Frances de la Tour

Radio Times review

Mr Church and Mr Gunn are locked in their ridiculous competition to win the affections of needy, passive-aggressive school siren Miss Postern. It's her birthday but no one cares, apart from the frenzied Church.

As the second series of David Walliams's school-set sitcom hits its stride, there are more daft gags, but Big School manages not to be sent for detention because of the great cast - Philip Glenister, Catherine Tate, Walliams himself - who throw everything into it.

Some of the jokes go on too long, including a laboured bit of business involving a hunky, blind new geography teacher, and the whole thing is often breathtakingly coarse (a running joke about gay sex, for instance). But Frances de la Tour as the lubricious head steals every scene and it's always good to see Steve Speirs doing his mournful Welsh thing, here as the useless caretaker.

Radio Times review

The first series of David Walliams's classroom sitcom launched to high hopes and high ratings. That might be because so many of us still have our fingers crossed that either Walliams or Matt Lucas will at some point recall, in a small way, the comic heights they reached in Little Britain.

Ratings slipped as people realised Big School wasn't the moment we could uncross our fingers, but is instead an old-fashioned, likeable enough, broadish sort of comedy full of familiar joke-teacher figures (the macho gym master, the intimidating head) and the odd good gag.

As a new term starts, Mr Church (Walliams) still holds a candle for Miss Postern (Catherine Tate) and at assembly, Frances de la Tour delivers a welcome speech: "As your headmistress, I offer you one word of friendly advice: cross me and I will destroy you."

As it returns for a second series, Big School really seems to have found its comedy feet. David Walliams' performance is still every bit as subtle as his cross-dressing "I'm a laydee" Emily was in Little Britain. That is to say, not at all.

But Big School is well enough written to survive his camp, asexual gurning and the dream cast add extra polish to an already shiny script.

In tonight's opener, music teacher Mr Martin (Daniel Rigby) is about to launch his pop career. (His single, written by David Arnold and Michael Price, sounds like an entirely credible X Factor winner's song.)

Mr Barber (Steve Speirs) has had to take a career change, PE teacher Mr Gunn (Philip Glenister) is now also teaching geography, and even the confident Miss Postern (Catherine Tate) finds herself at a crossroads in her career.

In one slightly depressing piece of casting, former EastEnder Cheryl Fergison replaces Julie T Wallace as the wordless lab assistant who has the hots for Walliams' Mr Church. Why depressing? Because making someone the butt of the joke just because they don't look like Angelina Jolie feels uncomfortably like bullying.

But the real reason for Big School's success is probably Frances de la Tour. Even when she's not actually on screen, just knowing that she's lurking somewhere in the building as vinegary headmistress Ms Baron is reassuring.

TV preview: Big School

David Walliams, Catherine Tate, Frances De La Tour, Joanna Scanlan, Philip Glenister and that bloke form the BT adverts. You can't fault the cast of Big School, which returns for a second run. The challenge is making something mainstream enought for primetime BBC One but still interesting enough so that the talented performers don't sleepwalk through it.

I am a great supporter of this out-and-proud, vulgar and loud sitcom, so it's a shame to report that this festive edition is below par.

Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen's characters, Stuart and Freddie, do little but swish and snipe, and Iwan Rheon is completely wasted as gormless neighbour Ash who, inevitably, bungles their Christmas dinner. So it's left to the women in their lives to save the programme.

Frances de la Tour is in top gear as Violet the man-eater who's recently become a masseuse, while Marcia Warren butts in with the best lines as the forgetful Penelope, who suddenly remembers something very important.

Few new shows split opinion as neatly as Vicious did this year. Some thrilled to the waspish bitching and wilful campery of live-in lovers Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi, best chums Frances de la Tour and Marcia Warren, and strapping neighbour Iwan Rheon; others derided it as dated, offensive and tacky.

This Christmas special won't change anyone's minds. The stars deliver gags as creaky as their limbs but with irresistible relish; there's some half-arsed slapstick; Rheon is underused; and the action never leaves the confines of the flat. In truth, it's a little underpowered this time round. De La Tour and Warren waltz off with the best lines and the wholly familiar narrative - a botched Christmas get-together - doesn't add much to the occasion. But the indulgent and sofabound may enjoy a few chuckles here and there.

It really ought to have been a total winner, containing as it does - via cast members Philip Glenister, Frances De La Tour and Catherine Tate - the distilled magical essence of Life On Mars, Rising Damp and 'am I bovvered?'. But it feels tired, flabby, a bit obvious and not that funny - certainly when compared with its younger, zappier, rap-soundtracked, groovily-edited rival Bad Education.

And therein lies its problem, I think. Viewed in isolation, Big School would make a perfectly agreeable half-hour's entertainment, with the running gags about Mr Church's frustrated chemistry experiments and the quite-amusing 'Don't mention the war' scenario, whereby the staff fail to deal sensitively with the boy whose mother is having it off with a Maasai tribesman. Watch it after Bad Education, though, and suddenly it's as lame and embarrassing as watching your Dad trying to DJ.

The second episode of David Walliams' easy going comedy, bringing together an ensemble of recognisable faces, including Catherine Tate as the new, 'glamorous but knows it' French teacher. That man from Ashes to Ashes (Philip Gleinster), who plays the moronic 'geezer' of a P.E. teacher. That guy from the BT adverts and Black Mirror (Daniel Rigby), as the 'real music' fanatic, and Rising Damp star, Frances de la Tour, in fine form as the hilarious drunkard of a headmistress.

Each episode plays out like a short film, with ever predictable plot twists, low points and resolution. Textbook stuff. However this is done with an unexpected charm and warmth, simply due to the character stereotypes and all of their cringe-worthy glory. This combined with the staffroom perspective is a fairly original mix, matched only by Chris Lilley's Summer Heights High (which if you haven't watched I strongly recommend).

Whether this form will get repetitive is still up to question however, as there's only so many times you can watch a short There's Something About Mary.

So if you're gouging your own eyes at the thought of having to sit through another moody police drama (even writing this fills me with dread), and long for something as light and easy as angels delight while watching Sesame Street, then tune in to BBC One at 9.

The comedy gets much broader and blunter in the second episode of David Walliams's school sitcom, as seedy and inappropriate gym teacher Mr Gunn (Philip Glenister) thrusts pointedly in front of comely new French mistress Miss Postern (Catherine Tate).

Gunn and Mr Church (Walliams), the buttoned-up science department deputy head, are locked in a battle for Miss Postern's attention while she plays one off against the other. But she's a bit thick (she's never been to France and you have to wonder, generally, at her level of French-speaking ability), falling apart in front of frosty, iron-clad head teacher Ms Baron (Frances de la Tour, whom we don't see enough of). Tonight the staff, in a bit of Walliam's Britain's Got Talent self-reference, organise a teachers' talent show.

It's encouraging to see that David Walliams isn't above taking a pop at Britain's Got Talent. This week French teacher Miss Postern (Catherine Tate) decides to hold a charity talent contest for the teachers - to prove how wacky and zany she imagines she is.

It's a heaven-sent opportunity for love-struck chemistry teacher Mr Church (Walliams) to get closer to her with a duet. But as Walliams gets his oboe out, they face stiff competition from Philip Glenister's seedy gym teacher Trevor Gunn.

Big School succeeds because the cast is more than capable of ­spinning comedy gold out of some very crude elements.

Frances de La Tour as headmistress Miss Baron is magnificent tonight on the subject of Pudsey Bear. And Daniel Rigby's po-faced music teacher Mr Martin finally gets a chance to shine.

Best line of tonight's episode? It has to be Miss Postern's description of John Lennon as "one of the main ones of The Beatles".