Writing TV previews is not my normal occupation. My day job is editing style magazines and promoting discos, all based in the so-called creative hub of Shoreditch in East London. I even published a satirical fanzine called Shoreditch Twat. Which is why you find me writing a review of Chris Morris’s six-part comedy show Nathan Barley, the focus of which is a style magazine based in Shoreditch.

Central to Morris’s sitcom is the eponymous Barley, the sort of hateful creative paradigm that once filled East London’s down-at-heel boozers and lofts. A website designer, guerrilla film-maker and DJ, Barley lumbers around town on a customised BMX in a continuing campaign of self promotion. The counterpoint to Barley is Dan Ashcroft, a self-hating style journalist who initiates trends via his Sugar Ape magazine. As soon as he dispenses pearls of wisdom, his idiotic colleagues adopt, misconstrue and then devalue his ideas.

Nathan Barley began life as one of the characters in the online listings satire TV Go Home. Produced in 1999, it was an hilariously astute observation on Shoreditch. But since then, the dot-com bubble has burst, two of the four major “style mags” have folded and Shoreditch is full of suburban hen parties. So the immediate reaction to Nathan Barley is that it arrives long after the fact.

Timing aside, there is much comedic capital to be made out of the creative scene. Ashcroft struggles to work in his zoo-like office as his colleagues regress to childhood on tricycles, games consoles and juvenile websites (working conditions familiar to me from my time editing Sleazenation).

Barley and his pals are humourless chancers obsessed with projects that are baffling to those outside the “scene”. Unfortunately, Morris’s disdain for creative types oversteps parody into hyper-real lampoon. This is a shame because the real life clichés are no less amusing and infinitely more identifiable to those who work outside the industry. Still, my father used to moan that there weren’t any proper boating references on Howard’s Way. But that’s not why millions watched it, and the same goes for Nathan Barley.

As a contemporary sitcom, Nathan Barley isn’t as accurate as Peepshow. As a broad sweep at fashion, Absolutely Fabulous scores more direct hits. But this is Morris we’re talking about, and there are inevitable patches of genius here — visual gags and toe-curling moments of cringe that make up for the blunt stereotypes. Considering the time and money spent making this show (it spent three years in development), the results are disappointing, and one wonders what reception it would receive had Morris not put his name to it.

During the production of Nathan Barley, a staff writer at a magazine that surely inspired Sugar Ape expressed some concern about the show, predicting fallout from a nationwide ribbing. After all, style magazines rely on their perceived integrity. With mixed feelings, I have to say there is little for them to worry about.

Nathan Barley, Friday, Channel 4, 10pm.

Neil Boorman is the publisher of Good for Nothing magazine

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