The IT Crowd is a British television sitcom created and written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla for Channel 4 and set in the offices of Reynholm Industries - a fictitious British corporation in central London - which focuses on the three-strong IT support team located in a dingy, untidy basement.
The series premiered in the UK on Channel 4 on 3 February, 2006. A fourth season premieres in the UK in 2010.
The IT Crowd premiered in South Africa on DStv's M-Net Series channel on Saturday 11 July 2009, at 20h00. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 3 premiered on M-Net Series on Saturday 3 October 2009, at 20h00. There are six episodes in the third season.
Repeats
Sundays: 02h00, 08h00, 14h00
Synopsis
The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictitious British corporation in central London.
It focuses on the shenanigans of the three-strong IT support team located in a dingy, untidy and unkempt basement — a stark contrast to the shining modern architecture and stunning London views enjoyed by the rest of the organisation.
The obscurity surrounding what the company does serves as a running gag throughout the series — all that is known is that the company bought and sold ITV (a fact which Denholm Reynholm forgot completely), and once made part-year profits of "eighteen hundred billion billion".
The team consists of what Douglas Reynholm describes as "a dynamic go-getter (Jen), a genius (Moss) and a man from Ireland (Roy)".
Moss and Roy, the two technicians, are portrayed as socially inept geeks or, in Denholm Reynholm's words, "standard nerds". Despite the company's dependence on their services, they are despised, ignored and considered losers by the rest of the staff.
Roy's exasperation is reflected in his support techniques of ignoring the phone in the hope it will stop ringing, and using reel-to-reel tape recordings of stock IT suggestions ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?" and "Are you sure it's plugged in?").
He expresses his "personality" by wearing a different geek T-shirt in each episode.
Moss's wide and intricate knowledge of all things technical is reflected in his extremely accurate yet utterly indecipherable suggestions, while demonstrating a complete inability to deal with practical problems like extinguishing fires and removing spiders.
Jen, the newest member of the team, is hopelessly non-technical, despite claiming on her CV that she has "a lot of experience with computers".
As Denholm, the company boss, is equally tech-illiterate, he is convinced by Jen's interview bluffing and appoints her head of the IT department.
Her official title is "relationship manager", yet her attempts at bridging the gulf between the technicians and the business generally have the opposite effect, landing Jen in situations just as ludicrous as those of her team-mates.
Seasons
(All seasons air exclusively on M-Net Series, on Saturdays at 20h00. Each season consists of six half-hour episodes.)
Season 1
Premiere: 11 July 2009 | Finale: 15 August 2009
Season 2
Premiere: 22 August 2009 | Finale: 26 September 2009
Season 3
Premiere: 3 October 2009 | Finale: 7 November 2009