The IT Crowd

Channel 4 are getting closer to a show which could sell engineering to the public with this - a fairly mainstream show about people who work with computers. It may be somewhat stereotyped, but it has its moments of hilarity and shows a fairly fun work environment (better than that shown in most Dilbert). If nothing else, the set is festooned with EFF stickers (I spotted this before realising it was the result of actual consultation with real techies). The first two episodes (of which I think the second is superior) can be downloaded from a variety of sources, although the official site originally only supported Windows (doh!).

Still, it's better than the disaster which was/is Happy Valley. Getting more engineers shown as real people can only be good for recruitment into the field, but the decision to try a soap opera rather than, say, a drama (a format which has worked for a number of shows about forensic science) was probably a poor one. If only I'd been able to make it to all of the PAWS brainstorming sessions to point this out at the time! Numb3rs is doing something similar in the US, with some success.