Workplace sitcoms: 5 best comedy series - from Fawlty Towers to The Thick of It

There’s not much better than finding a great sitcom to binge watch after a long day at work - yet for many of us, our favourite comedy shows are actually set at the workplace. It’s not clear why, when looking for an escape from the realities of daily life we’re so keen to enter the world of a fictional work environment.

What is obvious, is that the workplace provides fertile ground for comedy, as the sitcoms on this list attest. The shows on this list have provided us with some of the most enduring figures of popular culture, as well as hours of entertainment.

These are programmes that you can return to endlessley, diving back in partway through a season, or watching right the way through from the first episode of season one. Whilst some shows ran on for more than a dozen seasons, others were cancelled too soon, and one is getting the reboot treatment after 40 years off air.

These are five of the best workplace sitcomes of all time:

The Office (UK)

The series that launched Ricky Gervais’s career, The Office is perhaps the most iconic workplace sitcom of all time. The show follows the staff at Wernham Hogg Paper Company in Slough and their unbearable boss, David Brent (Gervais).

Brent is an impossible man to work with, even harder to work for, and is totally unaware of the friction he generates in his office, believing himself to be a great boss. He is also, somehow, an everyman, embodying the worst traits of infuriating colleagues, which may have been which gave the show such vast appeal.

Whilst the UK original UK version of the series ran for just two seasons and a Christmas special, the US spin-off - which in turn propelled Steve Carell and John Krasinski to stardom - ran for nine seasons and more than 200 episodes.

This Time with Alan Partridge

Despite not finding universal appeal with critics, Steve Coogan’s latest Partridge outing as the host of a The One Show style cutesy current affairs programme, alongside co-host Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding), was a perfect pastiche of chat show entertainment.

Alan Partridge is, as ever, a cripplingly insecure and not very good presenter, still attempting to have the last laugh and showcase his macho credentials through features where he joins the SAS or flies in a fighter jet.

With brilliant guest appearances from Tim Key, Lolly Adefope, and Simon Farnaby, This Time stands up alongside the likes of I’m Alan Partridge, Mid Morning Matters, and Knowing Me, Knowing You. Unfortunately, the series is yet to be renewed for a third season, though it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of Alan Partridge.

Fawlty Towers

John Cleese made the brave and bold decision to end Fawlty Towers on a high, refusing to make a third season of the show - Ricky Gervais followed in his footsteps, limiting his own hit shows, The Office and Extras to just two seasons.

Fawlty Towers follows Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) and their ragtag staff and customers at a Torquay hotel. The series follows the misanthropic Basil as he attempts to settle disputes with his customers, survive life with his wife, and handle the well-meaning but ineffectual Spanish waiter Manuel (Andrew Sachs).

Now, of course, we know that Fawlty Towers is coming back, more than four decades after it ended, though most of the original cast won’t be involved. Cleese will star alongside his daughter as they take over a boutique hotel. Sadly, as John Cleese has become a leading figure in the Moan About Cancel Culture movement, it’s likely that the series reboot won’t have the same magic as the original show.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Always Sunny barely qualifies as a workplace sitcom - primarily because you’ll be hard-pressed to find any of the main characters doing anything faintly resembling work. However, much of this American comedy series is set at Paddy’s Pub, owned by Dennis, Mac, and Charlie.

Along with Dennis’ sister Dee, and their until-recently absent father Frank, the gang get up to surreal and over the top adventures that normally cross the line from taboo into felonious. The series explores controversial topics with its own unique brand of cutting fatalistic humour.

The show has run for 15 seasons and has already been renewed through to season 18, though the latest series saw a slight decline in quality, and the Ireland setting meant it was certainly no longer a workplace sitcom, Always Sunny has plenty left in the tank.

The Thick of It

Mentioned several times on the Screen Babble podcast, political satire The Thick of It is a brilliant takedown of our modern politics. The series stars Peter Capaldi as the antiheroic Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker, allegedly modelled on Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

The action takes place at the Department for Social Affairs and Citizenship (DOSAC) - no-one really knows what the department does and the staff spend their days moving from one PR disaster to another, all the while aware of Tucker lurking in the background, ready to bite their head-off.

Know for its innovative use of swearing (come the f*ck in or f*ck the f*ck off is a personal favourite), the fly on the wall style series doesn’t hold back in offering up a bleak, if very funny, vision of the corridors of power.