IT Crowd getting the band back together for 2013 special?
Having written both Father Ted and Black Books, it’s no wonder that the Twitter universe hangs on every tweet that creator/writer/director of the IT Crowd creator, Graham Linehan, can conjure up in 140 characters or less. There was little hope back in October of 2011 of there being a fifth season of the brilliant series that followed two socially awkward computer experts (Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade) and their boss (Katherine Parkinson) given Linehan’s desire to follow in the footsteps of the likes of John Cleese (Fawlty Towers) and Ricky Gervais (The Office) and ‘go out on top’ with the IT Crowd. Linehan said: “It feels like a natural time to wind things down. Apart from anything else, we’re probably reaching that stage where it begins to feel odd that Roy, Jen and Moss are still stuck down in that basement“.
Finishing up work on his new project, Count Arthur Strong, a sitcom for BBC Two based around Steve Delaney’s elderly mostly out of work showbiz character with a memory loss issue, Linehan recently ‘tweeted’ the following in response to an inquiry as to whether or not there will be a any IT Crowd specials on the horizon..
Unfortunately, as with the other piece of brilliant telly, BBC’s Sherlock, the trick will be getting the band back together. Sherlock stars, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have gone on to star in most every film produced in recent memory. Since the IT Crowd ended, O’Dowd, Ayoade and Parkinson are quite in-demand and are involved in a number of other projects. This one, however, sounds like you can take it to the bank that the IT Crowd will return.
This is yet another reason that British telly is light years ahead of its American counterpart. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that highly successful series can return, sometimes on an annual basis, for a one-time-only special, years after it has gone out of production. Think Royle Family or Only Fools and Horses and you’ll be getting that region-free DVD player soon so you can begin to catch up.
