Blake Harrison

Video: An Inbetweener in-between jobs

He is best known for his role in The Inbetweeners but now Blake Harrison is joining another TV ensemble. In Big Bad World Blake plays Ben, a graduate forced to move back in with his parents.

Blake Harrison would like to do Inbetweeners Movie 2

Blake Harrison has said that he would like to do another Inbetweeners Movie to thank fans.

As the assisted-suicide sitcom faces its final curtain, Warren Clarke puts in a guest turn as world-weary has-been actor Nigel Banks, now crooning at the posh country hotel where Scott (Blake Harrison) drags his mates to help him get over being dumped.

Joey (Ben Heathcote) wants to help put Banks out of his misery with the McFlurry of Death but gets into a heated debate with Scott over the difference between mercy and murder. As sitcoms go it's, well, different.

Penultimate episode of Bob Kushell's likable black comedy about a bunch of DIY euthanasia facilitators. Scott (Blake Harrison, aka Neil from The Inbetweeners) is still trying to win Julia back after accidentally cheating on her with his boss, and Joey's gambling-addict sponsor threatens to spill the beans about the boys' operation. Yet again, there's another excellent guest cameo, this time from Kate Fleetwood as a furious young cancer sufferer. Very funny, perversely touching, and way more thoughtful than anticipated.

Blake Harrison interview

Blake Harrison talks about his new TV show Way To Go, the possibility of an Inbetweeners Movie sequel and which superhero he'd like to play.

This comedy about three friends trying to set up an assisted suicide business has its moments thanks to its talented cast. When it works, the mix of the dark, the absurd and the comic is very funny but crassness (maybe hard to avoid given the subject matter) sometimes gets in the way. Tonight Scott (Blake Harrison) falls for Julia (Laura Aikman), the daughter of his first client. Cozzo (Marc Wootton), meanwhile, has some explaining to do after his girlfriend (Sinéad Matthews) finds a stash of cash. The boys also help an old man find relief and a reason to live - which is not exactly part of their remit!

"This is a post-watershed programme and contains adult content and language," read an advisory note on the screener version of Way to Go, a new BBC3 comedy about euthanasia.

Way to Go isn't very "adult", the word here essentially used as a code for "involves swearing and sex". It is quite intriguing, though - a black comedy in which three friends, all down on their luck, find a new career offering euthanasia without the airfare (not so much Dignitas as Indignitas). Scott gets the idea when his neighbour offers him a pair of George Best's old football boots in return for an easy exit, and he then enlists his mate Cozzo, a fast-food-equipment engineer, who constructs a suicide kit he calls the McFlurry of Death. Too much of the comedy is dependent on wild over-reaction but Blake Harrison, who played the thick one in The Inbetweeners, is good as Scott, who continually has to explain to his colleagues that normal business rules do not apply. "There is no word of mouth, you idiot," he says, when they're discussing routes to expansion. "If we do a good job our clients are dead."

Watching this BBC3 sitcom is the televisual equivalent of listening to a toddler squealing 'poo-poo' every five seconds because they think it's the most offensive word ever invented. Way to Go simply tries too hard to shock. The premise itself is controversial (and has already sparked the inevitable outrage from a Tory MP), but has plenty of potential for black humour: three blokes go into business to help the terminally ill to die. But the Beeb apparently feels the subject matter alone is not enough to grab our attention. Instead, it's stuffed the show with enough race, sex and vomit gags to make Judd Apatow blush (the writer is US TV writer Bob Kushell) and the result is heavy-handed and self-conscious. In this episode, the lads try to brush up their professionalism with a business seminar, while Scott (Blake Harrison) wimps out of helping a client with stomach cancer die. It all falls rather flat - and that's a shame. Assisted suicide is surely a subject, er, dying for a more intelligent treatment than this?

Three down-at-heel, down-on-their-luck blokes decide to set up an assisted suicide business. In common with a lot of shows on BBC3, it's not very good at all, despite having been written by US-writer Bob Kushell (The Simpsons, Third Rock...) and featuring Blake Harrison of The Inbetweeners, but that's largely down to both the filming and the cast, which both work against any actual comedy occurring. It also falls victim to the other "US writer discovers British creative freedoms" syndrome - a substitution of things that would be banned on US TV for things that might be funny.

The basic plot involves vet receptionist and former medical student Scott (Blake Harrison) agree to kill off his terminally ill neighbour in return for some valuable football boots that once belonged to George Best. Part of Scott's reasoning for doing this is so he can help out his half-brother Joey (Ben Heathcoate) who has a gambling problem and is struggling to pay off the debts he owes to loan sharks who are currently breaking his figures one by one.

Together the brothers approach their friend Cozzo (Mark Wootton) who initially declines their suggestion that he build them a suicide machine and in turn they'd split the profits with him. Later though Cozzo discovers his girlfriend his pregnant so agrees to go through with inventing the 'McFlurry of Death' in order to provide for his unborn child. Cozzo successfully builds his contraption with help from Scott who nabs some drugs from work which are normally used to put dogs to sleep but in this case eventually help kill off his neighbour.

Way to Go is an odd beast as it tries to laugh off the theme of attempted suicide as the three decide to set up a business using their machine to help to kill people who want to die. I definitely felt that this first episode showed promise though personally I didn't find it that funny although I did like the concept.

Way to Go's biggest attribute though was definitely Blake Harrison, who played the straight man against Heathcoate and Wootton, and whose drifter Scott was a million miles away from dopey Neil from The Inbetweeners. I think it's too early to judge whether Way to Go will be BBC3's next hit sitcom as it could either grow stronger in the coming weeks or become awfully formulaic however I'm going to catch at least the next couple of instalments to see which way Way to Go does go.