Christian Cooke

The confidently sustained story, the build-up of emotional resonance and the parochial aspirationalism that characterise Cemetery Junction are all of a piece with the sitcom work of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

The film focuses on three pals entering adulthood in 1973 Reading: Bruce (Tom Hughes) is all swaggering bravado; Snork (Tom Doolan) is a clown; and apprentice insurance salesman Freddie (Christian Cooke) is knuckling down to a life of bourgeois comfort he hasn't quite sold himself on yet. He finds a kindred spirit in childhood crush Julie (Felicity Jones), whose slimy dad (Ralph Fiennes) and fiancé (Matthew Goode) - Freddie's boss and mentor at the insurance firm - have decidedly lower opinions of her potential. There are laughs, but this isn't quite a comedy.

The film often leans heavily enough on its models to feel formulaic, and its romances map too closely on to those of The Office. Overall, though, it's refreshing to see a mainstream British film with the ambition to strut its stuff on studio terms. Aspirational indeed.

ITV2 has axed university comedy drama series Trinity after one series. The eight-part series, which starred Christian Cooke and Reggie Yates, opened to 596k viewers last September.

"We wanted to try something different but it didn't work," an insider told The Sun. Speaking in August, the controller of ITV2 and acquisitions Zai Bennett praised the programme but said that ratings had not matched expectations for the expensive drama.

"It did really well, half a million as an average," he said. "But that's not quite enough to bring it back. It's a terribly expensive show - £3 or £4 million out of what is overall a small budget."

Who is Christian Cooke? Well, if you are of a certain age - 14 and probably, but not necessarily, female - there's every chance your bedroom walls will be plastered in posters of this 23-year-old slayer of ghoulies, the mission undertaken as protagonist Luke Rutherford in ITV's Demons. Personally, I'd want to slay my agent for embroiling me in Trinity, ITV2's new collegiate clunker in which Cooke plays butt-baring beefcake Dorian Gaudain. With roles in Echo Beach (as Brae Marrack), Doctor Who (Private Ross Jenkins), vet drama The Chase (roguish Liam Higgins) and 68 episodes of Where The Heart Is (Luke Kirkwall) under his belt, it had all been going so well until the unholy Trinity hove into view.

And then just as I was bathed in a warm critical glow that conceivably wasn't even menopausal, I made the mistake of tuning belatedly into Trinity (ITV2), a... um... er... thriller? Comedy? Drama? Sod it, a programme about a bonkers Ivy League-meets-Hogwarts British university full of freaks and sex addicts so charmlessly crass, cynically smutty, joyless, unfunny and badly written and acted (despite starring Charles Dance and Claire Skinner. What. Were. They. Thinking?) that I immediately signed up to the show's Facebook group, where questions such as: "So who looks like the better snog, Theo or Dorian?" (posed by a wicked Wizard of Oz-style ITV employee, presumably), are asked while a horde of 15-year-old girls cyber-shout "Dorian!"

But although buff, beautiful and entirely leech-free, Dorian (Christian Cooke) is a long way from being a pre-watershed hero - no girl would be safe with him alone in a well lit room, much less Afghanistan or a volcano.

The writers of Trinity (ITV2) have got bare-faced cheek - and that's not a reference to leading lad Christian Cooke's penchant for wearing his boxers at half mast. What's obvious is that this toffs v peasants black comedy thriller pays a huge debt to Society, Brian Yuzna's 1989 horror classic where the rich literally feed on the poor. Society (the movie, the concept) is all about fitting in and that's the motor driving Trinity, a bizarrely enjoyable hybrid of Gossip Girl and Brideshead Revisited - with a dash of Dr Phibes - that's set in an imposing university where the elite have ruled the roost for centuries. Though they let the odd working-class oik in for a spot of amusement.

It's not the subtlest satire you'll ever see but, what with Charles Dance doing something murky in the lab, dark secrets swirling round the quadrangle and a young, lusty cast bouncing from mystery thriller scenes to parodies of American Pie at the drop of a pair of knickers, there's never a dull moment. My guess is that the incidental pleasures are likely to outweigh any burning interest in discovering the truth behind the shadow hanging over drippy heroine Charlotte's past but, with potty-mouthed posh totty Isabella Calthorpe having a ball rolling her tongue around the filthiest lines in the script, Trinity is shaping up as an unholy treat.

You may not be feeling too well-disposed towards ITV2 at the moment - after all, they were going to broadcast a show featuring LowCulture favourite Christian Cooke's bare buttocks months ago, but decided we'd probably like to look at Jordan staying classy again instead. But the first episode of Trinity finally airs tonight so you can breathe a sigh of relief (although chances are you've already seen the bottom in question in that preview clip on the internet.) Taking place at Trinity college, where until now only the rich and powerful were admitted (presumably they didn't get the memo about how that sort of thing's been illegal for years) commoners are now entering for the first time.

Frankly I've got no idea what to expect - the ITV promotional material features spooky flames, "all is not what it seems" and some stuff about mysterious secret societies. But then the Radio Times describes it as a cartoonish, knockabout comedy, so I guess you'll just have to watch and make up your own mind whether or not the comedy's intentional. But beware: The last time ITV tempted us with Mr Cooke's nipples the result was Demons, a show whose USP was basically "Buffy the Vampire Slayer ripped off by someone who's never actually seen it." So approach with caution.