Those of you in Aus who watched Frontline may recall that during the first series (at least) Tommy G spent the entire series in the background fixing the photocopier and in the last episode finally pronounced it fixed.

I have now nick-named our photocopier repairman Tommy, although it appears that the situation comedy that is our office has not yet reached the end of its first season.

All signs are pointing towards an end-of-season cliff-hanger, rather than a resolution, with the copier perched precariously on the rooftop ledge not sure if the push one or more members of the office has just given it will be enough to send it plunging eleven floors to the footpath below, or whether it will be able to pull itself back from the brink.

Only time will tell, but odds are currently 10-1 against the photocopier being a regular in the second season.

The problem with it had been the same for at least the last six months. Probably on every second or third use, the first page feeds through fine and then there�s a lurch and a beeping and the whole thing stops. The original document is fine. The copy is stuck in the machine after being printed but before being set. You have to open up the machine, reach over the half exposed toner container and pull the sheet out, trying not to smear the un-fixed ink all over yourself in the process. After that the machine works fine until two or three uses later.

It�s extremely frustrating.

And Tommy doesn�t seem to be able to fix it. Largely, I suspect, because there doesn�t seem to be any reason for the problem. There�s nothing sticking out, the paper appears to get caught on nothing and doesn�t get damaged in any way. It just stops. Waiting for the unsuspecting to reach their hand into the machine and get covered in ink.

So there�s every chance that the copier is not broken, it�s just sadistic.

Which is why it�s heading towards being thrown off the building � pedestrians below be damned. The only question will be which member of the office, all of whom have been heard to angrily threaten the life of the copier at least once, will be responsible for its demise.

I think a conspiracy is most likely. Not least because the thing weighs too much for any one person to be able to do it any significant damage.

In the meantime I�ll just continue to smile at Tommy each time he appears, swearing under his breath, to work timelessly and without success on the photocopier and will not believe him if he ever stands up triumphantly, puts the lid down and announces �It�s fixed!�