What school was like for the majority of us (The Inbetweeners)

Member Name: julwhite

Product:	The Inbetweeners
Date:	03/07/08 (906 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb Channel 4 comedy drama, top rate

Disadvantages: Some of the actors do appear older than their characters

The Inbetweeners is a new comedy shown recently on E4, and which judging from reviews is likely to be turned into a new series. The first series was six episodes long and focuses on the life of four teenage boys and their problems in life. It was said that it represents life as it was for most of us at school, rather than the more extreme Skins, another popular Channel Four series.

There are four main characters who appears through the series, Simon Bird as William McKenzie, Joe Thomas as Simon Cooper, James Buckley as Jay Cartwright and Blake Harrison as Neil Sutherland. All go to the same school, but it was William who was new to the school, having come from a private school. He makes friends with the other three characters.

The programme is part narrated by Will's character, a ploy which works well and adds to the dialogue. And the dialogue is superb, the humour is well-played out, continued across the six episodes and is genuinely funny. There are many moments which most people will remember from their school-days, as well as the problem moments of teenage life, such as trying to get served whilst aged 17, the first girlfriend, driving lessons and stresses of schoolwork and bullies.

There were six episodes, and I'll briefly give a summary of each one.

The first episode shows us Will joining his new school, and being laughed at by the other pupils because of his posh case, his uniform and the badge which he is given to show that he is a new student. He, despite the efforts of the others, manages to get invited to the pub that evening, but they initially go to the wrong pub, leading to a superb sequence where Will ends up buying four carvery meals. He then manages to get hated by the entire class when he gets into difficulty in the second pub in which he goes into.

The second episode is when the four of the students play truant, much to the excitement of Will. The boys only realise later that as they are in sixth form, they weren't really truanting, as they didn't legally need to be in school. However, as they get drunk in the day, insult numerous people and Simon makes a scene of himself, the parents of the four lads make their views known.

The third episode is at Thorpe Park, which Simon can drive them to as he passes his driving test, although in rather an extreme and unlikely way. He manages to lose his door at Thorpe Park, see Neil naked after being attacked by a bee and then finds that Will has upset a group on one of the rides.

The fourth episode shows Will unexpectedly get a date, and also shows him trying to have sex for the first time, but not quite getting it right. Neil has some success at his Blind Date which the school have organised, but unfortunately he manages to pick the girl which is not quite what he expected.

The fifth episode sees the four go to the caravan club, where Jay has promised them all some action. But Will is sceptical about these claims of girls for the lads, and the others in the group slowly become more and more upset at staying in a caravan with Jay's Dad, and then totally upset when they see the disco which the caravan club have organised. It goes from bad to worse for three of them, but there is some good news for Neil.

The final episode sees Will organising the first school prom. He manages to get a disparate group of students together and decorates the school hall. With Jay DJing, suits hired, can anything go wrong for Will, who is stressed about the organising? The final scene shows the four lads messing about on a trampoline, but I'll leave the details out.

Overall, the series is superb. Brilliant writing, moments of pure genius at points, especially in the general plot lines for the Thorpe Park and caravan club episodes. The scenes of Simon walking about with his car door around his neck are very memorable, very under-stated in places and they work like a treat.

What is surprising, although noticeable when you know, is that these actors are actually in their early 20s. Joe Thomas, who plays Simon, is actually a stand-up comedian and was in the Cambridge Footlights at university.

The episodes are still available on Channel 4's On Demand service, and are likely to be repeated on Channel 4 soon. Another series seems very likely, although it's unlikely that too many episodes can be made given that the actors are getting on for their mid 20s, and the realism would soon just not be there.

As a memory of school-days for the majority of us, this is in my view one of the best comedy series produced recently, and more realistic and genuine than Skins, Channel Four's other teenage school drama. For comedy value, the Inbetweeners rates five out of five and is well worth watching.

I have just purchased the DVD from Amazon, so will write a review of that as well in due course. It has commentaries, deleted scenes and cast profiles, which should add some more depth to the series. The DVD costs 11.99 pounds from Amazon.

Summary: Superb from start to finish. Needs a new series!