A HEALTH and safety officer has become the butt of all jokes after a new sitcom launched focusing on the work of Baselricky Town Council.

Glynn Gibson, the real corporate health and safety advior at Basildon Council, has suffered a number of gags around the office because the new BBC comedy, The Wright Way, focuses on the chaos caused by Gerald Wright and his team.

The Ben Elton written comedy, launched on BBC 1 this week, says the fictional health and safety team “cause as much chaos as humanly possible in their mission to make Britain safer”.

The Beeb says the fictional council has nothing to do with Basildon or nearby Billericay, but that hasn’t stopped the jokes at work. However, Mr Gibson, who has been in charge of health and safety at the council for ten years, is taking it all in his stride.

He said: “We run a very tight ship in the department and you would not see any of the errors that occurred on the show happening here. Although undoubtedly a dated sitcom it was funny in places and I would watch it again - it is my duty as the health and safety advisor at the council. "

Mr Gibson pointed out that Baselricky Town Council dealt with road defects in the programme whereas Basildon Council did not deal with roads - with them falling under Essex County Council’s remit.

The sitcom, which aired to more than 2million viewers, has been panned by critics who said Elton was now “the former king of alternative comedy” and The Independent reviewed it as “groan-inducing”. One Twitter user said it was the “worst sitcom ever”.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “The Wright Way is entirely a work of fiction and isn't based on either of these councils, or on the people that work there.”