Series four of The IT Crowd, starring Richard Ayoade, Chris O’Dowd, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry is due to begin filming soon – with casting auditions taking place this week.

Actor Benedict Wong, familiar to comedy fans for his appearances in The Peter Serafinowicz Show and Look Around You, and to movie buffs for his roles in the likes of Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, Duncan Jones’ Moon and Stephen Frears Dirty Pretty Things, announced on his Twitter page that he was going for an audition to appear in the show.

It’s been widely known for some time that a fourth series of the popular sitcom, which features occasional guest appearances by Noel Fielding, was being written by Father Ted creator (and Darkplace cameo star) Graham Linehan.

Linehan himself is a highly popular Tweeter, and on his stream yesterday he announced that all six scripts were well on their way to completion, with, in his own words: “Three scripts in tip-top shape, one in need of a polish, one in need of a major rewrite and one half-done. Getting there!” – before commenting that the show would likely be ready to air by late Spring.

In previous years, tickets to the filming were made available via the internet, distributed at random to those interested.  We at The Velvet Onion will endeavour to bring you news of how to register for tickets if this option becomes available nearer the time.  As soon as we hear anything more about the fourth series, we’ll throw the news right at you.  And we all sincerely hope that Mr Wong is involved too!