Described by his creator as a "meaningless strutting cadaver-in-waiting", the character originated on Brooker's TVGoHome – a website parodying television listings – as the focus of a fly-on-the-wall documentary called Cunt.

While Dan sees a clear distinction between himself and the "idiots", he's frequently forced to compromise his own ethics in order to earn a living, and seems to be fighting the dawning realisation that he may actually be the very thing he despises.

Other recurring characters include Nathan's idiot flatmate Toby (Rhys Thomas) and the staff at Dan Ashcroft's magazine, Sugar Ape: asinine chief editor Jonatton Yeah?

(Charlie Condou), Ned Smanks (Richard Ayoade) and Rufus Onslatt (Spencer Brown), a pair of gormless graphic designers, and receptionist Sasha (Nina Sosanya).

The eccentric and ludicrous Doug Rocket, founder member of The Veryphonics, and played by comedian David Hoyle (a spoof of Dave Stewart of Eurythmics), also appears in several episodes.

Story elements and some scenes shot for the pilot became used in the third, fourth and fifth episodes of the series, where the familiarity between the characters, and Dan Ashcroft's darker nature, make greater sense in context.

This device was advertised as being exceptionally loud, with several hugely annoying ringtones, a giant key for the number 5 (allegedly the most commonly used digit), a powerful projector, a business card printer and miniature turntables for scratching MP3s.

[7] Reviews were generally favourable,[8] though some criticised the show's jabs at the dot.com boom as lacking relevance, and believed that the portrayal and parody of the East London hipster was dated.