“Oh blimey hell, there’s a man in the bathroom. I can see his willy!” says an estate agent to two horrified-looking women, as he takes a peek into the bathroom and pulls the door closed. “Only joking,” he deadpans. “It’s a lovely flat, there’s no willies.”
This isn’t the sort of patter salespeople usually give potential customers, but then Stath isn’t your average salesperson. The title character of the debut TV sitcom from comedian Jamie Demetriou is a well-meaning but wholly inappropriate property seller from north London via Cyprus. Think David Brent, had he been brought up on afternoon repeats of Location, Location, Location and was generally a bit more hopeless. Played by Demetriou himself, Stath is a classic comedy trope – the deluded but lovable hero – knowingly updated for 2018. And Michael & Eagle, the family business he is desperate to take over, isn’t a dysfunctional bar (a la It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) or a dysfunctional hotel (like Fawlty Towers) but a dysfunctional letting agency, marketing overpriced dives for the post-post-recession age (“Spacious with a cooling draft, £1,750pcm”, reads one on-screen caption).
“When we started shooting, we had people looking at the fake listings in the window [of the shop],” recalls the show’s director, Tom Kingsley. “The art department had made it just a little bit too cheap, like £600 a month for a two-bed. We added an extra £1,000 to every listing, but still people kept wanting to come in.” Kingsley describes the show’s opening episode – in which we meet Stath, sister Sophie (Natasia Demetriou, real-life sister of Jamie), their father Vasos (Christos Stergioglou, best known for Greek drama Dogtooth) and colleagues including mild-mannered Al (Alastair Roberts) – as “a super-fast shot of energy … but when it settles into its rhythm it becomes more contemplative.”
While the plot initially focuses on Stath’s incompetence, the five episodes that follow encompass more serious and moving themes that don’t feel incongruous in the age of the sadcom, among them Stath’s insecurity at his position within the company and a tense relationship with Foxtons-a-like rivals Smethwicks. While not a mockumentary in the conventional sense, it captures the energy of the genre, centred on the office where Vasos spends his days shouting “bean” (bin) at an automated council complaints hotline and asking Sophie to do the “steeks” (ie put up the “To Let” boards). Elsewhere, Apprentice contestant-esque Carole (Katy Wix) tries to assert her authority over Stath while Marcus (the late Alex Beckett) tries to ingratiate himself with him by wearing a matching diamond ear stud.
Although not an employee, the beautifully gormless Sophie is a key part of the comedy; a singer who can’t hold a tune and a dancer with negative levels of coordination. Natasia, who appears alongside her and Jamie’s comedy contemporaries Liam Williams and Ellie White in the show, summarises the offbeat chats between Stath and Sophie as offcuts from their upbringing. “It’s like me and Jamie on a Saturday morning in the living room, eating Coco Pops and watching SM:TV Live … they’re who we would be if we lost all awareness and social anxiety.”
With a team that includes Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper and producers Roughcut (The Office, People Just Do Nothing) it was always going to be funny, but there’s something about the near-telepathic sibling chemistry that even the best actors can’t imitate, and which may make Stath appeal to fans of This Country, too.
Besides this, Stath Lets Flats feels like the perfect parable for the fractured Brexit age we find ourselves in: a loving portrayal of London’s Greek-Cypriot community around Green Lanes, featuring a protagonist whose outsider status also figures as part of his vulnerability (Stath winces when Smethwicks boss Julian, played by Cardinal Burns’ Dustin Demri-Burns, does an impression of him as a fresh-off-the-boat teen, complete with cod-European accent). “We grew up in north London and there are so many multicultural communities,” says Demetriou. “I hope it’s a story showing that type of inner-city situation where there are people from all walks of life. They’re all idiots in the same way but in different ways, too.”
Stath Lets Flats starts on Wednesday 27 June, 10pm, Channel 4