A Comedy On This Day: The IT Crowd - Aunt Irma Visits (3 March 2006)

 There's an appealing handmade quality about the IT Crowd. Its not just because it was still a studio audience sitcom made at a time when these were largely considered to be old hat. Its also something in the performances - exaggerated and quite broad while remaining psychologically true - and the way that the jokes are set up that differentiated it from a lot of other television comedy at the time. I think that it’s a quality of the pleasure of sharing funny ideas. Its crammed full of very ingenious and elaborate jokes but is keen to ensure that they all register so that the viewer can enjoy them, rather than to demonstrate their creators' smartness and taste.

 It's cheerful nature can also conceal quite how highly ambitious it is. The premise of this episode - Moss and Roy picking up Jen's PMT by osmosis - is fraught with pitfalls. Its only once you think of the many ways that this theme could be handled badly (it could be condescending, in poor taste, over-elaborate or overly right-on) that you fully appreciate how well achieved it is, and the range of funny mileage that it gets from the idea. But what I like best about this series is that its one of the best depictions of how friendship between men and women can work in television comedy. Indirectly, its a programme about how three friends get on with - and care for - each other in a way that feels convincing, optimistic and true.