It’s now week three of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown and with an additional three-week extension looking likely, now’s the time to move away from the mainstream and take a look at some of the smaller, lesser known shows. One of our particular favourites (we’ve watched it at least 3 times) is the little known British comedy series, The Job Lot available on Netflix.

The Job Lot offers a humorous take on the everyday lives of the employees of a West Midlands job centre and the people they try to help find work.

From the neurotic and anxious branch manager, Trish Collingwood (Sarah Hadland) to the somewhat overbearing ‘stickler for the rules’ Angela Bromford (Jo Enright) and the boss’s favourite Karl Lyndhurst (Russel Tovey), you’ll find that many of the characters, whilst a little dysfunctional, are strangely familiar and half of the fun is comparing them to your own colleagues.

The job centre concept allows for a revolving door of characters, including some surprising cameos from the likes of Keith Duffy, Will Mellor and Sean Pertwee, although the inclusion of long term job-seekers, Graham (Tony Maudsley) and Bryony (Sophie McShera) provides a much needed connection between the two groups.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that a job centre isn’t the most exciting of settings for a sitcom however this simple premise works, largely through the subtle (and not so subtle) use of innuendos, double entendre and sly little digs at certain areas in the West Midlands. This is by no means a sophisticated comedy but with all the seriousness that is in the world, sometimes some light hearted silliness is all you need.