Anyway you look at it, in Blighty the comedy world divides into two kingdoms - the BBC's 'safe' sitcoms and Channel 4's 'street' sketch shows. You either love The Inbetweeners and PhoneShop OR you're a massive fan of Miranda and The Armstrong & Miller Show, and never the twain shall meet. Unless the sight of Windsor Davies and Donald Sinden running competing antique shops pushes your laughter buttons of course.
However this split isn't as cut and dried as it might seem. After all Armstrong & Miller, Mitchell & Webb, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse all started out on C4 before making the great leap to Auntie Beeb. Hidden away in the schedules over the last six weeks, ignored in the great Inbetweeners/PhoneShop love-in, was another group of C4 rebels with a brand new, criminally ignored comedy that really should've been embraced by more people, particularly by fans of Peep Show.
The first series of Whites finished last night with an Eighties-themed staff party, a broken engagement, a broadcast conversation about low sperm motility and a enough loose ends to demand a second series. And when it does arrive here are five reasons why you hardcore C4 comedy heads should tune in:
1. It's written by Matt King. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? King is Channel 4 through and through, with appearances in Dogface, Star Stories, City of Vice (really!) and Skins, but he's best known as Peep Show's resident drug baron and one half of Curse These Metal Hands, Super Hans. Not only did he write it but King also plays suitably shady meat supplier Melvin, who seems to have run down most of his products in his van.
2. It's almost entirely staffed by C4 comedy stalwarts: Kevin Bishop makes a guest appearance, The IT Crowd's Katherine Parkinson plays put-upon maitre d' Caroline, Green Wing and Smack the Pony's Darren Boyd is a sous chef with a low sperm count, Isy Suttie aka Peep Show's Dobby is a waitress with a very weak grip on reality and, of course, Alan Davies is head chef Roland White. Didn't you know Alan's first TV show was Channel 4's One for the Road? Check out that inappropriate picture!
3. The hotel kitchen is every bit as horrific as Green Wing's East Hampton Hospital Trust, the Sutton High Street Branch of PhoneShop and the former business behemoth that was JLB Credit, and staffed by equally grotesque characters.
4. The fact it was broadcast at nine on a Tuesday would suggest the BBC weren't sure what they had on their hands. Was it a drama with some comic elements, or a comedy with a dramatic arc tying the episodes together? It's certainly less slapstick and accessible than their usual early evening output and closer to the more recent strand of darker, bleaker shows like Him and Her and Getting On.
5. Surely given the fact nearly all of Channel 4's output is cookery shows these days, a comedy taking the piss, written by a Channel 4 star and populated by great comedians from brilliant Channel 4 shows should be right up your street?
If you fancy catching up on a hidden gem, the whole series is still available on iPlayer. Check it out and let us know what you think...