Hardware

... if you're Martin Freeman, to a hardware shop. The subtle genius of "The Office", the programme for which Freeman is best known, is in a different league to "Hardware", which is a traditional sitcom with canned laughter, contrived "comedy" situations, etc.

However, "Hardware" isn't too bad - it has a better cast than most sitcoms, some funny lines and at least tries to have some original storylines... unfortunately Freeman's character is another cynical, embittered employee (as in "The Office") - it would be nice to see him do something a bit different as he is probably a very talented guy.

2003 has been a pretty poor year for new British comedies. Many such as "TLC" and "Swiss Toni" have been nothing more than predictable, dull and terribly unfunny. Thankfully "Hardware" came a long. During its 6 episode run it quickly showed it was unpredictable, entertaining and very funny. What made the show so excellent was the character driven plots and witty jokes. It didn't rely on just clever put-downs like so many other programs do, but decent story-lines which were in the same class as "Only fools and horses" and "One foot in the grave". Nye has produced a very fine sit-com, so good I would rank it up a long side the classic "Men behaving badly". Lets just hope ITV produce another series of what is their best comedy for years and the second best of the year (Behind "Early doors").

What Dad's Army has in common with Hardware? Well, they both are pretty strange kind of comedy series - not really funny, but it's hard to stop watching them...

My problem is that I have huge expectations to each British comedy series and not without reason - besides classics like "Fawlty Towers", "Black Adder" or "Red Dwarf" there were really dozens of great British shows ("Allo Allo", "Yes Minister" or even "2 point 4 children") that I loved, but after them any even slightly good show is going to be disappointing.

And this is what happened with "Hardware" - I was expecting the show to be funny, which was a mistake. It is relaxing, but unfortunately not funny. I watched all the episodes and after each of them I was disappointed that the story was too simple, jokes too flat, situations too predictable, but despite that I still wanted to see next one.

As a show I would give 5/10, but since this suppose to be a comedy series I give that only 2/10 because even "IT crowd" from same years was funnier.

Pure silliness - if that's not your type of humour, then skip it. But for me the excellent execution of each episode was worth 9 or 10 stars. Ken Morley is brilliant at visual comedy, Peter ?? As Kenny does the gorgeous gormless part perfectly, and "student" is delightful. I personally find Martin Freeman weak, but that's my taste. I loved the assistant Julie in the Cafe, but felt that while her boss was good, she was outshone by the rest of the talent. Scripts were quick and witty without over-labouring the point. Some of the episodes were laugh out loud funny and some were just smile and chuckle. One of the best ever - glad they quit while they were ahead.

I wish Martin Freeman hadn't done this! He was great in The Office, but for some reason Hardware was, in my opinion, a flop and positioned him in my mind as mediocre! I'm trying very hard to dispel these thought, but I'm struggling, sorry Martin, I know you are good!

Everything else has been very good, Sherlock and The Hobbit is my favourite book of all time; I waited with great anticipation for this film, but and I wouldn't say Martin spoiled it (the gross exaggeration of the store line has) - it was also Hardware and its demotion of what could be a great actor!

Please don't watch this as it can spoil other great works of Martin Freeman ...

I try very hard to get this out of my mind but I can't!