Stath Lets Flats

Moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do. This isn’t because of the upheaval of packing away your cluttered junk into neat, contained boxes. It isn’t because of the ensuing grind of returning those neat, contained boxes into cluttered junk. No, it’s because you have to deal with estate agents.

Estate agents are the worst people imaginable. They don’t talk, but spiel. Conversation for them isn't interaction, but transaction. Pinocchio is a film they saw, whose lesson they didn’t understand. They’re bullshit artists: that excrement on the wall is contemporary art, which if anything raises the value of the property. I guess what I’m saying is in a trust exercise you better learn how to fall because you’re heading for the floor. So how on earth has Jamie Demetriou created one that is so loveable and sympathetic?

Estate Agents: a plague on their houses.

Stath Lets Flats is a Channel 4 sitcom, now in its second series. The first series’ initial episodes were co-authored with Robert Popper, a writer of some repute, having written Look Around You and Friday Night Dinner. From episode 4 onwards though Demetriou took sole control of the sitcom, developing real pathos for the letting agent.

The origins of the show lie in Comedy Blaps, Channel 4’s test lab for new comedies. If the five-minute shorts are well received then there’s a chance these creations will see the light of day. Stath released in 2013 showed real promise. Here we had a relatable character. (Not relatable in the sense we were like him, but because we’ve all dealt with letting agents.) He also had that sitcom thing of misplaced self-worth, which follows other narcissists Basil Fawlty, Alan Partridge and David Brent. It’s also a character of the time: as landlords inflate their rents year on year, people are forever packing up and looking for more affordable lettings. This property sad go round is operated by estate agents, people we’re forced to see more and more. The Blap was a success and after a period in development Stath Lets Flats was born.

Watching the first episode back I found myself laughing at all the jokes I missed. It opens with Stath turning up for a viewing. He doesn’t so much park his car as demonstrate what a 45 degree angle is. He has run late. To apologise would put him on the backfoot. Instead he runs past the couple and then back to them, explaining, ‘Sorry, I’m late I just ran over there.’ As if running late would be more understandable than driving late. He then meets a father and daughter: ‘Should we wait for mummy?’ ‘Me and her mum are separated.’ Stath: ‘Oh, God.’ Within minutes these fast cut interactions have established a character that can’t lie, counter to the letting agents code. When Stath actually gets the clients into the property he doesn’t fare well. Whilst most estate agents have the gift of the gab, for Stath it is a curse. When a client questions the damp on the bathroom wall, he is at a loss to answer, until he sees something – toilet paper by the bath. Clutching at this, he goes into government spin doctor mode, unleashing a smoke and mirrors campaign, alleging that the disposable item is to blame: ‘You just don’t want to have the tissue paper on the wall…’ Stath starts well deflecting the attention away from the actual issue of ventilation; however, he hasn’t got the language (as a Greek-Cypriot English is his second language) or the imagination to fashion a good lie, so ends his excuse with, ‘because it’s going to get damp because the wall is damp.’

You see most estate agents are accused of being insincere actors reciting lines. The trouble with Stath is he appears like a man who has just crashed onto stage, having done no research or reading, believing he can still turn in a star performance. When he doesn’t get the deal he becomes angry with the clients. Just as hubris is a trait of all great comic characters, an absence of self-awareness is too. Stath has this absence in abundance. But for all of his faults we like him because he is a failure. (An ability to fail spectacularly is possibly the number one requirement of British sitcom characters.)

Demetriou’s Stath isn’t the only great character in the sitcom. He is joined by his real-life sister, Natasha, to play his fictional sister, Sophie. She is a much smaller personality than Stath, but her delusion is just as big. She dreams of being a pop star and is only inhibited by the fact she can neither sing nor dance. We love her though because she treats people with such kindness, whether it be her brother or his colleague, Al.

Following this thread, it’s worth talking about the romantic sub-plot of Stath Lets Flats. The cringe of The Office was offset by the sweetness of Tim and Dawn’s relationship. It would be difficult for the viewer to sit through David Brent’s toe-curling pronouncements if it wasn’t for the sentimentalism of a love story playing out in the background. Demetriou, a huge fan of Gervais and Merchant, evokes that classic template in his show. Whilst Stath is caught in stasis, forever crashing from one social disaster to the next, his sister and Al’s romance quietly unfurls. Al like Dawn from The Office has a partner, which means their relationship cannot yet be realised.

Over the course of the sitcom Stath becomes more rounded. The introduction of a rival estate agent, backstory and love interest all contribute towards this. By the end of series one you would have grown to love an estate agent – a truly incredible feat by Demetriou.  

Stath Lets Flats is on Channel 4, Monday at 10 pm. All episodes are available on All4.