The IT Crowd is a British television sitcom originally broadcast by Channel 4, created, written, and directed by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, and Matt Berry.

The IT Crowd is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictional British corporation based at 123 Carenden Road in Central London.

It focuses on the shenanigans of the three members of the IT support team, who work in a dingy, cluttered basement — a great contrast to the shining modern architecture and stunning London views enjoyed by the rest of the organisation.

In one episode, Denholm Reynholm claims the company has bought mobile phone carriers and television stations, creating "the largest communications empire in the UK", but it is unclear whether this is true.

[6] Although 123 Carenden Road is a fictitious address, one episode sees the trio visiting the New Wimbledon Theatre in London, which is said to be a ten-minute walk from the office.

[7] Roy and Moss, the two technicians, are socially inept geeks or, in Denholm Reynholm's words, "standard nerds".

Roy's support techniques include ignoring the phone, hoping it will stop ringing, and using reel-to-reel tape recordings of stock IT suggestions such as, "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

[8] Moss' deep knowledge of technical topics is reflected in his extended, overly detailed suggestions, while he cannot deal with practical problems such as extinguishing fires and removing spiders.

Jen, the team's newest member, is hopelessly non-technical, despite claiming on her CV that she has "a lot of experience with computers" (often pronouncing the word as "comp-you-ters").

After meeting Roy and Moss, Jen redefines her role as "Relationship Manager", yet her attempts to bridge the gap between the technicians and the company's other employees generally have the opposite effect, landing her and her teammates in ludicrous situations.

Creator Graham Linehan wrote the series after a PC Tech with poor people skills made a house call.

[13] The writing team were unable to meet regularly, so they created a virtual writers room using the online project-management tool Basecamp.

Linehan found it a disadvantage, calling it "a stuffy, businesslike service that I think it actually ended up making everyone self-conscious", but there was no suitable alternative.

Nonetheless, the writers did formulate some story ideas (one was reportedly a Die Hard–based episode[citation needed]), but ultimately Linehan did not consider the arrangement practical.

He was already busy with his TV adaptation of Count Arthur Strong and his work on The Walshes, and the IT Crowd actors had also taken on other commitments.

[28][29] Series 3 was released on 16 March 2009, the DVD menus are based on such internet games as GROW CUBE, Doeo and flow.

[9] The series four finale on 30 July 2010 saw the programme reach its current ratings peak of 2.17 million and was highly successful in its time slot.

[36] Nominated in the 2007 BAFTAs for Best Situation Comedy, alongside Green Wing and Pulling, it lost to The Royle Family.

An American version of The IT Crowd was almost aired by NBC in 2007–08, starring Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss, with Joel McHale as Roy, Jessica St. Clair as Jen, and Rocky Carroll as Denholm.

[49] A German version of the programme was in production from June 2007, starring Sky du Mont, Sebastian Münster, Stefan Puntigam and Britta Horn.

Quotenmeter [de]'s Manuel Weis panned the programme, commenting: "It could indeed be possible that the boys of class 10a from secondary school Brunsbüttel made the series.

"[53] The IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan noted in his blog that even the first gag did not work because it was viewed from the wrong angle.