The Armstrongs

While The Office employed documentary tics — the shaky camera, the awkward zooms, the earnest talking-head interviews — it was thoroughly fictional. The Armstrongs, also from the BBC, takes the gambit one step further by going into a real-life office, a double glazing company in Coventry to be exact. Fortunately for director Fergus O'Brien, he found a husband-and-wife pair, Ann and John Armstrong, the owners of U-Fit, who are so quotably daft that the laughs come quicker than most sitcoms. And that's one reason why Brits are divided over whether the film is real or scripted, observed or acted. "Is The Armstrongs too good to be true?" asks Phil Hogan of the Observer. "The production values are suspiciously high, with a lugubrious voiceover from Bill Nighy, gloriously arch incidental music and razor sharp editing. Whatever; it's quite priceless." Both entertained and incredulous, British audiences have lapped it up; at T/F we'll see whether an American audience will succumb as well. (PS)