crowd's line 'Have you tried turning it off and on again?', delivered by O'Dowd as Roy in series one, has passed into general use in English-language IT culture, and the show has lasted as well as any British sitcom of the 2000s, Peep Show and The Office included.