[1] PhoneShop is set in a mobile phone shop in Sutton, London and follows a graduate named Christopher (played by Tom Bennett) who goes through a one-day trial and subsequent employment.

Christopher (portrayed by Tom Bennett) is a university graduate who joins the PhoneShop team at the start of the series on a one day trial as the replacement for "Little" Gary Patel.

He wins his colleagues' respect by defeating an arrogant Croydon branch rival in a quiz about the company, followed by an impassioned speech on the theme of corporate ethics, only to immediately contradict his own high minded principles by being exposed as having mis-sold a phone contract to an elderly customer.

Christopher forms a close friendship with Janine, although she sometimes uses him to her own advantage, such as when she persuades him to play the role of a psychopathic hard man in order to impress an ex boyfriend.

Jerwayne speaks in a loud, Jamaican English dialect, is of British Caribbean extraction and uses a great deal of profanity and street slang in his speech.

Ashley is shown in glimpses to be skilled with and appreciative of language; he describes poems he has accidentally received from male British Army soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as "elegantly structured" and often uses thoughtful and advanced vocabulary, albeit punctuated with slang and swear words.

She falls in love with an apparently sophisticated and educated Scotsman, much to the chagrin of Jerwayne, but ends the relationship when it emerges that he is a waste disposal technician, who plans to marry Janine and add her photograph to his van.

Janine quickly forms a bond with Christopher, the other low status PhoneShop employee and continues to involve him in her schemes to gain the attention of Lance and win the promotion she so badly covets, but the recognition she seeks never comes.

It is explained in a humiliating address by the contemptuous manager of the Croydon branch that Lance was once a promising young company executive with the potential to be a great success, but that in the late 1980s made the foolish decision to invest heavily in phonecards rather than the emerging mobile technology that would go on to change the face of the communications business.

Lance is accidentally revealed to be extremely sexually well endowed and as a result is pressured into joining Jerwayne and Ashley's fledgling male escort business; something he is distinctly hesitant about doing.

Razz is a loud, hyperactive and violent tempered man whose signature greeting is to burst into a room miming two handguns and screaming "FREEZE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!"

Razz likes to project an image himself of a high flying jet setter, living a lifestyle of expensive suits, exclusive nightclubs, champagne, wealth and influence, which is not matched by his relatively mundane Regional Manager job.

He often begins to sing or rap in the middle of conversations, accompanied by bizarre physical gestures and often uses elaborate visual metaphors (such as having his secretly contemptuous personal assistant mime a dove being blown apart by an imaginary bullet when berating Lance) and unusual vocal pitch and tone to emphasise his points.

Permanently bad tempered and often drunk, Shelley is also sexually voracious and has propositioned both Ashley and Jerwayne, even invading the latter's bedroom and causing him to run into the street in fear.

The series begins shortly after Gary has been arrested and remanded in custody for unspecified criminal offences described as "the Catford hat-trick"; his replacement is Christopher.

Lance idolises his former staff member to the point of almost seeing him as a messianic figure; prior to his imprisonment, Gary was Sutton branch's perpetual 'Employee of the Month,' revered for his extraordinary ability to sell mobile phone contracts to the public no matter how ridiculously poor value or inflexible, nor how violently and abusively he treated customers.