Graham Linehan: No fifth series for The IT Crowd

In an online chat with fans on website Reddit, the comedy writer said, "I'll say right off the bat... the bad news is no IT Crowd series five.”

Linehan said he wanted the show to go out on a high, and while he’d “never say never” to bringing it back, was “just not feeling it” at the moment.

The Bafta-winning sitcom is set in the basement of the mysterious Reynholm Industries, where computer geeks Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade) and their manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson) fake their way through work and social situations, usually featuring Linehan’s trademark surreal flourishes.

Linehan, who co-created equally quirky sitcom Father Ted, said of his decision not to pen a new series of The IT Crowd: "It feels like a natural time to wind things down. Apart from anything else, we're probably reaching that stage where it begins to feel odd that Roy, Jen and Moss are still stuck down in that basement.

“I don't want to start giving everybody babies to make it feel like they're moving on with their lives. My kind of comedy has always been set piece-driven... and maybe that kind of thing has a naturally short life."

But Linehan also had some good news for fans: an IT Crowd special is in the works – "[it's] a big juicy story with great storylines for all the characters” – and a movie is not being ruled out.

"It all depends on whether I come up with a good idea for one," said Linehan. "One good enough to attract all the cast. It needs to deserve to be a film, though. So it's got to be big on all sorts of different levels.

"But even if that doesn't happen, I'm quite interested in the idea of the 'IT Crowd universe'. Like the DC or Marvel Universes. You know, maybe catching up with Bennie Wong as Prime or Douglas's Big Spaceology Wedding... these might end up just being future specials."

The IT Crowd won a Bafta for best sitcom in 2009. Series four was first shown on Channel 4 between June and July 2010, with many expecting a fifth series to be commissioned.