List of The IT Crowd episodes

The IT Crowd (/ˈɪt/ or /ˌaɪˈtiː/)^[1] is a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning British sitcom by Channel 4 written and directed by Graham Linehan and starring Richard Ayoade, Chris O'Dowd, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry.

Set in the London offices of the fictional corporation Reynholm Industries, the show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department – the two technicians named Moss (Ayoade) and Roy (O'Dowd), and their manager Jen (Parkinson).

First broadcast on Channel 4 on 3 February 2006, a total of 24 episodes aired over the course of four series. Although a fifth series was commissioned,^[2] Graham Linehan later stated on social news site reddit that there would not be a series 5, and that there will only be a special in 2012 instead. He went on to say that a movie could surface if he could write a good enough script which impressed the cast.^[3] The special, titled "The Internet Is Coming" aired on 27 September 2013.

Series overview

Series		Episodes	Originally aired
			Series premiere	Series finale
	1	6	3 February 2006	3 March 2006
	2	6	24 August 2007	28 September 2007
	3	6	21 November 2008	26 December 2008
	4	6	25 June 2010	30 July 2010
	Special	1	26 September 2013

Episodes

Series 1 (2006)

No. Overall	No. in Series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Yesterday's Jam"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	3 February 2006
Jen Barber (Katherine Parkinson) is interviewing for a position at Reynholm Industries. Based on the claim on her CV that she "has a lot of experience with computers", Denholm Reynholm (Christopher Morris) places her in charge of the IT department. Jen initially thinks she would be like the new Ally McBeal, but discovers to her dismay that her office is on the basement floor with "standard nerds" Roy (Chris O'Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade). The two guys are resistant to having her as a boss, which is affirmed when they discover she knows very little about computers. But when they try to expose her, Denholm states he will fire any teams he perceives as lacking teamwork, so they change their mind and pretend to get along, telling Denholm that they installed voice-activation software on his desktop. Jen hosts a party to boost the guys' popularity but it backfires when Roy tells Moss to recall an event, and Moss responds with a different and inappropriate story.
2	2	"Calamity Jen"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	3 February 2006
Denholm mandates his employees to attend a stress seminar, threatening to fire those who still experience stress by the end of the day. Roy, who has annoyed the seminar's instructor, later steals his stress-measuring machine. Moss tries to make his own version, but when he leaves a soldering iron switched on, he starts a fire in the office. Jen is obsessed with buying and wearing a pair of red high heels that are several sizes too small; she inadvertently tells off a visiting executive who was planning on doing business with Denholm.
3	3	"Fifty-Fifty" "50:50" "50/50"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan (contributory writer Adam MacKessy)	10 February 2006
Roy's date with a woman goes horribly wrong after she mistakes some chocolate on his head for faeces. Despite Roy's insistence that "it's not shit", he declares that the woman didn't like him because women only like "bad boys" and devises a plan to prove his theory by posting a despicable singles ad. After getting many responses, Roy arranges a date with a surprisingly good-looking woman and sets out to act like a "bastard" to progress their relationship. Jen has been impressing the temporary security guard with her fluke-knowledge of obscure facts and after he tells her he will call at a certain time, it is revealed that he has selected her as his "phone a friend" on the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. After being asked out on national television, Jen is presented with the real "big question", and things inevitably go awry. Moss suggests that Roy and Jen take their dates to a great restaurant called "Messijo's", but they fail to spot his mispronunciation and end up at "Messy Joe's", a popular family restaurant. After the ineptitude of both is exposed, Roy and Jen's dates leave together, and Roy ruins what could potentially have been a close moment between him and Jen.
4	4	"The Red Door"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	17 February 2006
Frustrated at the repeated theft of his coffee mug, Moss shows off a plain-white one which supposedly has a picture of his head on the bottom; however, he is unable to find it. After heading upstairs to resolve an IT problem, Roy finds himself trapped underneath the desks of two female employees like a "desk rabbit". As Roy calls Moss away for help to escape, Jen investigates what's behind a strange red door in the department that Roy and Moss have forbidden her to open. Inside, she discovers Richmond (Noel Fielding), a lonely goth whose job is to watch over some blinky lights on a machine. Richmond shares his back story of how he was Denholm's right-hand man until the death of Denholm's father and (coincidentally) Richmond's discovery of the dark-wave band Cradle of Filth. Touched by his story, Jen sets out to help and restore Richmond to his former glory.
5	5	"The Haunting of Bill Crouse"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan (contributory writer Adam MacKessy)	24 February 2006
After a terrible dinner date with co-worker Bill Crouse (Adam Buxton), Jen wants to avoid his asking for a follow-up date, so she tells Moss to lie and say that she is too busy. However, when Bill arrives and is about to uncover Moss's lie, Moss tells Bill that Jen has died. Things escalate when Bill spreads the rumour that he was the last person to sleep with Jen, while Moss lies to Jen that the flowers and sympathy card are because she was made Employee of the Month. When she starts reappearing in the office, Bill thinks she is haunting him, which is made worse when she later calls him and shows up at his house to take back the rumour. Meanwhile, Roy gets a request from a girl from the fifth floor (a place Roy calls "The Land of the Beautiful People"), but confuses the attractive Julie with the ugly Judy, the latter of whom made the request.
6	6	"Aunt Irma Visits"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	3 March 2006
Following a meeting in which Denholm thanks everyone involved in Project Icarus except for the IT department, Jen becomes exceptionally moody and irritable as if she were a demon. When Moss and Roy ask about it, Jen replies it's a visit from her Aunt Irma, an euphemism for her premenstrual syndrome. Moss has been having therapy sessions with an attractive company psychiatrist, but when the latter wants to halt the sessions, Moss gets angry and starts swearing. After being personally thanked by Denholm for his work, Roy experiences strong emotional feelings. The guys reason that the recent mood changes must be Aunt Irma, but Moss mistakenly shares this insight to the IT community and it goes viral, turning them into Internet celebrities and inciting Aunt Irma riots throughout the world. To settle their emotions, Jen, Moss and Roy have a "girls' night out" where they watch Steel Magnolias. They then go to the celebration party where they all get drunk and dance around, but wake up with some unexpected partners the next morning.

Series 2 (2007)

No. Overall	No. in Series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
7	1	"The Work Outing"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	24 August 2007
Jen is asked on a date by co-worker Phillip to watch a play. Doubting the sexual orientation of her date, Moss and Roy invite themselves along; their suspicions are reinforced when the play turns out be a production of Gay! – A Gay Musical. During the intermission, Moss and Roy are unable to urinate in the gents' room due to the presence of a washroom attendant, so they use the staff and disabled facilities respectively. Roy mistakes the emergency cord for a flush; when the staff arrive to assist, he pretends to be disabled in order to miss the rest of the show; however, he is subsequently grouped with other wheelchair-bound attendees and brought backstage for a meet and greet. Moss is stuck having to be a bartender. Jen eventually confronts Phillip about his sexuality.
8	2	"Return of the Golden Child"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	31 August 2007
Asking Roy questions about his lifestyle, Moss enters Roy's data into an Internet site that estimates a person's date of death; they discover Roy will die on Thursday at 3pm. Denholm, who receives a visit from police who want to investigate "financial irregularities" in the business accounts, casually opens a window and jumps out of it. Denholm's successor dislikes the IT department and plans to fire them. During the funeral, Roy notices his death time is coming and reacts violently when his pimped-up phone goes off at 3pm. Denholm's son Douglas (Matt Berry) storms the funeral where it is announced he will be taking over Reynholm Industries.
9	3	"Moss and the German"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	7 September 2007
Roy and Moss try to watch a South Korean zombie film 새벽의 황당한 저주 on DVD (Note: '새벽의 황당한 저주' is in fact Shaun of the Dead) only for Roy's friend calls him to try and spoil the movie's plot twist. When they realize they have been spending a lot of time together like an old married couple; Jen suggests they try new activities to make new friends. Moss enrolls in a German cookery course, only to find that his instructor is actually a cannibal who made some translation errors in the advert. Douglas invites Roy to watch the DVD but when Douglas learns it's that movie with a plot twist, he tries to guess it. Roy volunteers to be the German cannibal's next meal so that he can watch the film on the latter's impressive home entertainment system. However, they are raided by the police who are concerned that the video was pirated. Meanwhile Jen seeks to find a smoking area only to end up in the cold outdoor spots later moved miles from the office.
10	4	"The Dinner Party"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	14 September 2007
Jen has finally found love with her new boyfriend, and to celebrate their happiness, they host a dinner party for six of their single friends: three men and three women. When the boyfriend announces that the men are unable to come, Jen reluctantly invites Roy, Moss and Richmond to take their places. Jen briefs the mention on how to act normally. Roy sits with a model who was involved in a car accident and had to undergo surgery on her face; Moss pairs up with a woman who acts promiscuous when she is drunk; and Richmond unexpectedly hits it off with the last of Jen's friends. During the dinner party, Roy and Moss discover that Jen's boyfriend's name is Peter File, which sounds similar to "paedophile", and causes much amusement among the guys. At the end of the episode, Jen and Peter set off for a romantic holiday to Paris, but she abandons him at the airport when his name is announced on the airport's public address system.
11	5	"Smoke and Mirrors"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	21 September 2007
Roy comes back from a stag night unaware that he has been wearing lipstick. Jen loses concentration during an important meeting after wearing a "bad bra" to work, but when Moss invents a bra that doesn't lose its comfort or form, Jen is able to have an effective meeting. Moss gets an opportunity to pitch it to Dragons' Den. Things go sour when the bra has overheating issues, ruining another meeting for Jen, and when Moss cannot remember his pseudonym and ends up on the wrong interview segment. Roy and Jen try to help Moss with the pitch in exchange for a cut of the profits, but it goes horribly wrong when Jen ends up repeating phrases, and the bra catches fire.
12	6	"Men Without Women" "The Joy of Sex"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	28 September 2007
Douglas travels far and wide in his quest to bed Jen and is given a love potion by a mysterious, blind, Irish sorcerer. Douglas offers Jen a position as his personal assistant. Having realised she is wasting her life in the position she's in, she accepts. Moss and Roy engage in a list of activities that they would not be able to do with Jen around, such as not wearing trousers, jousting with bicycles and broomsticks, and Roy's trying to hit a golf ball into Moss's mouth. When Douglas tries to make sexual advances on Jen, he is refused, and resorts to putting the love potion in a drink. Roy and Moss rescue Jen, but when Jen realises she was replaced by an answering machine, she leaves Roy and Moss trapped in the room with Douglas, who has taken the love potion.

Series 3 (2008)

No. Overall	No. in Series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
13	1	"From Hell"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	21 November 2008
Roy suspects Jen's handyman Gary is a "builder from hell" who has a reputation of urinating in people's sinks. Meanwhile, Moss has been regularly harassed by a group of teenagers on the way to work, prompting Roy to teach him by role-play how to stand up to them. Ignoring Nolan's warnings about squandering company resources, Douglas finds a service revolver and a note from his father telling him to shoot himself if he is overworked. Jen spends a day at home to observe Gary, causing the latter to think she must be flirting with him, and prompting Jen and Roy to install closed-circuit cameras. Douglas accidentally shoots himself in the thigh prior to a video conference with his Japanese investors, but when Jen finally spots the disgruntled Gary urinating in her bathtub, she botches her attempt to record the incident and switches the video feeds.
14	2	"Are We Not Men?"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	28 November 2008
Moss and Roy use a football translation website called Bluffball[lower-alpha 1] to gather quotes to pass themselves off as knowledgeable football fans in order to make new friends and get free drinks. They are invited to an actual game, and Roy is invited to a poker night, but when Roy owes the guys money the next day, he offers to do them a favor by driving them to their event. However, he is shocked to discover that the event is a bank robbery. Meanwhile, Jen has trouble dating a man who Roy remarks looks like a stage magician.
15	3	"Tramps Like Us"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	5 December 2008
Following the events of the series 2 episode finale, Jen, Moss and Roy receive a disappointing settlement from their sexual harassment lawsuit. Moss suffers a concussion from running into a door, and forgets everything he knows about computers. Jen pursues a new job, but finds herself tongue-tied when asked what IT stands for. Roy, who had his t-shirt dirtied and his jacket given away to help an elderly co-worker, is chased around the office by security and kicked out for being shirtless and without his door pass. He is forced to wander the streets begging for money. Douglas, who was forced by the settlement to wear "electric sex pants" – trousers that shock him whenever he beomes aroused – cannot even do simple functions without getting zapped so he gets Moss to disarm it.
16	4	"The Speech"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	12 December 2008
Jen boasts about winning Employee of the Month and makes Roy and Moss write her acceptance speech. Seeing an opportunity to humiliate her, Roy and Moss trick Jen by lending her "the Internet" which is in the form of a small black box with a blinking light. They explain that if anything were to befall it, there would be worldwide chaos. Douglas finds the love of his life in a journalist named April, but mishears that she used to be a man, thinking she was from Iran. At the shareholders meeting, Moss and Roy find their prank has backfired when the shareholders hang on Jen's every word about the Internet. After learning the truth about April, Douglas breaks up with April but their ensuing fist fight disrupts the shareholder meeting, crushing the Internet, and causing panic.
17	5	"Friendface"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	19 December 2008
Jen persuades Roy and Moss to join the social networking site Friendface.[lower-alpha 2] After reuniting with a successful classmate and having to make tall tales about her own progress, Jen has to attend her high school reunion where he asks Roy and then Moss to pretend to be her husband. But Roy has to meet up with an old date who was known to wear so much makeup that when she cries she resembles the Joker. At the reunion, Moss brags about Jen, but Roy and the girl crash the party where Roy and Moss then argue over who really loves Jen.
18	6	"Calendar Geeks"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	26 December 2008
Roy finds himself in heaven when the girls from the seventh floor decide to make a nude calendar as a fundraiser for one of the girls' brother who has "boss-eyed-ness", and Roy gets to be the photographer. Jen, who is offended by the idea, complains and persuades the girls to do a calendar of their grandmothers instead. But when Douglas makes Jen personally responsible for making at least a million pounds from the calendar, she and Roy decide to go with Roy and Moss's colleagues, leading to a "Geek chic" concept.

Series 4 (2010)

Series 4 was recorded at Pinewood Studios in the spring of 2010.^[6][7]

No. Overall	No. in Series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
19	1	"Jen The Fredo"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	25 June 2010
Roy is depressed over his recent breakup with his girlfriend. Jen applies to be the company's Entertainment Manager, despite not caring that the position was originally done by a man who would act as a pimp and take clients to seedy places. Roy likens Jen's job to that of Fredo from The Godfather. Douglas tries to have a feminist committee take back the "Shithead of the Year" award they gave him. Following a disappointing visit with the clients to see The Vagina Monologues, Jen turns to Moss and Roy for ideas. Moss, who has been devising his own Dungeons & Dragons-styled role-playing game, invites Jen's clients and Roy for a session.
20	2	"The Final Countdown"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	2 July 2010
Following a successful run on the popular quiz show Countdown, Moss is invited by a mysterious guy named Prime (Benedict Wong) to "8+", an exclusive club for previous champions of the game show who have appeared over eight times. He is later challenged to "Street Countdown". Roy is visited by a window cleaner who leaves his stuff at Roy's flat. He later meets an old acquaintance who has become rather successful, but worries when he is seen in multiple circumstances as a window cleaner. Jen is suspicious of Douglas's secretive manager meetings where the attendants are wearing dressing gowns, and finds a way to get in, only to discover they have changed the meeting to an aerobics class.
21	3	"Something Happened"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	9 July 2010
Douglas becomes interested in "Spaceology" – a New Age-styled religion that employs cosmic ordering – and tries to persuade his employees to follow in his footsteps. At a Sweet Billy Pilgrim concert event, Roy injures his back while moshing, but when he gets treatment, he is shocked when the masseur kisses him "on the arse", that he takes him to court for sexual harassment. Jen, who has fallen in love with the band's geeky-looking keyboard player with a fixed stare, becomes a groupie and tries her luck as the band's singer.
22	4	"Italian For Beginners"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	16 July 2010
Jealous that her co-worker Linda has been impressing everyone at their executive meetings, Jen pretends to be fluent in Italian so she can become Douglas's interpreter for an upcoming meeting. Moss brags about realising he can put an iPhone in his shirt pocket for easier convenience, only to have it fall into the toilet, and tries to get another one from a claw crane machine. Roy discovers that his latest girlfriend has a traumatic past, but is befuddled when he learns the details: her parents died in a fire at a sea lion show at Sea Parks. Moss helps Jen with a phone conference by installing voice-translation software on her laptop, but when the Italian businessman comes for a face-to-face visit, Jen is left without the program's password.
23	5	"Bad Boys"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	23 July 2010
At a Scared Straight!-styled talk, Moss is the first to present, recalling the events of the episode. Following lunch at the park, Roy and Moss find their path back is blocked by a bomb threat, they decide to "bunk off". Jen is left alone to represent the IT department at a work function which was initially announced to be a one-week anniversary party for Ben Genderson, but is then changed into a party for the IT department, and then changed again to the real announcement that Ben has been placed in charge of hiring and firing, and has been auditing the personnel for "dead wood" to fire. Roy and Moss loiter on a bus and a game store, but Moss shoplifts some games and they almost get in trouble when they encounter a security guard at an escalator. On the way back they inadvertently encounter the bomb disposal robot.
24	6	"Reynholm vs Reynholm" "Douglas and Divorce[8]"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	30 July 2010
Douglas's second wife Victoria, who had disappeared after two weeks of marriage, reunites with Douglas. But after another two weeks and a divorce, she seeks 220 million quid. Douglas attempts to represent himself in the trial, and has Jen help him out. Roy and Moss prove to be useless witnesses due to their own traumatic legal experiences, while Richmond returns as a surprise witness, having shed his goth image to start a business called Goth2Boss. After Douglas unsuccessfully fakes a heart attack, Jen pleads for the court to overlook Douglas's pathetic behaviour and to consider the workers at Reynholm Industries who would lose their jobs. Victoria offers to settle for 70 million which Douglas hastily agrees.

"The Internet Is Coming" special (2013)

In October 2011, Graham Linehan stated that a one off special would air to end the series.^[9] On 8 May 2013, it was confirmed by Channel 4 and the BBC that the special would begin shooting in a few weeks, and would air later in the year.^[10] Den of Geek's spoiler-free review revealed the title as "The Internet is Coming",^[11] though the title of this episode has been incorrectly referred to as "The Last Byte" by some sources.^[12][13][14]

No. Overall	No. in Series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
25	1	"The Internet is Coming"	Graham Linehan	Graham Linehan	27 September 2013
Roy is in love with his latest girlfriend Alice, who calls him "emotionally artistic". Jen falls for a flirtatious coffee barista and recommends her colleagues to try the place, but when Roy gets a bad cup of coffee from a "small man" barista, he emails a complaint. After getting negative feedback from Jen concerning his web show on board games, Moss is encouraged by Douglas to wear women's trousers to boost his confidence. Jen and Roy visit the coffee shop but Roy's presence disrupts Jen's barista and she is served bad coffee. However, when she tosses the coffee aside, she splashes it on a homeless woman, while the short-statured barista confronts Roy and is then hit by a van. When a video of Jen and Roy's abusing soon goes viral and reveals their identity, Jen and Roy turn to Moss for ideas, where the latter makes his pepper spray into a useful product, only to have it backfire in a demo. Douglas participates in Secret Millionaire where he tries to relate with some youths but gets in trouble. Note: This was a one-off special episode which ran for 1 hour.

Notes

1. Going to the website "bluffball.co.uk" takes the user to a message where it is announced the site is coming soon.^[4]
2. Going to the website "friendface.co.uk" takes the user to a notice from Reynholm Industries saying the site has been blocked.^[5]

References

1. Graham Linehan. The IT Crowd version 1.0 (commentary track) (DVD). 2 Entertain Video Ltd.
2. "The IT Crowd awarded a 5th series". Comedy.co.uk. British Comedy Guide. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
3. "IAmA man named Graham Linehan, creator of The IT Crowd".
4. "Bluffball.co.uk - Your guide to football parlance.". bluffball.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
5. "Friendface.co.uk - a great new site for meeting people!". friendface.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 January 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
6. "Twitter / Graham Linehan: @kerrylovesthis it's on in...". Twitter. 23 April 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
7. "Chris O'dowd - It Crowd Writer Linehan Hopes For Fourth Series". contactmusic.com. 7 January 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
8. "The IT Crowd, Version 4.0". iTunes Store. 6 October 2010.
9. "Graham Linehan AMA on Reddit". reddit.com. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
10. "BBC News - The IT Crowd to return for special one-off episode". Bbc.co.uk. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
11. "The IT Crowd special spoiler-free review: The Internet Is Coming". Den of Geek. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
12. "The IT Crowd, Channel 4, review". Telegraph. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
13. "The IT Crowd - The Last Byte (2013 Special) - The Last Episode Ever [YouTube] [48:33] : geek". Reddit.com. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
14. "The IT Crowd - The Internet Is Coming - British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2014.

External links

• List of The IT Crowd episodes at the Internet Movie Database
• List of The IT Crowd episodes at TV.com
• List of The IT Crowd episodes at the British Comedy Guide
• List of The IT Crowd episodes at Channel 4
• List of The IT Crowd episodes at epguides.com