Thanks to Marc for suggestion HBO's Extras to me. While I don't agree that it's better than The Office, it's still funnier than most comedies out there. It really has more in common with Curb Your Enthusiasm than Ricky Gervais' previous show (the scene where Andy tries to get the homeless guy to make change for a twenty was pure Larry David). And I still can't get that David Bowie song out of my head ("See his pug nosed face...").

The scenes from "When the Whistle Blows," the show-within-a-show were painfully bad (as they were meant to be). Are there really comedies like this on British TV?

Tom Coombe