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The New Emergency Services is a popular IT Crowd joke among fans of the series and appeared in the episode Calamity Jen. The joke is that while the emergency services have been updated mostly for the better, they've also changed their phone number from the easily remembered UK 999 to the less easy-to-remember 0118, 999, 881, 999, 119, 725...3.
Transcript[]
Announcer: Has this ever happened to you?
(Shows an old lady falling down from the top of a staircase, getting up and then falling down another flight of stairs to the ground floor. She crawls to the telephone and dials a number.)
(Shows two paramedics, in black uniforms, standing either side of a new-design ambulance.)
Announcer: From today, dialling 999 won't get you the emergency services. And that's not the only thing that's changing. Nicer ambulances, faster response times, and better-looking drivers mean they're not just the emergency services -- they're your emergency services. So, remember the new number:
Choir: (singing) ♪ 0118, 999, 88199, 9119, 725...3 ♪
(Shows the woman who fell, she dials the number.)
Announcer: That's --
Choir: (singing) ♪ 0118, 999, 88199, 9119, 725...3 ♪ (Pans out to reveal that it is an advert being broadcast on a TV)
Old Woman: (Having been put through to the operator) Hello, I've had a bit of a tumble...
(Shows that Moss has been watching the advert on a TV at the office.)
Moss: Well, that's easy to remember! (sings with the same inflections as the advert choir) ♪ 0118, 999, 88199, 9119, 725...3 ♪
Context[]
This joke may be based on BT's 2003 abandonment of the 192 number for local directory inquiries and their subsequent changeover to the 118 service in the UK. As part of a commercialization effort, directory inquiry services were opened up to third parties, with organizations being able to apply for a "118 xxx" number and BT adopting the number 118 500. Aggressive marketing of competing services (such as "118 118") led consumers to complain that it was not being made clear enough which services were "official" and which were commercial services provided by third parties.
If you actually parse the number, it is the area code for Reading (0118), followed by the real emergency number (999), followed by lots of extra digits (extra digits are ignored when you call a phone number). Attempting to call this number won't work, because you can't prefix 999 with an area code.
Other Appearances[]
In the Series 3 episode From Hell, Douglas asks Moss to dial 999 for him, but Moss informs him that there is a new number and begins to sing the number, and gets cut off with Douglas' "whatever". If you have an Android phone and type the number in the dialer, the call button will flash blue and red.