The main reason why Housemates – The Sitcom is so disappointing is that the premise of the play has so much to offer in terms of material.

Housemates, good and bad, are something that most people have a personal experience of in their life. They are such a natural source of day-to-day humour that failing to make them funny is actually a minor achievement.

Based on the programme description, it’s fair to expect a comedy based on the idiosyncrasies of living with other people, instead the audience are dragged through two “episodes” about a drunken misunderstanding and a mysterious new housemate’s moonlighting activities.

The sitcom format is rigidly stuck to but the acting and comedy is often not good enough that the audience feel obliged to provide the canned laughter.

The characters are generally recognisable from the TV shows the play tries to emulate, except for the flirty posh, older lady whose presence is never quite explained and makes little sense as a plot device.

The excruciatingly poor ending serves to utterly undermine any of the positive points in the rest of the play. The attempt to add a self-aware Meta level to the humour falls down terribly and just leaves you wishing you hadn’t bothered to attend.